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The pattern of urbantzation in Western Europe Klaus R. Kunzmann and Michael Wegener Klaus R. Kunzmann is professor at the lnstitute of Spatial Planning of The paper argues that the large cities and the many small the University of Dortmund (IRPUD),Germany, since 1974. He grad- towns of Europe play a vital role for the economic and social uated in architecture and urban planning from the Technical Univer- development of Europe as a whole. lt highlights imbalances sity of Munich and got his Ph.D from the Technical University of in the urban system in Europe which threaten to increase in Vienna, Austria, where he taught urban planning from 1967 to 1971 the future. These imbalances, although rooted in the history joining a consulting firm in Düsseldorf and working in various before of the countries of Europe, result from the growing interna- Third World countries. He was the founding president of the Europe' They will be further accelerated an Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). ln 1990 tionalization of the economy. he was a visiting professor at the Universitö Paris Vlll and in 1991 by the forthcoming Single European Market. was offered the chair of city and regional planning at the Technical A number of urban issues which are raised in this paper re- lJniversity of Vienna. His main research interests include innovative quire attention and continuous and careful monitoring and policies of spatial development and restructuring in traditional indus- cushioning intervention at the national, regional and local lev- trial regions, in developing regions and in Europe as a whole. Mi- els of policy making and, within the constraints given by the chaet Wegener is a senior research fellow at the lnstitute of Spatial subsidiarity principle, also at the Community level. Planning of the University of Doftmund (IRPUD), Germany. He grad- uated in architecture and urban planning from the Technical Univer- sity of Berlin and earned his Ph.D at the lnstitute of Technology of Aachen. Before coming to Doftmund, he worked with Battelle-lnstitut Background trends 1960-1990 and e.V. Frankfurt and at the lnternational lnstitute of Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. ln 1988/89 he spent a year as a pro- beyond fessor of regional planning at the University of Tokyo, Japan. His main research interests are urban and regional analysis, in particular Throughout human history cities have been pacemakers of of the tand use transport interface, demography, housing markets, change. History's great cultural achievements, technological spatial informations systems and planning urban structural change, innovations and political movements originated in cities. Cities theory. are the incubators of new economic activities and life styles' Yet at the same time cities are also themselves subject to the secular and global trends they help to generate. The patterns of urbanization in Europe therefore cannot be understood with- out taking account of the dominant background trends (table 1) Introduction in fields such as population, migration, life styles, the econo- my, transport and communications, and environment and re- ln 1989 the Directorate General for Regional Policy (DG XVI) sources (see MASSER et al., forthcoming). of the European Commission launched a series of research ln summary, the future of the urban system in Europe will projects to provide resource information for a Community be co-determined by a multitude of powerful and padly con- document which aims at highlighting the trends and process- tradictory trends. Given the stability of political structures and es that are likely to shape the use of territory and regional behavioral patterns but also the growing awareness for the policy within the Community at the beginning of the next cen- need to protect the environment, it is useful to take account tury "Europe 2000." One of these studies ,lilled Urbanisa- of these trends as a possible framework of urban develop- tion -and the Function of Cities in the European Community, ment in Europe in the 1990s and beyond. was commissioned to an international consortium of re- search institutions led by the Centre for Urban Studies of the University of Liverpool. Patterns of urbanization 1 960-1 990 This paper reports the results of a subtask of this study. lt presents major trends and changes in the urban system in The present urban system of Europe is the evolutionary out' Europe over the last thirty years (1960-1990). lt examines come of more than two millenniums of activities of people liv- the present state of urbanization and considers the cycles ing in or migrating to Europe. They founded, built and ex- and dynamics of urban development, urban growth and ur- panded human settlements at suitable locations and made ban decline and describes current and future issues of urban them into cities, centers of culture, trade and industry. Cities development in the twelve countries of the European Com- flourished because of their natural resources or agricultural munity, including the united Germany, and in Austria and hinterlands, the skills of their citizens or their strategic trade Switzerland. lts findings and conclusions, however, are gen- location or because they became political or ecclesiastical erally valid for the whole of Europe. centers of power, information and communication. Ekistics 350, September/October 1991 282 35 1. November/December 199 1 Table 1 Europe - Background trends of urbanization and corresponding implications for cities, 1960-1990 Field Background trends lmplications for cities Population - Decline ot birth rates - Unbalanced demand tor public inlrastructure - Ageing of the population - High demand lor health and social services - Urban decline in the North and North-West problems in target Migration - Continuing rural-to-urban migration in p€ripheral countries - Housing and employment - lnternational migration South-North and East-West growing and gateway cities in prosperous regions Households/Lire styles - Decreasing household size - New social networks, neighborhood relations, - Higher labor force participation of women localions and mobility patterns - Feduction of work hours - Ned for new seruices and new housing, land - New lile styles and transport policies Economy Reorganization of production and distribution - lncreased competition between cities - policy - Polarization of lirm size - lnnovation-oriented local economic - Liberalization, deregulation, privatization - Technology centers and parks - lnternationalization - However, also intra- and inter-regional disparities, social lension and eroded public services TransporUCommunications - Technological change stimulates personal mobility and goods - Dispersed urban development is turther stimulated movement - Eflicient public transport in small and medium-sized cities - Road transport dominant difficult - GroMh of high speed rail, air transport, telecommunications - Polarization between European core and periphery continues EnvironmenUBesources - Transport and industry-generated pollution, energy - Cities in all European countries are aflected conservation, urban sprawl important - Car restraint, antipollution, energy conservation, länd use - lndustrial pollution in South European countries and control policies are required East Germany urgent Urban Europe in a global perspective of the fall of the Roman Empire, the urban system of Europe According to UN estimates, towards the end of this century 50 re-emerged in the 1Oth century. From then on until modern percent of the world population and 80 percent of the popula- times it remained relatively stable. Growth of cities was slow tion in industrialized countries will live in urban agglomera- and, apaft from devastations by wars, epidemic diseases or tions. However, in the year 2000 only three of the 20 largest natural disasters, so was urban decline, e.g. when trade cities will be in industrialized countries and none of them in routes changed such as in the case of Venice, the port cities Europe.lt is useful to be aware that compared with urban sys- of Flanders or the Hanseatic League. However, starting in the tems in other continents and nations the urban system in Eu- second half of the 18th century, an unprecedented wave of ur- rope is relatively balanced, and compared with the average ban growth swept over the continent. African, Asian, or South American city even the most serious problems of the cities in the Community appear light. Worsen- The economic transition: This primary phase of urbaniza- ing living conditions in Third World cities may encourage or tion first took place in the industrial cities of the British North- even force people to migrate to the gateway cities of the con- West in the second half of the 18th century, and during the fol- tinent. Consequently it is crucial for the future of the cities in lowing one hundred years spread to the continent, first to the Western Europe that the living conditions in the cities of the countries of North-West Europe, to the Netherlands, to Bel- Third World are improved. gium, North-West France and to Germany. lt took well into this century before massive industrialization started in North- European level ern ltaly and, after World War ll, in Southern Germany and The state of the urban system in Europe in 1960 reflected the Southern France. Large regions in the Mediterranean coun- historical processes which had transformed Europe into its tries of the Community are only now passing through this pri- cultural, economic, physical and political shape. Overall, the mary phase of the economic transition. urban system has not changed very much since then. Howev- er, during the last three decades a relatively shotl time in The demographic transition: Growing affluence and advanc- the history of Europe technological- and political innova- es in medicine and hygiene in the early 1gth century reduced tions have facilitated and- accelerated the internationalization mortality, in parlicular infant mortality with the effect that popu- of regional economies in Europe. This in turn has strength- lation growth accelerated and more people moved into the cit- ened or weakened the role and function of cities in Europe as ies to find jobs in the growing industry.

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