Work in (slow) progress: Latent suburbanization, economic restructuring, and urban–rural convergence in a southeastern European city

ABSTRACT

The present study investigates suburbanization trends in a socially divided and economically polarized Mediterranean region (Attica, Greece) using multivariate time series analysis of 47 indicators assessing 8 research dimensions (demography, labor market, settlements, agricultural production, rural areas, economic performance, transport, and services) over nearly 50 years (1960–2008). Attica’s region was partitioned in 2 spatial domains (the Greater Athens district, including Athens and Piraeus, and the rest of the metropolitan region administered by more than 50 municipalities). Nonparametric concordance analysis and principal component analysis identify 2 distinct growth waves (with a breakpoint in the early 1980s) and distinguish fast from slow changes in the factors contributing to Athens’ transition from industry to advanced services. Up to the early 1980s, Greater Athens experienced population increase and settlement densification; the rest of Attica underwent moderate suburbanization with expanding urban functions. Since the late 1980s, Greater Athens experienced stable population and economic consolidation; the rest of Attica underwent residential sprawl and concentration of activities in the most accessible suburbs. This spatial pattern reflects the specificity of recent Mediterranean urbanization in respect to the development paths prevailing in western and northern European cities. Evidence highlights the importance of multiscale analysis investigating growth and change of informal and scattered cities in both developed and emerging countries.

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Notes on contributors

Luca Salvati

Luca Salvati, MS ecology (2000); BA statistics, demography, and social sciences (2004); MA economic statistics (2007); and PhD economic geography (2011) is Adjunct Professor of cartography and GIS, multivariate statistics and strategic environmental assessment at the Third University of Rome and Contract Professor of regional economics at Camerino University (2011) and Piemonte Orientale University (2012). He collaborates with University of Rome “La Sapienza” in the field of economic statistics, urban economics, and regional science. He was staff researcher at the Italian National Institute of Statistics (2006–2010). He is staff researcher at the Italian Council of Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA). He has also collaborated, as a research fellow, with public institutions in the framework of both national and European research projects investigating urban sprawl and polycentric development in the Mediterranean region. He is the author of 150 articles in English and 10 books. He has supervised PhD candidates in Italy, Spain, Greece.

Giuseppe Venanzoni

Giuseppe Venanzoni is currently Full Professor of economic statistics in the Department of Social and Economic Science, La Sapienza University of Rome. He has been assistant and later associate professor at the Sapienza University of Rome and full professor at the G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti. He has been Dean of the Faculty of Political Science at the G. D’Annunzio University of Chieti, Dean of the Department of National Accounting and Social Analysis at the Sapienza University of Rome, and Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, Sociology, Communication at the Sapienza University of Rome. He is an expert in national accounting statistics and regional statistics. His research in the field of economic statistics deals mainly with the public sector economy, the themes of urban/rural poverty, local development, the rebalancing of regional disparities in Italy, and the interactions between demographic and economic phenomena. He has published more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals and books in English and Italian.