The Routledge Handbook of Small Towns

Jerzy Bański

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000422382
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

The Routledge Handbook of Small Towns addresses the theoretical, methodical, and practical issues related to the development of small towns and neighbouring countryside. Small towns play a very important role in spatial structure by performing numerous significant developmental functions for rural areas. At the local scale, they act as engines for economic growth of rural regions and as a link in the system of connections between large urban centres and the countryside. The book addresses the role of small towns in the local development of regions in countries with different levels of development and economic systems, including those in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, and Australia. Chapters address the functional structure of small towns, relations between small towns and rural areas, and the challenges of spatial planning in the context of shaping the development of small towns. Students and scholars of urban planning, urban geography, rural geography, political geography, historical geography, and population geography will learn about the role of small towns in the local development of countries representing different economic systems and developmental conditions.

Section 1

Small Towns

Theoretical Background and Research Issues

1 The Functions and Local Linkages of Small Towns

A Review of Selected Classifications and Approaches to Research

Jerzy Bański

Introduction

Contemporary principles underpinning the shaping of development policy on different spatial scales (local, regional, national or international) demand synthetic concepts by which regions, units of administration, rural areas, towns and cities can be classified, so that they may be better programmed to act effectively. The kind of classification involved ought to embrace the specifics of defined structures and other spatial elements, so as to provide for their development, and allow full advantage to be taken of resources possessed and competitive advantages enjoyed. Development policy’s differentiation from one category of area to another should denote support for concrete conditioning of socioeconomic development, the shaping of policy relevant to that, and consideration being given to interventions in line with particular needs. Classification-related concepts relate to towns of small size, as well as other kinds.

Small towns have specific social, economic and cultural features that distinguish them from medium-sized and large urban centres on the one hand, and rural areas on the other. They are a significant component in the settlement structures of regions that determine their polycentricity or monocentricity. Equally, their relationships with their rural surroundings set local development in terms of both direction and level (Hinderink and Titus 1988). Small towns are specific kinds of centres of economic development in rural areas (Shucksmith et al. 2005), hence the focusing of relevant research on relationships with the countryside, as well as the role played in servicing the rural populace (Dej et al. 2014; Edwards et al. 2003; Heffner and Halama 2012; Powe 2013; Van Leeuwen 2010). Small centres are core localities for the supply of local firms and farms with goods and services, as well as the first places offering a market for the produce and products the former generate (Courtney et al. 2008; Tacoli 1998). Further emphasis is put on small towns being nodes of transmission where regional policy is concerned, as well as optimal places in which to locate core community services for those living in the countryside (Satterthwaite and Tacoli 2003). Moreover, they represent key links in the urban system when it comes to the overall linkage between large urban centres and rural areas, though it must be said that there are certain researchers who see small towns as increasingly sidestepped or leapfrogged where the operation of these relationships is concerned (Czarnecki 2012; Hindering and Titus 2002). Equally, the roles referred to above suggest that small centres may continue to be elements indispensable to the development policies each region and each country chooses to pursue.

At present, it is possible to observe a rise in the level of functional diversity characterising small towns, i.e. as a result of the ongoing economic diversification of rural areas (Courtney et al. 2007). In part, this also reflects small centres taking on certain urban functions that had previously been the preserve of large cities, or at least urban centres of medium size. As an example, J. Wright (2000) noted how small-town USA present in close proximity to large metropolises had ceased to function solely in a dormitory role, instead coming to comprise fully fledged centres in a position to meet the basic needs of their inhabitants. However, a different view was expressed by K. Heffner (2016) in relation to urban areas in Poland, whose industrialisation, development of services, metropolitanisation and ongoing globalisation all ensure that many of the functions hitherto typical of small towns are being taken on by large centres, as well as the economic structures located on their margins.

This kind of view in fact gained further confirmation with the economic situation of small towns in Scotland – as presented in one of that country’s planning documents from the late 20th century (Planning ... 1997). Through a concentration of jobs and services in or around larger urban spaces, the small towns there are becoming “less independent” – i.e. more dependent on large cities. This necessitates the planning of development, with priority or specific functions of centres needing to be reinforced. Development programmes attach particular importance to the quality of the urban landscape, the renewal and revitalisation of centres, and improved transport infrastructure.

A reconnaissance of the tasks small towns discharge on a local or regional scale typically entails analysis of dominant economic sectors, or – more broadly – the role different socioeconomic spheres play in the given centre and its immediate surroundings. It is to this kind of subject matter that the work described here has been devoted, with the basic aim being to discuss and assess different classifications and research approaches to small towns that take their social and economic functions into account, as well as relations with surrounding areas.

However, the very concept of the small town poses certain problems, not least because definitions generally simplify down to the criterion of population size. Account may also at times be taken of the wider settlement system nationally, with consideration therefore given to the sizes and numbers of the largest urban centres, as well as those of lower order: the distances separating localities, density of population, forms of land use and various other criteria of an economic nature. Another problem relates to the criteria distinguishing a town from a rural area that are seen to vary greatly from one country to another (Servillo et al. 2017; SMESTO 2006). A review of these kinds of criteria in no fewer than 38 countries confirms application of at least two that help play a distinguishing role. Needless to say, the criterion utilised most frequently (in 27 of the countries) is population size within the settlement unit – albeit in combination with various other criteria (Hopkins and Copus 2018).

Depending on the country, the size criterion differs and is generally in the range 5,000 to 25,000 inhabitants. In the EU (Dijkstra and Poelman 2012, 2014), as in Germany, a small town has fewer than 50,000 inhabitants, while in France, the Czech Republic and Poland the threshold is below 20,000 (Kwiatek-Sołtys and Mainet 2014; Vaishar and Zapletalova 2009). In the UK, the range of sizes is 7,500 to 25,000 inhabitants (Baker 2018). In line with the typology of urban areas espoused by the ESPON TOWN Project, a small town has some 5,000 to 25,000 inhabitants (Servillo et al. 2017; TOWN 2014).¹ In turn, in the USA as of 2009, the small towns that had 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants were home to around 40 million people (Bell and Jayne 2009).

Functional Classifications of Small Towns

Classifications and typologies of small towns are a popular subject for research and debate among geographers, planners and sociologists. In most cases, they take either direct or indirect account of the functions (roles) that given urban centres play in local and regional space. Economic, social and cultural functions may also be key criteria – or among the criteria – used to define urban centres. According to one of the proposed definitions in the TOWN Epson Project report (2014, p. iii), a town or urban centre is:

an urban settlement or urban municipality containing a concentration of jobs, services and other functions that serve other settlements in its hinterland, acting as the core of an urban (functional) region, which is a larger area that contains the urban centre and its hinterland, forming together a socio-spatial system integrated by functi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Contributors
• Introduction
• SECTION 1 Small Towns: Theoretical Background and Research Issues
• SECTION 2 The Role and Significance of Small Towns in Socio-Economic Development
• SECTION 3 Small Towns in Rural Space
• SECTION 4 The Small Towns Planning Challenges
• Index