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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Polarization and suburbanisation in Warsaw

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The economic transition in Poland leads to a restructuration of economic activities which affects spatial patterns of cities, especially in Warsaw. Analyzing the location and re-location of population and employment in Poland’s capital allows to enlarge the debate on the suburbanization forms to the Central and Oriental European Countries. The results support the fact that the city center is still largely the most important district in terms of population andemployment, so that in 1999 the city keeps a strong monocentric character. However, from 1994 to 1999, population and employment move towards the Warsaw’s suburbs. Two significant observations, namely the suburbanization of retailing and population services, and the emergence of a specialized CBD, clearly reflect an evolution towards the muhicentric model. The rapidity of the movements suggests the existence of a catching-up process. Thus, the geography of employment changes in Warsaw reveals an original evolution. For historicreasons, the center is still strongly dominant, but a number of usually observed trends of suburbanization emerge.