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Abstract
The new development paradigm has led to a new specialization of specific territorial entities and thus has influenced the mutual relations between them. In particular, these changes have influenced the relations between the metropolis and its hinterland. The contemporary metropolis concentrates innovative activities that have led to the development of flows within the network of the world's large cities. As a result, its ties with the regional surroundings that offer mainly “simple” resources have became relatively weaker. This article outlines these new processes on the basis of an empirical study of three Polish metropolises: Warsaw, Poznań and the so-called Tricity (Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot).
Notes
1. The article presents the findings from a research project financed by the Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) under grant no. H02C 016 23. It makes use of some excerpts from the authors' book entitled: Metropolia i jej region: nowe relacje w gospodarce informacyjnej [The Metropolis and Its Region: The New Relationships in the Information Economy] published by Wydawnictwo Naukowe SCHOLAR, and Maciej Smętkowski's PhD dissertation: “Metropolia-region: nowe relacje w gospodarce informacyjnej (na przykładzie Warszawy i Mazowsza)” [“The Metropolis and the Region: The New Relationships in the Information Economy (on the example of Warsaw and the Mazowsze Region)”]. The article was presented as a paper at the Regional Studies Association International Conference Regional Growth Agendas, Aalborg 28–31 May 2005.
2. The metropolitan area can be defined using a spatial distribution of interdependent production, consumption, exchange and administration activities (Castells, Citation1977). Metropolitan functions are performed by the entire metropolitan region, and not only by the city around which it is formed, and can be situated in different locations of this area (Gawryszewski et al., Citation1998).
3. The concept of the metropolitan region was introduced by McKenzie Citation(1933). The metropolitan region is a space under dominant influence of a core city. The difference between a metropolitan area and the remainig part of a metropolitan region consist of intensity and character of contacts with the main city—which are respectively strong and peramanent or weak and epizodical. This destinction is to a large extent reflected in the number of theories like among others: central place theory, growth pole theory, settlement system theory (cf. Smętkowski, Citation2005).
4. In the case of Tricity—including the poviat (district—the middle administrative tier) of Elbląg. In general this identification of an administrative voivodship with a sphere of dominant influence of the core city is a result of a simplified assumption that to a large extent the range of this sphere is limited by the influence of neighbouring cities at similar level in hierarchy (which is based among others on administrative functions).
5. No GDP statistics are published for the ring of gminas surrounding a metropolitan centre defined in the above way. To estimate the GDP for such areas, another indicator can be used—one which was applied as well for delimiting the metropolitan areas of the cities covered by the research. It is the value of the gmina own revenues, including their share in state taxes. Spatial distribution of the absolute values of this indicator in NUTS3 regions (for which GDP statistics are available) showed a very high correlation (Pearson coefficient = 0.964 in 2001) with the value of the GDP (cf. Gorzelak, Citation2004). This allowed for a precise estimation of the percentage share of the metropolitan area in the GDP value of the NUTS3 regions surrounding the cities under research. The calculations were based on the ratio of own revenues in the gminas making up the metropolitan area to the remaining gminas in a given NUTS3 region.
6. Selected types of activity reflects the most important branches of a cities economy: 55% of total employment in Warsaw, 43% in Poznan, 39% Tricity. Other branches were excluded—especially customers services.
7. The exclusion of smaller firms was a result of poor quality of register for these firms (large quantity of recorded non-existing enterprises).
8. To a large extent this follows observations from research carried out by Simmie et al. Citation(2002) identified that in regional cities a firms' innovative activities are more linked to their regional and national economies than they are in international world cities.