Institute of Regional Studies

The paper examines regional development differences in Hungary from several aspects and with more methods. It places Hungary in the world-wide and European development area, describing definite regional differentiation, typical of the last decade. Authors use topologic mapping to illustrate development and space structure geographically. The space organizing effect of spatial relations have been analysed by gravitation and potential models, revealing space structural schemes within the country and in the Middle Eastern European area.

The political and economic changes came about on the turn of the 1980s and 90s formed a new spatial structure in Central-Europe, and after fifteen years it seems to become stable. We already know the formation of the regional disparities in this area, but what about the field shaped by social and economic spatial interactions? In this study I make an attempt to map this forcefield with the application of the potential model. Accordingly I analyze the effect of the western part of the area on Eastern-Central-Europe: how does it influence its position in the potential field. Beside I try to compare the economic potential structure with the frame of the population forcefield and search local centers in Eastern-Central-Europe which can counterbalance the effect of the western parts and can be dominant, not only in their close neighbourhood, but in a wider area. In the paper I pay emphasized attention to the position of Hungary in the potential field by comparison with the neighboring countries whose development was similar in the latest years.

The paper investigates the basic issues of the application of potential model. Within the framework of that, the author makes an attempt to review some of the essential problems of the model’s functional principles and theoretical verification, as well some distinctiveness of its structure and special variations. The comprehensive knowledge of the model building helps to recognise the investigational problems between the space and the entities existing in it. The virtues and limits of the model don’t appear through a direct opposition, but they are shown in an indirect way, according to the purpose of the author, by the exploration and valuation of the model’s typical issues of use. By emphasizing the relationship between masses and distances, which can be confirm empirically, the potential model helps to discover those characteristics of the social structures, which are often hidden. The complex system of field of applications alludes to the variegation of the model and the potential concept, besides reveals its position and role in the spatial analysis especially in the investigation of spatial interactions.

In the course of describing regional aspects of social and economic state of development, and exploring its disparities, we can often formulate the question, what forms the spatial characteristics of these phenomenons. When we look for the explanatory factors, we have to analyse a complex system according to the complex components of development, like economic and social aspects, political situation, etc. The state of development of an area can be determined by not only the local conditions mentioned above, but by the location as well. And its relations can be explained in wider range, for example: place, distance from the capital and other economic centres, neighbourhood conditions, etc.
Location as an independent variable can be defined by the potential model, which doesn’t value the spatial phenomenons themselves, but it takes them into a system, whose elements have their influence on one another; in this way the model has an important role in the investigation of spatial interactions.
Comparing personal per capita income data (which is a good measure to inquire about the developmental conditions) of Hungarian statistical subregions with income potentials, we can answer how location determines development. Besides, analysing the relationship between them, we can supply those aspects,  which characterize several typical groups of subregions, and the characteristics of these types help to refine the image of state of development of the Hungarian subregions.

Education is one of the most important elements of social development and the way of regional disparities of opportunities. Inequalities in erudition have decreased a lot in the last decades in Hungary, as we considerthe lower levels of education, while regional disparitiesof higher education remained significant. As a whole, they mirror disparities of social and economic framework, while these inequalities are much higher among branches of higher education, which, in general all have their proper spatial characteristics. Enrolment ratio to universities and colleges from a given area is determined by various factors of social life, among others the level of qualification as such, income position, unemployment status or accessibility. These elements are strongly  interconnected and constitute a complex system, whose investigation helps to understand the role of culture in forming spatial frameworks.

In the course of describing regional aspects of social and economic state of development, and exploring its disparities we can look for dimensions which form spatial characteristics of these phenomena. Relative location as a factor of development can be defined by the potential model, which doesn’t value spatial phenomena themselves, but it takes them into a system, whose elements have their influence on one another; in this way the model has an important role in the investigation of spatial interactions.
Changes of relative location in Europe at the late nineties and at the beginning of the new millennium show that the locational benefits of European core regions have decreased, while geographical and economic peripheries, like Central and Eastern Europe have reached a moderate improvement in their locational position. As the new member EU states of Central and Eastern Europe (and the candidate countries) constitute in many respects a common group – their way through the changes of the levels of development and of relative location is very similar – they can become the subject of an aimed examination which tests the role of operating factors in regional scale in the formation of spatial interactions. Were the unique features of these countries themselves the main factor of shaping trends of the changes of relative location? Or does it rather relate to other regions of Central and Eastern Europe outside the certain country? Or regions of the western European economic core – who otherwise dominate the European potential space – also have key position in forming interaction tendencies of the eastern periphery? Answering these questions helps us orientate ourselves about the main characteristics of the framework of the changing locational positions in Europe, especially in the case of the new member EU states of Central and Eastern Europe.

Issues of spatial inequalities are not just particular and partial questions of regional policy and spatial development. Reflecting on recent or bygone events and development efforts in Hungary, we can see how the aim and idea of the progress and integration of Hungary emerges almost in every period. Essentially, it just means the need to catch up with the western part of the continent both in the sense of economic development and mentality or in the operation of social institutions (in a ‘European’ way – Europe means of course here Western Europe). Hungary’s lag is factual in every respect, even without idealising the characteristics of the core areas of the continent. Up to date and current knowledge of
the nature of these inequalities is necessary to help regional political decisions. Moreover, for these issues, it may well be worth considering new techniques and perspectives, which could lead to new relevant findings.
The aim of this paper is to present some actual connections of the Hungarian spatial structure and the characteristics of spatial inequalities. For this, it uses the statistical information background and analytical set of tools already proven in former research – also evaluated in the preliminaries (Nemes Nagy 1987, 2005). Moreover, the study illustrates the use of some representational methods and modelling of spatial interactions in answering different questions regarding spatial inequalities.

2009. október 7. és 9. között harmadik alkalommal került megrendezésre a Közép-Európai Regionális Tudományi Konferencia (CERS -Central European Conference in Regional Science). A kétévente megszervezett eseménynek Szlovákia ad otthont, azonban a korábbi alkalmaktól eltér ően idén a helyszínválasztás nem a fest ői elhelyezkedésű tátrai üdülőfalura, a Gerlachfalvi-csúcs lábánál fekv ő Nov , Smokovecre esett. A szervez ő egyetem (Technická Univerzita v Kogiciah) -melynek gazdaságtudományi karán működik Szlovákia egyik neves regionális tudományi műhelyeúgymond 'hazahozta' a rendezvényt, amelynek helyszíne így Kassa városa lett.

A Tér és Társadalom új szerkesztősége 2011-től vette át a szerkesztési munkákat. Az elmúlt egy év tapasztalatai alapján a folyóiratot tág szakmai kör forgatja, a Tér és Társadalom a hazai regionális tudomány legfontosabb fóruma, de emellett interdiszciplináris folyóirattá nőtte ki magát az elmúlt huszonöt évben. Ennek a sokszínűségnek a bemutatására egy rövid összeállítást közlünk a folyóirat tavalyi szerzőiről és lektorairól.

In this study I make an attempt to map the economic and population forcefield of Central Europe with the application of the potential model. Accordingly I analyse the effect of the western part of the area on East-Central Europe in a core-periphery relation: how does it influence its position in the potential field. Beside I try to search local centres in East-Central Europe (both in the economic and population forcefield), which can counterbalance the effect of the western parts. I pay emphasized attention to the position of Hungary by comparison with neighbouring countries whose development was similar in the latest years.

The effect of borders can have important impact on the possibilities of spatial development. Many theoretical, methodological and empirical questions can arise about the investigation of this phenomenon and about the interpretation of it. In this domain of interests the issues of integration processes and their relation to borders (and border effects) have significant role. In this study, focusing primarily on border areas, many important and popular methods of analysing the effect of economic integration are presented. One of the most spectacular methods – the potential model – is investigated in detail in order to analyse the theoretical crossborder effect of the most important economic centres on the border areas of Hungary. 

A budapesti barnamezős -rozsdaövezeti -területek vizsgálata gazdag múltra tekint vissza, számos szerző és kutatócsoport foglalkozott a problematikával . Jelen kutatásunk egy 2002-es átfogó vizsgálat eredményeire épült, amely az évezred elején feltárta Budapest rozsdaövezetének kialakulását, alapvető területi és térszerkezeti adottságait, az átalakulás folyamatát működtető szereplőket és mechanizmusokat, valamint a kapcsolódó gazdasági aktivitás volumenét, illetve tevékenységstruktúráját ( . A 2011-ben végrehajtott kutatásunk elsődlegesen a 2002 óta bekövetkezett változásokat rögzítette.