A city in motion: time‐space activity and mobility patterns of suburban inhabitants and the structuration of the spatial organization of the prague metropolitan area

Abstract

2007: A city in motion: Time-space activity and mobility patterns of suburban inhabitants and the structuration of the spatial organization of the Prague metropolitan area. Geogr. Ann., 89 B (2): 147-167.ABSTRACT. This contribution attempts to reveal the relations between new suburban areas and other parts of the Prague metropolitan area by investigating the time-space activity and mobility patterns of the inhabitants of newly built suburban districts. The focus on some aspects of the everyday life of people in new suburbs helps us to identify the impact of suburbanization on the changing geography of the metropolitan region and to better understand how the spatial organization of the Prague metropolitan area is produced, reproduced and transformed. We use several interrelated concepts, which serve the theoretical foundation of our work, namely time geography, structuration theory and the postcommunist city. The empirical data utilized are primarily based on 262 diaries completed by eighty-eight individuals from thirtyeight households, accompanied by household questionnaires and interviews with the heads of households. The research confirmed the implicit, generally unspoken view that new suburbs in the Prague metropolitan region are heavily dependent on the core of the metropolitan area for the provision of jobs and services. However, newly built suburban shopping facilities to some extent disrupt this pattern, keeping some daily activities of inhabitants within the suburban zone. In addition to empirical observations, the key purpose of this contribution has been to discuss and apply time geography concepts and methods to the research of urban restructuring, and to understand the structuration of metropolitan spatial organization.

Ethno-Political Effects of Suburbanization in the Vilnius Urban Region: An Analysis of Voting Behavior

“…Like many other formerly centrally planned cities in Europe, also Vilnius -the capital of Lithuania -is undergoing rapid suburbanization, a process which started right after 1990 (see Ubarevičienė et al 2011;Cirtautas 2013;Brade et al 2009). The processes of urban sprawl and outward mobility in Vilnius are quite similar to what can be observed in other post-Soviet countries (Boren and Gentile 2007;Novak and Sýkora 2007;Krišjāne and Bērziņš 2009).…”

“…Suppressed urbanization and rural retention during the Soviet period resulted in major changes in land use patterns after the introduction of the market economy in these states (Bertaud and Renaud 1997;Boren and Gentile 2007). One of the most significant features of this spatial process was urban expansion through the process of suburbanization (Nuissl and Rink 2005;Ouředníček 2007;Tammaru et al 2009;Kok and Kovács 1999;Leetmaa and Tammaru 2007;Novak and Sýkora 2007). Like many other formerly centrally planned cities in Europe, also Vilnius -the capital of Lithuania -is undergoing rapid suburbanization, a process which started right after 1990 (see Ubarevičienė et al 2011;Cirtautas 2013;Brade et al 2009).…”

Daily spatial mobility and transport behaviour in the Czech Republic: pilot study in the Písek and Bystrice and Pernštejnem regions

“…Beckmann et al 1993). Among the later studies, the application of time-geography methods in the study of the daily movement of inhabitants in the suburban areas of Prague and in rural areas was addressed in studies by Novák, Sýkora (2007) and Novák, Temelová (2012). More recent studies dealing with practical time-geography applications point to the new era of research techniques in time-geography, which is directly related to the spreading of ICTs (Murakami, Wagner 1999).…”

Cated Box, una tecnología para hacer estudios de movilidad 2.0

“…Clásicamente, las fuentes de información de estos estudios han sido la monitorización de vías mediante cámaras (Archetti, 2006) (Schrank, 2011) (Klakhaeng, 2011) o sensores en el asfalto (Kent, 2010), encuestas (York, 2006) (Novák, 2007) o simplemente mediante modelos (Singh, 2006) dependiendo el objetivo del estudio de movilidad.…”