Changing Urban Structures in Europe

Centralization and subsequent decentralization of population and employment is a phenomenon that characterizes urban systems as they evolve over time. To observers of urban change in individual European nation-states, a significant gap exists between monitoring changes in spatial distributions and understanding the processes that steer patterns of urban growth, stagnation, and decline. This gap needs to be narrowed, especially since locational preferences of companies, households, governments, and other major sectors are changing rapidly. Such complex issues suggest a need to relate present knowledge to what is happening in city systems in other advanced economies. This is difficult because a cross-national comparison of urban systems within Europe itself does not exist. Such a ready-made perspective poses a practical and conceptual problem. However, attempts have been made to articulate the comtemporary organization of urban systems through inductive rules, theories, and theoretical frameworks. This article largely concerns such attempts.