SECPOLYC

The project entitled ’Changing role of SEcondary Cities in the POLYcentric development of Visegrad Countries’ (SECPOLYC) addresses a crucial limiting factor of socio-economic development of each of the Visegrad countries, Czech Republik, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. In all the four countries the capitals dominate the economic performance, concentrate on the most skilled labour force and the innovation capacities to a very high extent, while most of the rest of the countries are struggling with development. The underperformance of second and third-tier cities as reason for unbalanced development have become severe obstacles to development.

Four universities of the region joined to shed light on the question, how the secondary cities (e.g. Brno, Łódź, Wrocław, Kosice, Debrecen) could support a more balanced, economically more efficient and more sustainable development of the four countries.

The core project team covers expertise in both academic spatial researches and regional-urban policy planning.

The project aims to increase the understanding and articulation of the specifics and possibilities of polycentric development in the V4 countries by revealing the regional development role of secondary cities. The mission is to support effective policies, regional and urban planning with (1) creating new evidences, (2) initiating policy discourse and (3) prepare for networking within the region.

Implementation period: 01/11/2024–30/04/2026

The challenge: Increasing monocentric spatial development

Since the 1990s the role of polycentric development in the social, economic, and territorial development of the EU gained high recognition (see ESDP, Territorial Agenda of the EU). In this approach the urban centres are essential for sustainable and robust regional development. Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have similar regional and urban development heritage, which makes the challenge of polycentric development specific and even more severe for them. Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary have highly monocentric settlement system, and in Poland Warsaw also has a strong economic dominance, resulting in a concentrated spatial distribution of resources of wealth and development. In most former socialist countries, the market economy transition and the EU integration have been accompanied by increasing territorial inequalities due to the location preferences of FDI and human capital (preferring capital regions). The second-tier cities are facing challenges in becoming development centres for their wider region due to the lack of adequate size (population, market, production and R&D) and capacities, receiving less attention and support from the policies and are often dependent on handful of multinational companies. The lack of spatially balanced development is a crucial development trap for the economies of V4 countries and also threatens their sustainable development. The specific challenges and potentials of polycentric development in CEE has not been actively introduced in the international academic and policy discourses yet and limited evidences are available on it.

The issue of polycentric development is broadly studied at the EU level (TSP 2011, several ESPON projects, Rauhut, D., Sielker, F. &Humer, A. 2021; REPUS project (2006-2009), etc.). In 2012 a common spatial development strategy was elaborated for V4+2 countries in intergovernmental cooperation (with the contribution of the coordinator of the current project proposal), which connected in a visionary map the development poles designated by the national spatial development plans of that time. The specificities of challenges of polycentric development in Central and Eastern Europe have been hardly addressed. Most studies in V4 region focus on regional disparities without addressing the role of urban development in them. Less attention is paid to the second to third-tier cities, which, although have the highest potential to counterbalance the few concentrations. Additionally, the functional interconnection between urban planning and the regional development approach is still weak in our countries as they are considered as distinct policy fields, especially in Hungary.

Adequate policy responses to the challenges faced by the economies and spatial structures of the V4 countries demand collaborative and comparative analysis. Dealing with this issue in a V4 context is of high importance due to the followings:

– Knowledge and Policy transfer: the exchange of national policy approaches to urban development and polycentric development among V4 countries can be cross-fertilising;

– Macroregional understanding and action: urban networks functionally cross the borders, thus the polycentric development should be understood and tackled in the entireV4 region;

– Common articulation: the project can enhance the introduction of CEE specificities into the European academic policy discourses;

Despite the limited resources and timeframe, the SECPOLYC project can contribute to enhancing policy efforts in this issue by:

– Providing comparative evidence on the performances of the secondary cities, which are the main potential counterbalances of the dominating capitals (in functional socio-economic terms);

– Enhancing academic discourse involving planning and policy practitioners from the countries. Therefore, the results can contribute to overcoming the challenges in the regional systems and urban networks faced by the V4 countries.

To achieve these goals stakeholder events will be organised in each country: In, Wrocław, Brno (Ceske Budajovice), Kosice, Budapest (closing seminar).

Project Coordinator: 

Corvinus University of Budapest, Department of Geography and Planning

Corvinus University of Budapest is one of the major centres of excellence within East-Central Europe, providing cutting-edge research and top-quality education in the fields of Economics, Management, and Business Informatics to Social and Political Sciences. The hubs of research within the university are its research centres and accredited doctoral schools, which are imbedded in international research communities. There are currently 10 ongoing Horizon projects, 2 Erasmus+ and numerous other international and national research projects in which Corvinus is participating as a partner or coordinator.

The mission of the Department of Geography and Planning is to conduct research in the fields of spatial planning, regional studies and geostrategy to provide knowledge regarding spatial, developmental issues to students of the University’s business, economics and social science programmes. The basis for this is a cooperative, multi- and interdisciplinary scientific approach.

Coordinator of the project: Dr. Géza Salamin

Project Partners:

University of Wrocław

The Institute is a renowned academic centre for socio-spatial studies in CEE. It has been closely collaborating with Corvinus University of Budapest (academic mobility, publication projects) and also with the University of South Bohemia (joint publication in European Planning Studies) in this field. It has relations with the municipality of Wrocław, which is secondary city of Poland.

Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice

The Institute is among leaders in research of regional and settlement systems in Slovakia, having long-term cooperation with University of South Bohemia (population mobility, transformation of regional system). Košice is the secondary city of Slovakia.

University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice

The partner is leading academic institute in the field of assessment of dynamics of mobility within CEE,

deeply embedded in the Czech academic-professional community. Recent projects focus on transport and spatial interactions using geolocation data.

Webpage: https://www.visegradfund.org/