Approach

The Project Approach

POLYCE analyzes five Central European capital cities and their functionally related surrounding areas: Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Praha, and Wien. The project emerged from the related city administrations' wish for researching the cities' future competitive and cooperative potentials among each other and towards other metropolises. This is ought to draw an upâ€toâ€date picture of the preconditions for metropolitan and polycentric development in Central Europe.

Both metropolisation and polycentric development are seen as drivers of specific paths of metropolitan development. The approach of POLYCE takes both concepts into consideration in the context of analyzing the five Central European capitals, also trying to identify their mutual relation – meaning to what extent both can support a sound and balanced metropolitan development.

What is metropolisation?

Metropolisation is a process of urban restructuring that can be defined by specific aspects:

• Spatial concentration of (new) economic functions or population – the latter often caused by immigration (Friedmann, 1986 and 2002; Geyer, 2002)
• Possession of important command and control functions and well-developed connectivity (Keeling, 1995)
• Economic restructuring due to an increase of knowledge intensive activities (Krätke, 2007)
• Specialized functions are unequally allocated within a city or in a polycentric agglomeration (Kunzmann, 1996; Leroy, 2000; Sassen, 2002; Elissade, 2004)

What is polycentricity?

Polycentricity describes the existence of more than one pole or node within a certain territory. The concept has several (interlinked) aspects:

• Morphological polycentricity: hierarchies and structures of nodes according to their size and significance
• Relational polycentricity: flows and interactions between nodes
• Polycentricity in governance: mutual interests, considerations, inspiration, collaboration, complementarity in decision-making in and between the various nodes

Expected Outcomes

The project identifies current restraining challenges and possible assets of Central European metropolises and hence elaborates metropolitan development agendas as recommendations. Outcomes are provided on two levels:

• At the metropolitan level of Bratislava, Budapest, Ljubljana, Praha, and Wien.
• At the level of the Central European - Danube global integration zone (CED-zone) that is constituted by these five European metropolises.

Questions addressed empirically

• What are the preconditions of metropolitan growth? Do metropolitan functions and polycentricity have a decisive impact? What is the meaning of polycentric relations for metropolitan development at different spatial levels?
• What are the characteristics of polycentricity? What do the polycentric systems on the metropolitan level and in the CEDâ€zone look like? What are the specific factors driving or hindering polycentric development? Is there a mutual relation between metropolisation and polycentricity?
• What do the metropolitan profiles of the five POLYCE metropolises look like? Do they show any decisive similarities or differences among each other and among a wider sample of European metropolises? Which development factors have a potential for metropolitan distinction?
• Are polycentricity and metropolisation important issues of strategic endeavors in local governance approaches of the five metropolises? How can the current position of the five major cities as metropolises be strengthened? Which activities are of importance in supporting smart metropolitan development?
• Which activities are necessary to strengthen polycentric development in the CEDâ€zone? How can the polycentric system in Central Europe be enhanced? What can we learn from project results for strengthening territorially cohesive development in the Danube macro region?

Envisaged results

• Metropolitan size and its preconditions
• Polycentricity - its understanding and meaning for metropolitan development
• Metropolitan profiles indicating challenges of smart metropolitan development
• Strategic endeavors supporting smart metropolitan positioning
• Strategic endeavors for polycentric development in the CEDâ€zone as part of the Danube Region

Project reports

Project results are compiled in a series of reports during the project lifetime.

• Inception Report (January 31, 2011)
• Interim Report (August 29, 2011)
• Draft Final Report (February 27, 2012)
• Final Report (May 30, 2012)

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