Forms of urbanization: Critical evaluation of the model of stages of urban development and alternative method of classification of forms of urbanization
2011
Abstract
The article critically examines the model of stages of urban development and its operationalization for empirical research. We identify and display shortcomings in the model through an analysis of changes in the spatial distribution of the population and dwellings in Prague and Vienna urban regions from 1980 to 2001.
We therefore suggest an alternative method of classifying forms of urbanization. Using the combination of growth or decline of an entire urban region and the centralization or decentralization within an urban region, the method clearly determines the four forms of urbanization, suburbanization, desurbanization and reurbanization.