Innovation and Urban Population Dynamics

This comparative overview of urban population changes in Europe covers the last two centuries and identifies a sequence of progressive "stages" of urban development which one set of cities has gone through while others are just entering it. More in-depth analysis based on recent data reveals similarities as to subsequent concentration and deconcentration trends in the urban systems of economically advanced countries like France, Germany, Sweden or Italy, while others, like Turkey or the Eastern European urban systems are still in the concentration phase. The position of national urban systems in an "urban life cycle" is closely correlated with the respective countries' position in Europe's "first" and "second" demographic transition. The impact of the "second" transition (ie the de-institutionalization of traditional family life and the emergence of "new", "modern" life styles and household types) on recent and future urban development is analyzed. A theoretical and empirical approach of multi-level analysis is developed deriving assumptions on macro-spatial changes from the analysis of dynamic micro-behavioural processes.