SOCIO-ECONOMICAL AND SPATIAL ASPECTS OF SUB-URBANISATION IN THE SILESIAN PROVINCE

Jerzy RUNGE

Abstract

The subject of investigation is the change in dynamics and socio-economical position of cities and rural communes, creating the direct neighbourhood of Katowice and Rybnik conurbations. According to the conception of sub-urbanisation by A. Lisowski and M. Grochowski (2007) we can interpret them in categories of suburbanisation. Firstly - in the group of five features investigated were located as follows: a) the number of population, which changes can be interpreted in categories of sub-urbanisation phases, b) the number or working in market services, reflecting the basie differentiations of labour market as well as the degree of advancing in the process of economy tertialisation, c) the number of business entities, evidencing the potential of this activity sphere, d) the number of dwellings completed - as one of main measures of living conditions, and in the wider context the index of urbanisation process advancing as well e) the length of canalisation network - as in the previous case we deal here - in narrower case with the degree of the basie infrastructural needs providing, while in the wider - with indirect measure of urbanisation. The inerease in the length of canalisation
network in the surroundings of individual cities or settlement complexes can point at the direction and intensity of sub-urbanisation process. Secondly - the thesis of temporal-spatial conformability of socio-economical transformations does not find arguments here. The size of area, different degree of hitherto existing management, features of functional structure are some of basie conditions influencing slightly other directions of transformations in direct neighbourhood of complicated settlement patterns. The situation looks similar in the case of Katowice and Rybnik conurbations. Demographic and economic-infrastructural characteristics show other maxima within the rangę of changes dynamics. Thus, both of considered settlement patterns should be treated slightly differently, and only in the part similarly to each other. It most of all results from the nearest neighbourhood and simultaneously with permanently advancing process of development of transitional zonę between them.