The Routledge Handbook of Small Towns

The Routledge Handbook of Small Towns addresses the theoretical, methodical, and practical issues related to the development of small towns and neighbouring countryside. Small towns play a very important role in spatial structure by performing numerous significant developmental functions for rural areas. At the local scale, they act as engines for economic growth of rural regions and as a link in the system of connections between large urban centres and the countryside. The book addresses the role of small towns in the local development of regions in countries with different levels of development and economic systems, including those in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, and Australia. Chapters address the functional structure of small towns, relations between small towns and rural areas, and the challenges of spatial planning in the context of shaping the development of small towns. Students and scholars of urban planning, urban geography, rural geography, political geography, historical geography, and population geography will learn about the role of small towns in the local development of countries representing different economic systems and developmental conditions.

Introduction SECTION 1: Small Towns: Theoretical Background and Research Issues 1. The Functions and Local Linkages of Small Towns: A Review of Selected Classifications and Approaches to Research 2. Small Towns in Settlement Systems: A Return to the Foreground? 3. Small Towns: Theoretical Background and Research Issues – Perspectives from the United States 4. Small Towns: Theoretical Background and Research Issues. Exploring the Diversity of Small Towns in France 5. Spanish Small Towns: Evolution, Functional Structure, and Characterisation 6. Determining Villages’ Status and Their Economic Functions: The Case of Mongolia SECTION 2: The Role and Significance of Small Towns in Socio-Economic Development 7. The Small Romanian Towns: From Creative Destruction to Destructive Creation and Back? 8. From Informal to Formal: Towards the Sustainable Transformation of Small Towns in Africa 9. Small, but Resilient: A Case Study of the Town of Utazu, Kagawa, Japan 10. The Natural and Migration Movements Versus Population Ageing in Poland’s Small Towns 11. Performance of Small Towns in an Economically Lagging Region: A Case Study of the Spiš Region, Slovakia 12. Small Towns in the Energy Transition Era: Local Drivers for Climate Change Adaptation? 13. Contemporary Status of Small Towns in Bulgaria: Functions and Role in the Development of Rural Regions SECTION 3: Small Towns in Rural Space 14. Changing Urban–Rural Relations in Israel’s Periphery 15. Urban–Rural Linkages: An Inquiry into Second-Home Tourism in the Nordics 16. New Rural–Urban Relationships of Small Towns in North-Western Germany 17. Small Regional Centres at the Periphery of Switzerland: Porrentruy and Brig-Glis 18. Small Towns in Rural Space: The Case of Czechia 19. Urban Growth Engines or Relational Proximity? What Can We Learn From Enterprise Population and Business Demography Indicators in the Context of Rural and Small-Town Scotland? 20. The Role of Farmers in Small-Town Community Development in an Age of Austerity: Reflections from Australasia 21. Agri-Food Workers: Transnational Connections in Small Towns and Rural Areas SECTION 4: The Small Towns Planning Challenges 22. Inter-Municipal Spatial Planning as a Tool to Prevent Small-Town Competition: The Case of the Emilia-Romagna Region 23. Ukrainian Small Cities in the Perspective of Sustainable Spatial Planning 24. Small Town Survival in Rural Australia: A New England Case Study 25. Technologies of Government and Policy Implementation in Small Towns Economic Development Plans in Mpumalanga, South Africa 26. Small Towns in the Planning System: The Experience of the United States 27. Disturbing the Creation of a Spatial System: Outside Intervention and Urbanization in the Republic of the Marshall Islands 28. Challenges of Local Planning in Peruvian Small Towns: The Example of Alexander von Humboldt Town in the Amazonian Basin

Jerzy Bański is Professor of Human Geography and since 2018 Director of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences (IGSO PAS). His main research interests include rural and agricultural geography, land use, regional policy, and spatial organization and local development. Between 2006 and 2012 he was President of the Polish Geographical Society. In 2017 he was appointed Chairman of the Commission of Local and Regional Development under the International Geographical Union. He is an author of 390 publications, including 24 books and more than 190 papers with review processes. He has co-ordinated over 40 research projects and is a member of 35 other national and international undertakings (such as FP6, FP7, Horizon, ESPON).