The paper explores whether a polycentric urban region can reap the advantages of its combined urban size to a similar extent as a similar-sized monocentric city-region. This question is elaborated for the provision of cultural, leisure and sports amenities. Their presence in 42 Dutch regions is expressed in an index, which serves as the dependent variable in a multiple regression model. An explaining variable is the extent of polycentricity of a region. Correcting for differences between regions in terms of population size, the number of visitors and average income, it turns out that the more polycentric a region is, the fewer cultural, leisure and sports amenities are present. Conversely, the more monocentric a region, the more such amenities.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Albrechts, L. (1998) The Flemish Diamond: precious gem and virgin area , European Planning Studies, 6, pp. 411-424.
2.
Albrechts, L. (2001) How to proceed from image and discourse to action: as applied to the Flemish Diamond, Urban Studies, 38, pp. 733-745.
3.
Alonso, W. (1973) Urban zero population growth, Daedalus, 109, pp. 191-206.
4.
Bailey, N. and Turok, I. (2001) Central Scotland as a polycentric urban region: useful planning concept or chimera?, Urban Studies, 38, pp. 697-715.
5.
Batten, D.F. (1995) network cities: creative urban agglomerations for the 21st century, Urban Studies, 32, pp. 313-327.
6.
Batty, M. (2001) Polynucleated urban landscapes, Urban Studies, 38, pp. 635-655.
7.
Brueckner, J.K., Thisse, J.-F. and Zenou, Y. (1999) Why is central Paris rich and downtown Detroit poor? An amenity-based theory, European Economic Review, 43, pp. 91-107.
8.
Burton, I. (1963) A restatement of the dispersed city hypothesis , Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 63, pp. 285-289.
9.
Capello, R. (2000) The city network paradigm: measuring urban network externalities, Urban Studies, 37, pp. 1925-1945.
10.
Castells, M. (1972) La question urbaine. Paris: F. Maspéro .
11.
CEC (Commission of the European Communities) (1999) European Spatial Development Perspective: Towards Balanced and Sustainable Development of the Territory of the EU. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
12.
Cheshire, P. (1999) Trends in sizes and structures of urban areas, in: P. Cheshire and E. S. Mills (Eds) Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Vol. 3, pp. 1339-1372. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
13.
Davoudi, S. (2003) Polycentricity in European spatial planning: from an analytical tool to a normative agenda, European Planning Studies, 11, pp. 979-999.
14.
Dieleman, F.M. and Faludi, A. (1998) Polynucleated metropolitan regions in northwest Europe: theme of the special issue, European Planning Studies , 6, pp. 365-377.
15.
Florida, R. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.
16.
Glaeser, E., Kolko, J. and Saiz, A. (2001) Consumer city, Journal of Economic Geography, 1, pp. 27-50.
17.
Gottlieb, P.D. (1995) Residential amenities, firm location and economic development, Urban Studies, 32, pp. 1413-1436.
18.
Gottmann, J. (1961) Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States. New York: The Twentieth Century Fund.
19.
Harvey, D. (1989) From managerialism to entrepreneurialism: the transformation of urban governance in late capitalism, Geografiska Annaler , 71B, pp. 3-17.
20.
Henderson, V. (2000) The effects of urban concentration on economic growth. Working Paper No. 7503, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.
21.
Holcomb, B. (1994) City make-overs: marketing the post-industrial city, in: J. R. Gold and S. V. Ward (Eds) Place Promotion: The Use of Publicity and Marketing to Sell Towns and Regions, pp. 115-131. Chichester : Wiley.
22.
IGEAT (Institut de gestion de l'environnement et d'aménagement du territoire) et al. (2007) ESPON 1.4.3 Study on Urban Functions. Final report. Brussels/ Luxembourg: Université Libre de Bruxelles/ ESPON Monitoring Committee (www.espon.eu).
23.
Kloosterman, R.C. and Musterd, S. (2001) The polycentric urban region: towards a research agenda, Urban Studies, 38, pp. 623-633.
24.
Knaap, G. A. van der (2002) Stedelijke Bewegingsruimte, over Veranderingen in Stad en Land. The Hague: Sdu uitgevers.
25.
Lambooy, J.G. (1998a) Polynucleation and economic development: the Randstad , European Planning Studies, 6, pp. 457-466.
26.
Lambooy, J.G. (1998b) Agglomeratievoordelen en ruimtelijke ontwikkeling: steden in het tijdperk van de kenniseconomie. Inaugural lecture, Utrecht University, 2 December.
27.
Lambregts, L. and Zonneveld, W. (2004) From Randstad to Deltametropolis: changing attitudes towards the scattered metropolis, European Planning Studies , 12, pp. 299-321.
28.
Larsen, K. (2005) Cities to come: Clarence Stein's postwar regionalism , Journal of Planning History, 4, pp. 33-51.
29.
Malecki, E.J. (2004) Jockeying for position: what it means and why it matters to regional development policy when places compete, Regional Studies, 38, pp. 1101-1120.
30.
Meijers, E. (2005) Polycentric urban regions and the quest for synergy: is a network of cities more than the sum of the parts? Urban Studies, 42, pp. 765-781.
31.
Meijers, E.J. (2007a) Synergy in Polycentric Urban Regions: Complementarity, Organising Capacity and Critical Mass. Amsterdam: IOS Press.
32.
Meijers, E.J. (2007b) From central place to network model: theory and evidence of a paradigm change, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 98, pp. 245-259.
33.
Meijers, E. and Romein, A. (2003) Realizing potential: building regional organizing capacity in polycentric urban regions, European Urban and Regional Studies, 10, pp. 173-186.
34.
Meijers, E.J. and Sandberg, K. (2008) Reducing regional disparities by means of polycentric development: panacea or placebo?, Scienze Regionali (Italian Journal of Regional Science), 7, pp. 71-96.
35.
Mueller, B. (2001) Urban networks and polycentric spatial development in Europe: the case of Germany, EUREG, 9, pp. 40-46.
36.
Nordregio et al. (2004) ESPON 1.1.1: potentials for polycentric development in Europe. Project report, Nordregio/ESPON Monitoring Committee, Stockholm/Luxembourg.
37.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) ( 2007) Randstad Holland, Netherlands. Paris : OECD Publishing.
38.
Oort, F. G. van (2004 ) Urban Growth and Innovation: Spatially Bounded Externalities in the Netherlands. Aldershot: Ashgate.
39.
Parr, J.B. (2002) Agglomeration economies: ambiguities and confusions , Environment and Planning A, 34, pp. 717-731.
40.
Parr, J.B. (2004) The polycentric urban region: a closer inspection , Regional Studies, 38, pp. 231-240.
41.
Priemus, H. (1994) Planning the Randstad: between economic growth and sustainability, Urban Studies, 31, pp. 509-534.
42.
RPB (Ruimtelijk Planbureau) (2006) Vele steden maken nog geen Randstad. NAi Uitgevers, Rotterdam.
43.
Scott, A.J. (2000) Economic geography: the great half-century, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 24, pp. 483-504.
44.
Simon, C.J.M. (2004) Ruimte voor identiteit, de productie en reproductie van streekidentiteiten in Nederland. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen.
45.
Stein, C.S. (1964) A regional pattern for dispersal, Architectural Record, pp. 205-206.
46.
Turok, I. and Bailey, N. (2004) The theory of polynuclear urban regions and its application to central Scotland, European Planning Studies , 12, pp. 371-389.
47.
Zukin, S. (1998) Urban lifestyles: diversity and standardisation in spaces of consumption, Urban Studies, 35, pp. 825-839.
