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Differential urbanisation and primate city growth in soviet and post‐soviet Estonia
Author(s) -
Tammaru Tiit
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1467-9663
pISSN - 0040-747X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9663.00090
Subject(s) - urbanization , socialism , economic geography , settlement (finance) , differential (mechanical device) , development economics , developing country , economic system , geography , economic growth , political science , economics , communism , engineering , finance , aerospace engineering , politics , law , payment
Although big city growth was not officially favoured in the former socialist countries, big cities did grow fast. The existence and continuing growth of primate and large cities is typically attributed to urbanisation economies, diverging sectoral and spatial interests, and difficulties in managing such a complex process as migration. However, whether such developments are systemic to socialism or reflect universal urbanisation processes is an issue of continuing debate. This paper aims to add to this discussion, and it does so by subjecting it to an empirical test, namely that of Estonia. For this purpose the concept of differential urbanisation is employed, as this model explicitly attempts to bridge the gap between various types of economies and urban settlement networks in both developed and developing countries.