The process of transformation took place in the urban environ-ment in a more dynamic way than in the countryside, and even the expressions and impacts of these changes are more widespread, but different in terms of content (and values), which was related to Slovakia’s specif ic features, its settlement and the size/specif ic features of the towns. The transformation of towns is a double transformation, which is also about the return to the long-term
trends in the growth of population centres, which began at the turn of the 20thcentury and were blocked during the socialist peri-od. In Slovak towns, not only the conditions for internal growth after 1989, but also the specif ic conditions for the integration of towns and town areas into supra-regional and global structures, as well as the impacts of globalisation were apparent.
At the beginning of the 1990s, it was already possible to identi-fy in Slovakia a return to a certain natural growth in population centres, to the strengthening of the self-governing authority of population centres, as well as changes in the development trajec-tories of population centres at different spatial levels and types of settlement. It has to be pointed out, however, that towns and their urban environment showed a similarity with the situation in the western part of Europe, with their gradual industrial urbanisation at the end of the 1980s, despite differences in conditions for deve -lopment during the socialist period. This can be explained by the fact that industrialisation inevitably led to the same consequences everywhere, such as the migration from villages to towns, subur-banisation, the spread of the urban network, the integration of vil-lages into town agglomerations, etc. (Pašiak, 1990).
The urban settlement structure was characterised from the beginning of the 1990s on the one hand by a certain stabilisation in urban population centres which turned to a fall after 2000 (if we consider mainly the quantitative indicator of population); on the other hand, the economic and innovative position of towns increased, for example, according to the number of job opportu-nities in different sectors of the economy, in their information capacities, in the quantity of people travelling here for work and for their facilities etc.
Developmental changes in towns in Slovakia are associated with a set of socio-spatial problems linked to the shaping of the new physicospatial and sociospatial structure of towns, to a reevalu ation of the functions of individual town spaces, as well as to resi -dential mobility, resi-dential segregation (accelerated socio-eco-nomic differentiation of society), residential and commercial sub-urbanisation, the need to resolve the problems of town centres (turning into f inancial cities), as well as to housing estates and their revitalisation etc.
Changes took place in the status of towns within the structure of population centres as well as in the relations between towns.
Transformation led to the end of previous networks of relations between population centres organised by the state, which were partially replaced by market-orientated relations. Towns were in competition for high quality human resources and f inances, par-ticularly foreign investments. At the same time, however, population centres – towns in particular – joined intermunicipal coope -ration and integ-ration programmes. However, differences between different types and size categories of towns remain (or are even widening), which is a result both of their realistic poten-tial and of their spapoten-tial localisation. Bratislava’s position in par-ticular is specif ic, as an area with important potential for growth not only in the national context, but also in a Central European and European context.
At the beginning of the period of transformation, our towns were often exposed to the need to radically change their econo mic base and replace their usual industrial base with another econo -mic sector. These were often diff icult changes with signif icant impacts not only on employment but also on the reorganisation of the economic and social lives of the town and its population. The effects on the towns and their populations were not always easy to deal with and resulted in a more or less signif icant social impact, not only in the town, but also in its catchment area (often the dist -rict), considering the economic connections between this area and the towns.
The greatest change and developmental trend for towns in Slovakia is the signif icant change in their population growth, which was one of the important characteristics and conditions for growth for towns in Slovakia at the end of the 1980s. Since the middle of the 1990s, the situation in Slovakia has relatively clearly signalled the end of the population growth of towns, the end of urbanisation in its concentrated form, and the passage to a new developmental trajectory of town population growth. Towns in Slovakia in the 1990s began to lose inhabitants as a result of the rapid ageing of their population, as well as due to people moving to the countryside. The trend of leaving towns is also related to people’s changing values in relation to housing and preferences for where to settle. Interest has grown for living in places with a good environment, with certain social and security qualities, in smaller areas with good access to jobs, and to the facilities, cul-ture and schools of towns.
After 1990, the social situation of people in towns changed, which was ref lected in the area of housing. The upper and classes in formation reacted to new opportunities and changed their housing estate life, which did not meet their spatial, func-tional or even aesthetic criteria for housing, and started looking for a more suitable environment to meet their hou sing-related ideas. For wealthier town inhabitants, there is a tendency to move away from housing estates and to look for a “higher qual-Figure 3: Development of the share of urban and rural population (1880–2014) (%)
Source: Gajdoš–Pašiak, 1995; years 2001, 2010 a 2014 by Statistical Office of SR Figure 4: Ageing index in urban and rural areas in Slovakia (1996–2014) (%)
Source: The author's own edition based on data of the Statistical Office of SR
ity” of housing, particularly in the newly-founded locations of estates with family houses in the suburbs and near the towns;
this f irst applied to Bratislava, but is now the case for all large towns.
Towns still retain a certain qualitative lead in potential, condi-tions for growth, infrastructure, and today the dynamics of their development are much higher than in the countryside. Mainly larger towns have greater economic and social potential. Their economic basis is diversif ied with a strong percentage of activi-ties in the tertiary and quaternary sectors. These towns are cur-rently the centres of areas or regions and, for individual regions in today’s globalised world, act as intermediaries of ideas coming from abroad. Large towns have better social and technical infra-structure and a more favourable demographic and educational population structure. It is clear that larger towns and their regions have better conditions for a successful transformation process. Current tendencies in urban areas will probably conti -nue to increase, mainly for the benef it of Bratislava, Košice and regional capitals.
Towns are taking up the position of the preferred type of popu lation cent re. It is justif ied by the fact that in the main the ab -sence of larger towns is an important obstacle to the develop-ment of regions in Slovakia, regions which might concentrate activities, investors and become an activating pole for the growth of the entire regions. In the case of southern, north-eastern and eastern Slovakia, this is multiplied by the insuff icient size of the transport infrastructure, its position at the edge of the country and its neighbouring position with the less developed regions of neighbouring countries. The need to focus in priority on the development of towns which might have the function of “deve -lopment leader” for their district (region) has been pointed out.
Since the town structure, mainly in little-developed regions of Slovakia, is founded on small or medium-sized towns, this func-tion cannot be fulf illed. On top of this, investors mainly prefer towns in western Slovakia, mainly because of the quality of their human resources and state of their infrastructure.
From the 1990s onwards, we note a whole range of internal differentiating processes in – mainly large – towns, which are ref lected in their socio-spatial and functional situations. We note socio-spatial pressures of a segregational nature, as well as
a new evaluation of the function of individual town areas, in many cases under the pressure of increased commercialisation.
The result is that certain functions are increasingly pushing out less prof itable activities, leading to changes in the functional use of town centres in particular, to a large decrease in housing and facilities. The important reinforcement of the tertiary function is taking place at the cost of the gradual weakening of the residen-Figure 5: Crude rate of the natural increase of urban and rural population in Slovakia (2003–2014) (%)
Source: The author's own edition based on data of the Statistical Office of SR
Figure 6: Crude migration rate of the population in urban and rural Slovakia (2003–2014) (%)
Source: The author's own edition based on data of the Statistical Office of SR
tial function and a fall in population in these parts of towns.
Social polarisation, an increase in differences between individual classes of urban society is becoming more intensive. This can be seen in the creation of residential areas with luxury housing (e.g.
gated communities), as well as areas of towns where socially vul-nerable people are concentrated (a typical example is Luník IX.
in Košice).
The development of towns was more and more inf luenced by the intensif ication of the processes of suburbanisation and de-urbanisation, which are moreover very selective socially and spa-tially, and from which only certain categories of population and rural settlements prof it. (Gajdoš–Moravanská, 2011)In the condi-tions present in Slovakia, where the suburbanisation process was delayed by blocking its natural development during the socialist period, we can talk about several stages in this process which dif-fer both socially and spatially, and in terms of their consequences.
In the f irst stage, this concerned mainly the rich inhabitants of larger towns, who left for the nearby rural hinterland of the town;
in terms of space, this process was concentrated mainly in the sur-roundings of Bratislava, and partially of Košice. In the second stage, the majority of towns in Slovakia took part in this process (isochronic in terms of time or distance), and even the size of the rural area affected by the process of suburbanisation was much larger. Mainly young people and young families, together with people with a higher socio-economic status left towns for subur-ban locations in Slovakia. Today, we can note a further shift in the development of housing preferences, particularly among the high-est social classes. Satellite towns have been gradually left behind by the rich population who have moved to areas of town with high-quality villa housing or family residences in attractive loca-tions in the town. Social prestige purveyed by a “good address” is increasing in importance. It appears that the large wave of subur-banisation is beginning to calm down in Slovakia, mainly around larger towns, and the inf luence of re-urbanisation is beginning to show. This is also inf luenced by changes in the centres of towns, which are being physically and functionally revived by processes of commercialisation, as well as by the creation of specif ic areas in inner towns, revitalised by the process of gentrif ication. However, this concerns only a certain number of towns in Slovakia and a small number of town areas (Gajdoš, 2013)
This momentum of built-up development is again considerably penalizing the less developed regions of south-eastern Slovakia, dominated by districts founded according to the structure of small rural settlements with small towns of a predominantly rural nature. In this environment, the status of towns is different from that in the western part of Slovakia, and the effects of suburbani-sation are also more modest.