ESPON TOWN projectLoris Servillo

Vilnius (Li), 04 December 2013

New perspective on towns in Europe: From analysis to policy reflections

Linguistic differences and translating problems

Conventional wisdom on towns Town: 1) an urban area that has a name, 2)defined boundaries and

3)local government, AND that is larger than a village and generally smaller than a city

 Definition within the TOWN projectTown: 1) a built-up area (a polygon that has a number in a database!), 2)

with boundaries possibly crossing administrative limits, and 3) where you search (and sometimes find) for local capacity and horizontal and multi-level local governance

What is a town?

Small and medium-sized towns

Morphological interpretation

DENSITY (inh. / kmq) < 300 300 - 1500 > 1500

POPULATIO

N (inh.)

< 5000 OTHER SETTLEMENTS VST VST

5000 - 50000

OTHER SETTLEMENTS SMST SMST

> 50000 OTHER SETTLEMENTS large SMST HDUC

Morphological interpretation

General picture

~8,350 urban settlements can be classified as SMSTs ~70,000 urban settlements can be classified as Very Small Towns

(below the 5.000 inhabitant threshold)

SMST: about 27% of EU population Very Small Towns: 19% of EU population

! Policy message

Complexity and institutional diversity across Europe concerning the relationship between administrative and morphological definitions

Not only a technical aspect: - Data issue

(thus)- Policy issue

N (SMST

polygons in database)

Mean number of intersections between SMST polygons and:

local authority units (LAU) NUTS3 regions (2006)

Belgium (BE) 184 1.23 1.05 Czech Republic (CZ) 222 1.73 1.01 Spain (ES) 65 1.78 1.00 France (FR) 881 2.89 1.06 Italy (IT) 252 2.41 1.11 Poland (PL) 42 1.33 1.02 Sweden (SE) 41 1.00 1.00 Slovenia (SI) 43 1.26 1.00 England & Wales (UK) 574 1.19 1.12 Total 2304 2.05 1.07 ! Policy message

EU

NUTS3 with prevailing

settlements

Settlement polygons

EU macro-trendsVariation of Population and GDP at NUTS3

level between 2001 and 2011Measured on 3 types of regions:- Region predominantly populated in small and

medium settlements(pop in HUDC < 30%)

- Highly urbanized regions(pop in HUDC > 70%)

- Region with population evenly distributed in various settlements

(in between)

Preliminary results

In relation with early suppositions- Have we assisted to a general shift of population toward cities and

metropolitan areas?- Have we registered a general impoverishment of (regions

characterized by) smaller settlements?- Can we consider towns as isolated and independent settlements?

- National policies matter?- Meso-level: relationship with urban regions?- Objective 1 regions

! Policy message

• On average, SMSTs (in database) are different from large cities on a range of measures:• Social (older working population, more pensioners, higher ‘non-

foreign’ population)• Economic (greater proportion employment in manufacturing,

more self-employment, more likely to be net exporter of labour (dormitory), less diverse in sectoral mix)

• Housing issues (more second homes)

What makes SMSTs different

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• Changes in SMSTs during the period 2001-11 are different from the change that are observed in cities over the same period• Demographic (faster growing, net migration rate higher)• Economic (slightly greater rate)

• However between group and between country differences:

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‘All’ Small towns (N=1339)

Small towns in Slovenia

Small towns in NW Italy

Net migration by countryMigration-

enhanced aging?

Growing

Labour exporters

Shrinking

So what?

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• Do SMSTs across Europe face ‘common problems’?• Social and economic problems for SMSTs are only ‘common’ in

an abstract sense• In practice the ‘problems’ of towns are mainly framed by their

national/regional context (clusters of ‘problem-sets’)

• What concerns of European policy touch down on SMSTs?• Giving SMSTs a voice in regional debates• Small town does not mean small problem• No ‘one size fits all’….• Supporting alternative visions of the local economy• Collective action within/among small towns• Supporting the definition of micro-regionalism processes

! Policy message

So what?

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Place-based approach recommended?Endogenous growth vs specialized towns with urgent challenges (retail trade,

deindustrialization) In many case, at the local level, difficult to anticipate problems, to make

choices (and alliances);  

How does the national/regional policy deal with a town specificity (and specific cases of towns)?

Investment driven? Bottom-up and top down? How is it negotiated, coproduced with the local stakeholders?  

Does the national, regional, local level prioritize, discriminate?Is there a ‘policy model’?

! Policy message

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Thank you

Loris Servilloloris.servillo@asro.kuleuven.be