Measuring functional polycentricity developments using the flow of goods in Iran: a novel method at a regional scale

ABSTRACT

The debate concerning the polycentricity concept and its related methods has led to numerous studies. However, these studies have focused less on the analysis of polycentricity in developing countries, such as Iran, which is peculiar because of its various socioeconomic and political features. Also, while most of the current studies have measured the polycentricity at one time, only a limited number of them have paid attention to the longitudinal perspective. Thus, this paper intends to examine functional polycentricity developments by exploring a novel method on a regional scale. To do this, we have applied a dynamic method in the case of Iran to measure the polycentricity by using data concerning the flow of goods. Our findings indicate that the polycentricity index of the system raised from 0.24 to 0.81 over a 15-year period. Therefore, theoretically, the spatial system moved towards more polycentricity. The outcome of the socioeconomic flows in Iran was such that they continuously reduced the distance between centres and reproduced moves towards a more polycentric pattern.

KEYWORDS:

• Functional polycentricity
• spatial system
• flow of goods
• regional scale
• novel method
• Iran

Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.