The changing structure of the central place system in trøndelag, norway, over the past 40 years – viewed in the light of old and recent theories and trends

Abstract

Dale, B. and Sjøholt, P., 2007: The changing structure of the central place system in Trøndelag, Norway, over the past 40 yearsviewed in the light of old and recent theories and trends. Geogr. Ann., 89 B (S1): 13-30.ABSTRACT. The IGU Symposium on Urban Geography in Lund in 1960 was a path-breaking event towards new nomothetic thinking within the discipline. In nearly half of the papers, the state of the art in central place research was presented and debated. The symposium was the main source of inspiration for a study of the central place system in Midt-Norge in the 1960s, a research project that has been followed up in stages over a 40-year period. The result is a unique collection of data, covering all central places in the region and the location of approximately 200 service functions of different categories in the 1960s, 1980s and c. 2000. Despite the profound changes that have taken place on the part of the consumer, as well as the supplier, the main structure of the central place hierarchy has been surprisingly stable. However, when looking at the growth and decline of each of the different service functions, considerable dynamics have been found. There are tendencies of centralization/concentration as well as decentralization/dispersion. Furthermore, the functional division of labour by vertical steps and tiers in the 1960s has been supplemented by horizontal specialization between places, and also in the lower levels of the central place hierarchy. In this paper, we present and discuss some of the main changes that have taken place in the system in the light of older and newer theories and trends.

Central settlements in Slovenia in 2016

“…Despite a different methodology used, our findings agree with those in a study carried out in Norway, in which Dale and Sjøholt (2007) used a definition of central settlements based on commercial and noncommercial functions within walking distance to determine that specialized services and market-oriented functions are especially concentrated in settlements with a high level of centrality, where competitiveness thus comes to the fore. On the other hand, places with a low level of centrality lose market services and retain only basic functions such as schools and general stores.…”

Gendered spaces on trial: the influence of regional gender contracts on in‐migration of women to rural norway

“…Furthermore, the amount of leisure and number of cultural events on offer in Valdres is much greater than would be expected in a remote and sparsely populated area such as this (cf. Dale and Sjøholt 2007 for the specificities of the Norwegian central place hierarchy). According to the locals, the local centre has a wider assortment of commodities than any of the nearest towns, which are ten times larger in terms of population.…”

External Urban Relational Process: Introducing Central Flow Theory to Complement Central Place Theory

“…Be that as it may, the basic processes identified in central place theory continue unabated whether or not social scientists choose to study them: there is a spatial patterning to consumer society that continues to be concentrated in central places (Dale and Sjøholt, 2007). We interpret central place theory as describing a generic urban process, one of relations between an urban place and its hinterland.…”