International audience ; The urban transport system is halfway between a residency and activity location system and a complex system of social relations and practices. It irrigates the town by responding to its changes. To a large extent, it actually enables change. Towns would not have been able to spread over such a wide area if walking or animal traction had been the only means of transport. However, this transport system also has its own dynamic comprising two types of competition. The first, which is as old as the town itself, is the competition for the use of the highways. The second has to do with technological development and is the competition between means of transport. Both interact in accordance with increasingly well-known mechanisms, to the extent that this dynamic can be represented by a simulation model. Such a model can be used to explore the possible future prospects for the transport system based on economic developments and alternative transport policies. ; Le système de transport urbain se situe à la jonction d'un système de localisation de l'habitat et des activités et d'un système complexe de pratiques et relations sociales. Il permet d'irriguer la ville en répondant à ses transformations. Dans une large mesure, il les autorise : l'étalement urbain n'aurait pas eu une telle ampleur avec la seule marche à pied ou la seule traction animale. Mais ce système de transport a aussi sa dynamique propre, qui rend compte d'une double compétition : l'une, aussi ancienne que la ville, est la compétition pour l'usage de la voirie ; l'autre, liée au développement des techniques, est la compétition entre les modes de transport. L'une et l'autre interagissent selon des mécanismes de mieux en mieux connus, au point que cette dynamique peut être représentée par un modèle de simulation. Celui-ci permet d'explorer les avenirs possibles du système de transport selon les évolutions du contexte économique et les politiques de transport alternatives.
The development of the town of Monreal and its later urban growth can be observed and, in a certain manner, explained through several of its functions as end of a stage in the Compostelan road, the town being a center of coinage and a military borough. The author analyses the five registers that have been preserved, which embrace the period from 1357 to 1384, nearly coincident with the reign of Charles II of Évreux. The activities of the Jewish "bankers" practically monopolyze the credits of the market, in a direct forro (74,5 %) as well as through their commercial exchanges (10,23 %). The Abolfada family controls nearly 40 % of the total number of credits negotiated in that market; the following families in importance are the Ensabrun, the Açaya and the Macarel. The clientele, estimated in somewhat more than a hundred persons, comes from Monreal and other little towns of the Lumbier-Aoiz valley. ; Desde las diversas funciones que desempeñó la villa de Monreal -final de etapa de la ruta de peregrinación, taller de acuñación monetaria y burgo castral- cabe observar y, en cierta medida, explicar su desarrollo y posterior trayectoria urbana. El autor analiza los cinco registros del sello conservados, que cubren el período de 1357 a 1384, casi coincidente con el reinado de Carlos II de Évreux. Tanto de forma directa (74,5 %), como a través de las compraventas (10,23 %), la intervención de los "banqueros" judíos casi monopoliza la actividad crediticia de este mercado. La familia Abolfada es la que controla casi el 40 % del número de créditos negociados en este mercado; le siguen en importancia los Ensabrun, Açaya y Macarel. La clientela, estimada en algo más de un centenar, procede de Monreal y de otros pequeños lugares de la cuenca de Lumbier-Aoiz.
International audience ; Feurs, the ancient Forum Segusiavorum , chieftown of the Segusiavi , was the first important stop on the Roman road leading to Aquitaine, 50 km west of Lyon. Our knowledge of the history and the urbanisation of the Gallo-Roman town has progressed considerably in recent years, due to systematic archaeological recording since the late 70's. This paper presents evidence for one of the most important public buildings of the town' the forum . Besides the identification of a tripartite plan, already well known in the western provinces of the Roman Empire, the main result from recent excavations is an early date for the forum (ca. 10/30 AD), which is based on stratigraphical observations. The perfect coherence of the plan of the monument shows that the scheme of the tripartite forum was already well-established in Gallia Lugdunensis in the first decades of the Empire. The main results obtained about the spatial organization of the Roman town are also discussed, and it appears that the forum is the central point from which the layout of the city was planned. ; La ville de Feurs — l'antique Forum Segusiavorum , chef-lieu de la cité des Ségusiaves — était la première étape importante le long de la voie d'Aquitaine, à 50 km à l'ouest de Lyon. La connaissance de l'histoire et de l'urbanisme de la ville antique a largement progressé à la suite de la politique de prévention archéologique mise en place depuis la fin des années 1970. On expose ici la documentation rassemblée sur l'un des plus importants édifices publics de la ville : le forum . Outre l'identification d'un plan tripartite, classique dans les provinces occidentales de l'Empire, associant en un ensemble cohérent espace sacré (temple entouré d'une galerie à cryptoportiques), place centrale (bordée de larges portiques abritant des « boutiques ») et groupe basilique-curie, le principal apport des fouilles récentes est la datation précoce du forum (vers 10/30 après J.-C.), déterminée par des arguments stratigraphiques. Alliée à la cohérence du ...
Thèse rédigée entre 1987 et 1991 et corrigée en 2010 (illustrations cartographiques numérisées) ; The doctoral thesis third cycle in geography examines the role stopovers trading in groundnut colonial urbanization in Senegal. It is organized into four chapters. The first deals with the concept of Escale, founder of colonial urbanization, methods and tools of investigation and analysis of data from very varied sources. In the second, the analysis of formation mechanisms and prioritization localities shows the emergence of Kaffrine and Koungheul. The third focuses on the inclusion of this evolution on the space of towns and their hinterland. The fourth chapter is devoted to the role of communication networks on the urban dynamics and structural factors such as the relationship between towns and towns with their hinterland in the groundnut basin of Senegal Oriental. In conclusion, the thesis opens the link between political vision, acts of spatial planning on the development of human settlements. ; La thèse de doctorat de troisième cycle de géographie porte sur le rôle des escales de traite arachidière coloniales dans le processus d'urbanisation au Sénégal. Elle est organisée en quatre chapitres. Le premier porte sur le concept d'Escale, fondateur de l'urbanisation coloniale, les méthodes et outils d'investigation et d'analyse des données de sources très variées. Dans le deuxième, l'analyse des mécanismes de formation et de hiérarchisation des localités montre l'émergence de Kaffrine et Koungheul. Le troisième est consacré à l'inscription de cette évolution sur l'espace des localités et de leur hinterland. Le quatrième chapitre est consacré aux rôles des réseaux de communication sur la dynamique et l'armature urbaine comme facteurs structurants des relations entre les villes et les villes avec leur hinterland dans le bassin arachidier oriental du Sénégal. En conclusion, la thèse s'ouvre l'articulation entre la vision politique, les actes d'aménagement du territoire sur l'évolution des établissements humains.
Village Renewal on the Left Bank of the Rhone between Drome and Durance. The author is concerned with the causes and forms of village renovation in the Rhone Valley. The population of this region, which since the middle of the last century, had diminished, is now beginning to increase, due to the creation of residential suburbs in the villages peripheral to urban centers and to the restoration of abandoned villages. The agglomeration composed of Avignon and its surrounding towns illustrates the classical procedure by which suburbs develop in relation to housing policies, and also shows the effects of urban expansion on village structure and dimension. New relations between the town and the surrounding countryside, and also between urban and rural residents of villages, are formed, and the resulting urbanization, considered in the light of Juillard's definitions, is either that produced by "urbanizing" towns whose influences penetrate the countryside and contribute to its evolution, or that of "insular" industrial centers who do not stimulate their surroundings. The population of the Rhone Valley has grown not only because of the expansion of urban agglomerations but also because of the renovation of abandoned farms and villages by part-time residents of urban origin, tourists, artists and anti-social non-conformists. By their example, the newcomers encourage the local inhabitants to preserve and exploit the natural and historical assets of their region. Four cases are described in detail to show the different ways in which abandoned villages have been revived. In conclusion, the author deplores the creation of villages without villagers, where residents of urban origin have completely replaced native inhabitants and have transformed the site to meet urban needs and desires; he feels that villages where occupants and visitors of diverse origins are associated promise a more durable form of rural renovation.
El estudio del cólera morbo en municipios con menos de 1000 habitantes abre la posibilidad de realizar análisis comparativos. Este es el caso de las localidades de Beire, Murillo el Cuende y Pitillas, con nexos político-administrativos y eclesiásticos, además de compartir la cuenca del río Cidacos de Navarra. Sobre un contexto compartido, el artículo muestra el desigual impacto de las tres epidemias de cólera en estos municipios y su intensidad respecto a otras enfermedades infectocontagiosas. Todo ello se pone en relación con los factores causales a los que hacen referencia las autoridades locales y médicos, y con las medidas adoptadas por cada municipio para su control. El estudio pone de manifiesto la reducción progresiva de su incidencia sobre la mortalidad y de la relevancia de otras enfermedades epidémicas sobre la evolución de la población, así como de factores exógenos: crisis de subsistencia y consecuencias económicas de las guerras carlistas. ; The morbid cholera research in towns with less than 1000 inhabitants opens the chance of making comparative analysis. This is the case of towns such as Beire, Murillo el Cuende and Pitillas, which have political, administrative and ecclesiastical links, as they are all located in the Cidacos basin of Navarre. Taking into account the shared context of these places, the article the unequal impact of the three cholera epidemic waves on each one of them and the intensity of this disease with respect other infectious diseases. All this is put in relation with the causal factors to which local authorities and doctors refer to, and with the measures taken by each town to fight back. There is clear evidence of the progressive decease of its incidence over mortality and of the importance of other epidemic diseases over the evolution of population, as well as of other exogenous factors: subsistence crisis and economic consequences due to the Carlist Wars.
The history of Europe in the 20th century is closely tied to the history of urban planning. Social and economic progress but also the brute treatment of people and nature throughout Europe were possible due to the use of urban planning and the other levels of spatial planning. Thereby, planning has constituted itself in Europe as an international subject. Since its emergence, through intense exchange but also competition, despite country differences, planning has developed as a European field of practice and scientific discipline. Planning is here much more than the addition of individual histories; however, historiography has treated this history very selective regarding geography and content. This book searches for an understanding of the historiography of planning in a European dimension. Scholars from Eastern and Western, Southern and Northern Europe address the issues of the public led production of city and the social functions of urban planning in capitalist and state-socialist countries. The examined examples include Poland and USSR, Czech Republic and Slovakia, UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain, Italy, and Sweden. The book will be of interest to students and scholars for Urbanism, Urban/Town Planning, Spatial Planning, Spatial Politics, Urban Development, Urban Policies, Planning History and European History of the 20th Century
Bringing together essays from leading experts who analyze how the landscapes, images, social dynamics, and economies of the industrial city have changed through boom and bust, this volume covers a wide range of subjects, from car cities to steel towns, from visualization of industrial cities in avant-garde art to the role of industrial heritage in urban regeneration. In total, 'Industrial Cities' makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how the past shapes the future; it will be of interest not only to urban and economic historians, but also to social geographers and policy makers
Analysiert werden die Sozialstruktur und mögliche soziale Veränderungen in vier Hafenstädten um 1800: Altona, Kiel, Rostock und Wismar. Als Quellen dienen Einwohnerlisten und Steuerregister, aus denen über 70.000 Fälle in die Datenbasis aufgenommen wurden und die nach einer statistischen Auswertung Auskunft über die Arbeitssituation und die wirtschaftliche Stärke der Haushalte geben. Ausgehend von den Systemen der Besteuerung in Holstein und Mecklenburg sowie von der Entwicklung sozialer Polarisation werden im Ergebnis unterschiedliche Profile der vier Städte ausgemacht: Altona war ein Zentrum für Handel, Verkehr und Bankwesen; Kiel eine Handels- und Universitätsstadt; Rostock ein Zentrum von Verkehr und Handel, ergänzend auch als Universitätsstadt; Wismar eine Stadt des Handels und Verkehrs, obgleich weniger wichtig als die anderen Städte. Während Altona und Rostock wirklich wichtige Seehäfen mit vergleichbaren Funktionen in Handel und Dienstleistungen waren, bewahrte Kiel mehr eine traditionelle soziale Struktur. Wismar blieb zurück mit unterentwickelten Dienstleistungen und einem vergleichsweise hohen Anteil an ungelernter Arbeit. ; The research project Seaports in Northern Germany in 1800 aimed to analyze the social structure and possible social change in four cities: Altona, Kiel, Rostock, and Wismar. The sources are census lists and tax registers from which about 70,000 cases were written into databases. Two items of social structure will be statistically analyzed in this article: employment and economic strength (measured in taxation) of the households. As a result, different profiles of the four cities can be traced. The vocational structure was urban as the first economic sector was unimportant, though there were some activities in fishing in Rostock and Wismar. The second and the third sector reached equal levels in Altona, Kiel, and Rostock, whereas in Wismar the third sector was clearly weaker. Within the second sector we mostly find conformity in the basic equipment with crafts on the following ranks of branches: 1. clothing, 2. building, 3. victualling, 4. timber- and woodcraft, 5. metal processing crafts. The third sector, however, shows special profiles with different ranks. Altona: 1. commerce, 2. transportation, 3. banking and insurances, 4. health and hygiene, 5. teaching and culture on equal level with accommodation; Kiel: 1. commerce, 2. teaching and culture, 3. transportation, 4. accommodation, 5. health and hygiene; Rostock: 1. transportation, 2. commerce, 3. teaching and culture, 4. accommodation, 5. health and hygiene; Wismar: 1. commerce, 2. transportation, 3. health and hygiene, 4. teaching and culture, 5. accommodation. Hence we may infer that Altona was a centre of commerce, transportation, and banking; Kiel a commercial and university city; Rostock a centre of transportation and commerce, additionally a university city; Wismar a town of commerce and transportation, though clearly less important than her sisters. Unskilled labour had significantly less importance in Altona and Rostock than in Kiel and Wismar, which indicates similarity in higher developed professionalised employment in both Altona and Rostock. Solvency, measured in taxation, reveals different patterns of social inequality. Calculated within the systems of taxation in Holstein and Mecklenburg, the lower classes were more numerous in Altona than in Kiel, the middle classes stronger in Kiel, whereas the upper classes reached equal proportions, but payed higher amounts in Altona. on a lower level, which is mainly due to a slightly digressive taxation in Mecklenburg, the same difference existed between Rostock and Wismar. Thus in the cities of Altona and Rostock social polarization was more significant than in Kiel and Wismar, which seem to have been more harmonious in their social structure. If we suppose that sophisticated services and proceeding social polarization were signs of preindustrial modernization, the four cities may be characterized as follows. Altona and Rostock were real seaports with similar functions in commerce and services. Kiel preserved a more traditional social structure, stabilized by its function as a university town. Wismar remained backward with underdeveloped services and a comparatively high proportion of unskilled labour. The databases allow further research, for example in demography or, combined with maps, in social geography.
The Argentinan Pampa has an image of vast and expanded fields structured around large farms of cereals production or breeding units. However, in the Province of Buenos Aires, around the south of the capital, the urban network structures an area of the size of nearly half of France. These areas are managed around medium-sized cities, chief towns of the district (partido) seat of local government (intendancia) and municipal (municipio) with what they call « pueblos ». In a context of centralized government, the theme of decentralization is at the heart of the political debate: Municipalities ask for more responsibilities but they have very low budget. But a detailed analysis of different situations illustrates patterns of a contrasting management: First municipios who merely deal with the affairs directly related to the central government (Necochea et Villarino). On the other hand, we can observe a municipio which acts as a main character of local development (Tandil). In this perspective, they try to build a regional project by supporting two systems: One with a social dimension and another one around economic dimension to resolve serious social and economic problems. ; La région pampéenne argentine a depuis l'Europe une image de vastes étendues agricoles très faiblement peuplées où se pratiquent l'élevage bovin et les grandes cultures (essentiellement le soja) sur de grandes exploitations. Pourtant, dans la Province de Buenos-Aires, au sud de la capitale, les villes maillent fortement un territoire qui représente près de la moitié de la France. Les périmètres de gestion combinent des villes moyennes ou des petites villes chefs-lieux d'un district (partido) siège du gouvernement local (intendencia) et de l'administration municipale (municipio) avec des villages (pueblos)'. Dans un contexte de forte centralisation du pouvoir, la thématique de la décentralisation est au cœur des débats politiques : les municipalités revendiquent davantage de compétences, mais elles disposent de marges de manœuvre réduites. Pourtant, une analyse détaillée de différentes situations conduit à repérer des modèles de gestion contrastés : d'une part, deux municipios qui se contentent de gérer les affaires courantes en lien direct avec le gouvernement central (Necochea et Villarino). D'autre part, un municipio acteur du développement territorial qui essaie de construire un projet de territoire (Tandil). En appui à ces processus de développement territorial, deux systèmes, l'un à dimension sociale et l'autre à dimension économique, ont un rôle essentiel dans la recherche de solutions aux lourdes problématiques économiques et sociales que connaît le pays. ; Fil: Albaladejo, Christophe Jacques. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Historia y Ciencias Humanas; Argentina ; Fil: Barthe, Laurence. Université de Toulouse; Francia ; Fil: Bustos, Roberto. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentina ; Fil: Iscaro, Mariano Ernesto. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina ; Fil: Petrantonio, Maria Marcela. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Argentina ; Fil: Taulelle, Francois. Université de Toulouse; Francia
Since the Industrial Revolution, cities and industry have grown together; towns and metropolitan regions have evolved around factories and expanding industries. New Industrial Urbanism explores the evolving and future relationships between cities and places of production, focusing on the spatial implications and physical design of integrating contemporary manufacturing into the city. The book examines recent developments that have led to dramatic shifts in the manufacturing sector – from large-scale mass production methods to small-scale distributed systems; from polluting and consumptive production methods to a cleaner and more sustainable process; from broad demand for unskilled labor to a growing need for a more educated and specialized workforce – to show how cities see new investment and increased employment opportunities. Looking ahead to the quest to make cities more competitive and resilient, New Industrial Urbanism provides lessons from cases around the world and suggests adopting New Industrial Urbanism as an action framework that reconnects what has been separated: people, places, and production. Moving the conversation beyond the reflexively-negative characterizations of industry, more than two centuries after the start of the Industrial Revolution, this book calls to re-consider the ways in which industry creates places, sustains jobs, and supports environmental sustainability in our cities. This book is available as Open Acess through https://www.taylorfrancis.com/.
Storm surge impacts on the Limfjord coasts of Denmark are exacerbated by the expansion of the Thyborøn Channel that causes increased water transport into the fjord from the North Sea. This, in combination with sea level rise, jeopardizes the strength of existing flood protection and challenges the local municipalities to implement additional measures. For the fjord towns of Thyborøn (pop. 2100, located towards the North Sea by the Thyborøn Channel) and Løgstør (pop. 4000, located approximately 80 km east from the North Sea) flood hazard, vulnerability, and risk assessments and mapping are combined with community resilience studies to provide the corresponding municipalities with a more elaborate knowledge platform for climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Community resilience is investigated in four dimensions (information & communication, community competence, social capital, and institutional capacity) from +25 semi-structured interviews conducted with local citizens, municipal level employees as well as national government officials. Despite facing the same flood hazards, the two communities have different h istories, social structures, and previous flood experiences and, accordingly, have different resilience strengths and limitations inherent. Thyborøn emerged over the past century as a fisheries town protected from the North Sea by large sea dikes constructed by the national government. Life in a harsh physical environment and no significant flood accounts in decades, means that neither the community nor the municipality perceives floods as any immediate threat. Municipal adaptation planning is slowly forming but hitherto without engaging the local community, and the town has no formal emergency preparedness plan. In contrast, the medieval town of Løgstør last experienced severe floods in 1981 and 2005 which led to the construction of a sea wall, community involvement, and detailed emergency management setup. The Thyborøn community has a reputation of 'acting on their own' and the citizens do not –neither individually nor collectively, ask e.g., the municipality for assistance. They do possess the ability to muster volunteers in large numbers when needed, however. Here, the current lack of information from the municipality is noticeable and community involvement, to go along with current scientific investigations for climate adaptation, will increase community resilience and allow for better and more integrated solutions. The Løgstør community resilience is strong as the locals are knowledgeable about the flood risk, have good work relations with the municipality, and have detailed disaster preparedness plans. The plans are not flexible which may limit the community resilience, however. In addition, amenity – or the attractiveness of the town to tourists and residents, is a strong factor to both the locals and the municipality and is weighed at almost equal level to safety and risk reduction in adaptation planning. More specifically this means that the heights of existing sea walls are a compromise between safety against floods and sea view. Thus, although the community is well prepared for the next extreme event and has the ability to recover, the level of protection indicates that floods may occur at unnecessary high frequencies thereby degrading the community resilience to an undesired extent. In conclusion, the study points to the potential in combining and merging natural and social science approaches for climate adaptation and disaster risk management to strengthen municipal decision-making, allow for better planning measures, and to strengthen community resilience.
Brody, a town today lying in Western Ukraine, became part of the Habsburg Empire following the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Until Austria-Hungary's collapse at the end of the First World War the town was right on the border with Poland (until 1795) and later with Russia (until 1918). This book embraces a timespan of almost 150 years, excluding the First World War. It examines Brody's economic and social history in the first two sections; the third section is dedicated to the perception of the town's Austrian past. The most important material which serves as the basis for this work are archival sources mainly holdings in L'viv, Vienna, Paris and Kraków as well as published sources such as statistics, administrative handbooks and travel reports. During the 18th and the early 19th century Brody was a major commercial hub in Central and Eastern Europe. Only in the last decades of the 19th century the city transformed from a centre of international trade and cultural importance into a peripheral town at the Galician-Russian border. Whether we should consider the case of Brody as a history of failure depends on one's perspective: From a macroeconomic point of view Brody's performance would not qualify as a success story, because the city failed to embrace an urbanisation and modernisation that was so characteristic for cities in this period. From the Galician perspective, however, the economical transformation of Brody was desirable, because the city's former international orientation had led to a certain self isolation from its Galician surroundings. Thus, from a regional point of view Brody's shrinking proved the city's successful integration into the social and political realities of the Crownland. Several features distinguished Brody from other Galician towns even at the beginning of the twentieth century. No other Austro-Hungarian town was so predominantly Jewish, with Roman-Catholic Poles and Greek-Catholic Ukrainians never accounting for more than a third of the total population. Moreover Brody continued to play a certain role in Jewish thinking, in Rabbinic-Talmudic scholarship as well as in the spread of the Haskalah in east central Europe. In close connection with the strong support of Brody's Jewish elites for the Enlightenment, the German language kept its importance many decades longer than in other Galician cities. However, by the outbreak of the First World War even Brody's Jewish elites had switched from an orientation towards the German-speaking centre of the Empire to a certain degree of auto-polonisation. Special to Brody was also the strong commitment of the city and its environs to Russophile currents, whereas in the rest of Galicia the Ukrainian national movement rapidly gained popularity at the turn of the century. The dichotomy between the extraordinary Brody and the typical Galician Brody wittingly or unwittingly shaped the city's perception in travel reports, literature and mental images. Today there are different ways of remembering Habsburg Brody. They mostly but not exclusively run along ethnic lines and omit the non-national. Sometimes the national narratives differ so much that we get the impression that they talk about completely different cities. Besides partly overlapping Ukrainian, Polish, Jewish, Austrian and Soviet lieux de mémoire we also find places where we can trace the town's former economic, administrative or cultural functions in present day Brody.
Significant geographical-demographic changes are characteristic for the region of Serbia in the second half of the 20th century, which were caused by a dynamic primary urbanization process, namely intense migrational trends between village and town. Expansion zones were formed around urban centers with total intense growth (both demographic and economic), which are mainly found in land areas of main development axes, whereby the (Sava) Danube-Morava one is the most significant. The importance of this development axis (not only in the demographic sense) is indicated by the fact that in this region (composed of districts which are located in the corridor zone) 3794.8 thousand people lived in 2002, which represents 50.6% of the population of Central Serbia and Vojvodina. Taking into consideration the territory it consists of, this zone is populated twice as much in average than the region of Serbia (without Kosovo) as a whole. Along with that, out of the five urban areas with more than 100 thousand people (large urban centers), four are located in this zone (Subotica, Novi Sad, Belgrade and Nis) and only Kragujevac is located somewhat on the outskirts in relation to it, but in its immediate proximity. Large town centers in corridor zone X concentrated as much as 41% of the Republic urban population in 2002. At the same time, a network of 32 settlements in the land area of this main development axis of Serbia which belong to the category of small and medium size towns, and which cover about 16% of the republic urban population should be added to this. Consequently this zone, as other concentrated population zones, which are formed around secondary development axes on the territory of Serbia, is identified as a region with significant population potential. For that very reason, there was an attempt in this paper to determine the role and significance of urban agglomerations on main development axes for possible demographic revitalization of Serbia. The significance of urban population arises from its quantitative and especially qualitative (structural) characteristics. This category of population of the Republic realizes significant growth (more than 10%) in the last two inter-census decades (1981-2002) regardless of the effects of demographic and socio-economic transitions and geo-political changes and their mainly negative influences as opposed to the total population of this region which realizes an apparent drop (of 3%). The drop of rural population is even more obvious (by about 16%) so its (future) role in possible demographic revitalization of Serbia is of secondary significance. As early as the seventies, the focus of main demographic processes (natality) shifted from rural to town populations. It is a fact that only the urban population of Serbia (without Kosovo) realized a positive natural growth in the nineties. However, it is interesting that large cities lost their precedence at the end of the twentieth century, namely negative natural growth appeared (Belgrade -1.5?, Novi Sad - 0.3? and Subotica - 5.4?) and in fact only small and medium towns provided natural replacement of its population. They participate with over 60% in total number of live births in urban areas, and having in mind that they are becoming the bearers of population reproduction, they can be viewed as the poles of future demographic revitalization of Serbia.
