“Emerging Cities”: Knowledge and Urbanization in Europe’s Borderlands 1880-1945—Introduction

Abstract

The article focuses on the interaction of knowledge transfer and urbanization in the emerging cities of East and Central Europe 1880-1945. Doing so, the article is arguing that in the East European borderlands, this interaction can be understood as reception and creative development of impulses transformed by local socioeconomic and cultural factors, such as multiethnicity, multiconfessionalisation, and nationalizing processes, which are specific for these regions. Due to this, the article offers the concept of “emerging cities” on the specific model of urbanization with a focus on knowledge transfer and circulation in this historical and geographical region beyond the center–periphery scheme.