Small Towns

This essay examines the governance of small towns in the United States. Small towns have received little attention in the public administration literature to date, yet 1 in 10 Americans still lives in one, representing roughly 75 percent of all municipalities in the United States and some 33 million people. Small towns are characterized as dense, multiplex networks that lend unique dynamics to local politics. However, they face significant social, economic, technological, and demographic trends that compromise towns’ prevailing frame of reference, fracture their networks, and alter the traditional setting of small-town governance. In the face of these issues, “thicker,” more active ways of engaging the public are needed to reknit community bonds and build civic capacity. Service learning for master of public administration students is proposed as a way to develop the emotional intelligence necessary to make sense of the complex social dynamics of small towns and to facilitate the hard work of building enabling relationships.

In India two factors override others by their sheer magnitude:
• a building is the outcome of a handmade craft tradition and not industrial production &
• the majority of the population lives in small towns and villages and builds without architects.
The architecture of Asha & Prabhakar Baste is relevant because it addresses itself to both these issues. Their process of construction forges links with the craftsmen; and their buildings are designed to be prototypes. Their style has a simplicity, rigor, and deductive logic that paves the way for a new vernacular.

(This essay argued for Design/Build at a time when it's acceptance was frowned upon by the Indian Institute of Architects)

This paper provides a review of recent themes in the investigation of small towns in South Africa. The paper is divided into two main sections of review and analysis. The first section furnishes an overview of the different types of research themes that have been engaged. It is argued that a narrow set of issues, mainly concerning economic expansion and change have formed the key vantage point from which to view small town South Africa. The second section outlines a range of research questions that require attention. It is argued that there is a need to more closely consider how small town knowledge production takes place and that research themes need to move beyond mere issues of economic development.

Convivencia is a specific historical term that has come to represent the idea of tolerant aand peaceful co-existence. Conflicts and Convivencia scrutinises the relations between cultural diversity and social conflicts and considers why some social conflicts are said to be inherently cultural. It does this through a ‘multi-scalar extended case study’ approach of the social construction of a problem and its solutions. This is an innovative approach that sheds light on the multiple local-global processes inherent to the phenomenon starting from an urban ethnography of a small town in Northern Catalonia.


This way the book analyses the simultaneously local-global transformation of migration and societies, connecting the local processes of production of space and place making with the larger processes of migration, economic crisis and social transformation, and finally, the responses to these changes from institutions, NGOs and social groupings.


This work allows for a deeper understanding of the complex social transformation that migration as a phenomenon is part of but also affected by, impulses and articulates culturally. It focuses particularly on the interaction between mobility and settlement and the socio-cultural processes at different scales, through the vectors of production and reproduction of space.

Jamalpur came into existence as a railway town in 1862 when India's first locomotive workshops were established there. By studying its history until the 1940s, this article provides a description of a small industrial town that arose from colonial capitalist necessity, but which shared many of the features of colonial urban governmentality. Therefore, a call for greater small town studies, as this article modestly makes, is not based on challenging existing studies on bigger cities but for generating a fuller understanding of the link between the policies and the discourses of colonial rule that applied broadly to towns and cities of various descriptions. The diverse population of Europeans, Anglo-Indians, Bengalis and Biharis forged different forms of sociability; the workshop and other civic amenities were both shaped and contested through these forms. The discursive sites of such contestations – race, work, region, identity, sanitation, defence and protest – were as multiple as the physical ones: roads, drainage, workshop, houses, fields, bath and akharas. As a result, Jamalpur seen from the perspective of Europeans and Anglo-Indians was one type of locality that was highly insular and self-fulfilling; from the viewpoint of labour it was an extended space based on the rhythmic circulation of labour.

W artykule zaprezentowano przykłady miast, które poprzez właściwe wyeksponowanie swoich szczególnych walorów notują znaczący rozwój, przyczyniając się jednocześnie do podkreślenia specyfiki regionu, w jakim się znajdują. Autorka prezentuje miasta będące przykładami dobrej praktyki w rejonie Prowansji i Lazurowego Wybrzeża we Francji. W analizowanej grupie miast wskazano dwa typy sieci powiązań, przeanalizowano rodzaje funkcji wiodących, atrakcyjność funkcjonalną miejscowości oraz stopień powiązania współcześnie pełnionych funkcji z funkcjami dawnymi. Na tle omówionej specyfiki małe miasta posiadają szczególne znaczenie. Miasteczka Ramatuelle i Gordes to przykłady do-brej praktyki, gdzie z jednej strony wykorzystano mierzalne walory miast (zachowane zabytki, przyrodę i krajobraz) oraz cechy niemierzalne ("wskrzeszenie" dawnych tradycji, zwyczajów czy lokalnych świąt), z drugiej natomiast-kreatywność władz miejskich i mieszkańców. Wstęp Znaczenie małych miast na obszarach zintegrowanej Unii Europejskiej staje się coraz istotniejsze. Miasteczka coraz częściej odgrywają dużą rolę, nie tylko w skali lokalnej, ale także w skali regionu, jako ważne elementy krystalizujące sieć osadniczą oraz podkreślające charakter otoczenia. Małe miasta posiadają wiele niepowtarzalnego uroku, na który składają się między innymi: drobna struktura zabudowy, niewielka skala układu przestrzenne-go, walory kulturowe, zarówno materialne (zachowane zabytki), jak i niematerialne (kultywowane obrzędy, tradycje i zwyczaje), walory przyrodnicze (zieleń we wnętrzu miasteczek, jak i w jego otoczeniu) oraz walory krajobrazu zapewniające atrakcyjne widoki z wnętrz miasteczek na otoczenie, a także stanowiące tło dla małomiasteczkowych sylwet. Inicjatywy władz miejskich mają na celu, z jednej strony, podkreślenie indywidualności i unikatowości tych ośrodków, z drugiej natomiast-wpisanie ich w sieć miast małych, będącą jedną ze składowych elementów specyfiki regionu. Przykładem miast, które poprzez swą atrakcyjność wspierają niepowtarzalny charakter regionu, są miasteczka południowej Francji. Wyjątkowość Prowansji i jej atrakcyjność turystyczna sprawia, iż małe miasta tamtego obszaru rozwijają się zgodnie z zasadami rozwoju zrównoważonego, chroniąc swój niepowtarzalny charakter i specyfikę.

"Liestal. Historischer Städteatlas der Schweiz. Pläne und Kommentar, hg. vom Kuratorium Historischer Städteatlas der Schweiz (Pläne: Roland Büchi, FHNW, Hochschule für Architektur, Bau und Geomatik, Muttenz, BL; Kommentar: Dorothee Rippmann; Redaktion Yvonne Kocherhans, Dorothee Rippmann)"
Die Mappe enthält drei Karten, 4 Stadtpläne (1824–26, um 1890, 1945 und 2002), zwei thematische Pläne (Industrie und öffentliche Bauten 1945 und 2002), Fotos sowie einen Textteil, mit einem archäologischen und historischen Überblick über die Siedlungsentwicklung, von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, und Kapiteln zur Stadtgeschichte, von der Gründung im Mittelalter, über die Helvetik bis zur Kantonstrennung und zur Moderne.
Nach den Trennungswirren 1830–33 stieg die einst von den Grafen von Frohburg gegründete Kleinstadt Liestal von einer baslerischen Amtsstadt in den Rang einer Kantonshauptstadt auf. Erst geraume Zeit nach der Gründung des Kantons Basel-Landschaft setzte ausserhalb der ummauerten Altstadt auf bislang landwirtschaftlich genutzten Parzellen eine namhafte Siedlungsentwicklung ein; sie lässt sich, ausgehend von der ersten Katastervermessung von 1824–1826, in verschiedenen Zeitetappen rekonstruieren. Liestals wirtschaftliche Vorrangstellung im Oberbaselbiet kann unter anderem daran abgelesen werden, dass in der Stadt um 1830 70 verschiedene Gewerbe ansässig waren. Im 19. Jahrhundert, nach dem Anschluss ans Eisenbahnnetz 1854/58, war Liestal der wichtigste Industriestandort im Kanton. Ökonomisch und sozial prägend waren für Liestal seine Funktion als eidgenössischer Waffenplatz mit der Infanterieschule, daneben spielte der Tourismus eine Rolle.

La ricerca sui processi di spopolamento e di abbandono dei piccoli centri ha un importante rilievo per agire sulla condizione attuale e sulle prospettive proponendo nuovi immaginari, sperimentando
metodologie di azione, formando competenze e professionalità, avviando opportunità di investimenti. In questi luoghi il paesaggio si intreccia con il mito alimentando, da una parte, le connessioni della storia più antica con la storia recente e sostenendo, dall’altra, l’ipotesi di trasformazione seppur minima del paesaggio attraverso declinazioni e interpretazioni dell’esistente. Il ridisegno del territorio della Trasversale sicula riunisce situazioni e immaginari materiali e immateriali che trovano nella rete dei Centri minori rurali in Sicilia la rappresentazione ideale per innescare progetti concreti di sviluppo attraverso relazioni di comunità con soggetti pubblici, associazioni e cittadini. La cura è la chiave di lettura della ricerca nei territori sensibili, dove abbandono e marginalità non possono giustificare l’assenza di strategie innovative di un territorio marginale. Il valore della sensibilità dei territori, inteso come patrimonio collettivo da tutelare, rafforza una visione complessiva dove è necessario attivare fiducia, investimenti, capacità di cambiamento e innovazione.

This paper takes note of the recent spurt in non-metropolitan urbanisation unearthed by the Census of 2011 in India to refocus attention on the ‘small town’ as an object of research. It takes stock of the research on urban formations in India to highlight how the category of the ‘small town’ has been the discursive casualty of the epic modern separations between the urban and the rural. Further, following recent trends of research, the paper tries to establish the ‘small town’ as a critical entry-point into the larger discipline of urban studies and not simply as an absence within its rubric. To this effect, it takes up the studies grouped under the ‘subaltern urbanisation’ thesis that has sought to reflect upon the rise on non-metropolitan urbanisation in India, to explore its problems and possibilities. The paper argues that a reincorporation of historically produced regional-spatial variability, an attention to human migration and a critical take on the criteria of built-up area with a designated population density as a measure of the urban, might allow a more nuanced posing of the concerned thesis. This posing, it is further argued, could help in two further ways to move away from a notion of the ‘small town’ simply as an unit of economic dynamism: to more directly incorporate the question of power/politics within an understanding of ‘small town’ formations, and to think of a trajectory of capital accumulation as a total process that does not necessarily support the continuance of an arena of ‘need-economy’ as presumably functioning in ‘small town’ economies and other urban margins.

Abstract: The paper describes the development of small heritage towns,
fortifications and their wealth as the real heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition to the description of selected examples of fortifications, the paper presents the challenges of developing small cities as potentials. The current theme on the European level is the development of small towns, not necessarily as a tourist potentials, but as a network of settlements and an important element of the development of the region. Small towns play a significant role in providing social services to surrounding rural areas, and are a very important part of developmental stability and the progress of the wider environment. Cities with heritage contribute significantly to the development of local identity. In small towns, a significant part of the population of the region and the state lives, and therefore are very important.

This paper explores the dynamics of change and development in rural-urban environments. Urbanization in the context of rural and regional environments can be grouped into two categories: rural urbanization and rurbanization. Rural urbanization is a product of a range of push and pull-factors that result in people from rural-regional areas moving to cities and small and intermediate towns. Many have little choice but to live in small scattered urban settlements in peri-urban areas of cities and towns, or along urban transportation corridors. Rurbanization is a counter-cyclical process to rural urbanization, comprising a small but increasing flow of urban wealthy and diaspora who are buying back and developing in predominantly rural regional towns. This paper commences with a series of definitions that set the context for the discussion of the dynamics and chance in the geography and function of small and intermediate towns. It discusses some current and emerging factors driving people from the land to Small and intermediary towns. Factors like expatriate, foreign and company land grabs and purchases, technological changes in agriculture production, logistics, quality assurance and markets; rural debt, impacts of remittances on local economies; climate change impacts, and the dynamics of labour markets are transforming the landscapes of rural areas in all countries. Small and intermediary cities offer opportunities for subsistence living for a growing marginalized population in the transition from rural to urban living. How to manage development these towns, which are the front line of rural-urban migration, in rapidly urbanizing economies is proving to challenge. Many are becoming poverty traps for people leaving the land either by choice or force. Most cannot go back, nor do not have the capacity or desire to migrate to larger cities. The paper will explore what national and local governments policy responses could be to improve the sustainability of rural urbanization and development in small and intermediate towns, with a focus on developing economies.

The increasing interest in Estonian art scenes outside of Tallinn necessitates careful and critical discussion. Rait Rosin’s PhD dissertation investigates regional gallery spaces and local people attitudes toward art activities in their communities. The reader will have a better grasp of Estonia’s diversified creative scene and society-driven cultural shifts. The comparison provides an overview of the precision of the regional differentiations of the six Estonian small towns: Paldiski, Haapsalu, Valga, Võru, Rapla, and Rakvere by comparing the various regional characters and as well six local art galleries. In comparison, the audience of town galleries and artist interviews demonstrate how each party sees local art. The research looks into Estonian small-town initiatives to communicate with small towns, parallels and examples of artists activities, who had exhibitions in local galleries during the years 2010–2017. The author of the thesis interprets the artistic expressions of the participants as acts of cultural communication of the centre and the periphery polarities. Nonetheless, because the expectations of small towns have to implement for their organised events, the contribution of artists is calculated based on their effect on the surrounding areas. On the one hand, the dissertation is a reflection of Rait Rosin’s own artistic practice while he depict themes for the artworks, while also analysing his own position as artist researcher. Dissertation In the ohter hand, is classified as discourse, with engaged art as one of the socially active solutions. According to the philosophers such as John Dewey, Jacques Rancière and others, local interest and activity-binding solutions may assist artists. As a result, the local cultural scene may have established a field of meaning construction that aids to integrate various groups into the community. The PhD thesis focuses on local people waiting for artists and visiting artists’ assessments of Estonian small-towns in creative chores and art creation, often due to a lack of expert criticism and the location of the art.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems are receiving growing attention from scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers in both developed and developing countries. Studies of this phenomenon have focused almost exclusively on ecosystems in large, urbanized regions and metropolitan areas, located primarily in developed economies. However, the prevalence of small cities across the globe and the increasing acknowledgment that entrepreneurship in small towns is a key determinant of their economic development and rejuvenation suggests that entrepreneurial ecosystems research would benefit from a broader lens of inquiry. This conceptual paper introduces the concept of small town entrepreneurial ecosystems, draws from a wide-ranging set of disciplines to delineate the ways in which small town ecosystems are similar to and different than their larger counterparts, and theorizes about several strategies small town entrepreneurial ecosystems use to overcome their limitations. The theory developed produces implications for scholars focused on entrepreneurial ecosystems, economic development, and emerging markets and suggests practical implications for policy-makers and development organizations seeking to improve the economic landscape of small cities.

Attempts to understand the wider context of the Arab uprisings in Morocco mainly focus on the dynamic created by the 20 February Movement, while the long history of increasing socio-economic struggle tends to be underestimated. This article argues that the political and democratic protests of the last two years and the history of socio-economic protests cannot be viewed as unrelated phenomena but must be understood as part of the same process. The account focuses on different disturbances, such as the riots in the phosphate mining region of Khouribga, to show the particular dynamic between civil democratic and socio-economic struggles.

In the current global economic system, Europe’s minor historic towns – the pulsing heart of the very meaning of Europe – are gradually losing their attractiveness due to the trend of the population’s growing concentration in large cities. In fact, small- and medium-sized towns located in peripheral areas appear incapable today of undertaking a prospect for development. The problem has gradually exacerbated the gap between large cities and small towns, although the latter offer greater liveability and quality of life. This book focuses attention on inner and marginal territories dotted with villages and minor towns. Less accessible, they are marked by scant services and inadequate job opportunities. For this reason, they suffer from a gradual depopulation that has at times resulted in their abandonment, also impoverishing the maintenance of their buildings, urban planning, and landscape. For inner areas, the need to provide a response to the challenges raised by climate change, pandemics, and the current economic and structural situation appears to offer new opportunities for development. These opportunities can make them socially and economically competitive, confirming their vocation by innovating it and cross-breeding it with other sectors like tourism, culture, and technology, while valorizing the benefits of the small size, human capital, and innate capacity for hospitality present within the communities settled there. In this perspective, this book attempts to depict inner areas’ capacity for resilience, provided by the innovative thrust furnished by three essential topics: hospitality, creativity, and the spread of ICT.

The main theory that justified and explain the establishment of Development Towns in Israel is the Central Place Theory.
According to this theory, Development Towns in Israel, which were built between 1949 and 1964, were urban settlement that served as center for the surrounding rural settlements. These towns were founded in an area with many Moshavim or Kibbutzim, and served as the place for services, commerce, culture and administration for the region. They were planned by city planners based on the theory and on the lack of this stratum of district city in Israel.
However, four towns that were established in this period and were part of the development towns, had no surrounding rural area. The towns of Mitzpe Ramon, Yerucham, Dimona and Arad were built in a desert area with almost no agricultural settlements or any other settlements surrounding them.
What was the justification for building those towns? Some sources describe them as miner towns. There were some phosphate mines in the Negev and other resources like the Dead Sea works. The desert towns were describe as places for the workers in these industries.
However, looking at the History of the towns, the problem of unemployment is mention frequently as the main problem since the towns were founded, with Arad as the exceptional case. The town's population was not the workers of the mines industry.
The proposed paper will deal with the question why were these towns founded and populated, and will compare between the different towns.

This case study reports a two-phase research project into tourism development in a rural district, Timaru, in the South Island of New Zealand. It addresses a lack of research into small town regeneration in New Zealand. The research is set within scholarly debates about small-town tourism-led regeneration, place promotion, and the impact on tourism of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a qualitative social research methodology, the first phase of the research, preCOVID-19, illustrates attempts to realise the potential of an underdeveloped visitor economy in Timaru. The challenges faced by tourism advocates are outlined, as are the halting attempts to advance their goals. The second research phase reports the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the way it stimulated a reimagining of tourism and its development in Timaru leading to new and more effective administrative arrangements and place promotion tactics, supported by extra-local funding. The case study concludes with a brief discussion of the research findings as they relate to the scholarly context of our work, emphasising particularly the influence the COVID-19 pandemic might have in the re-imagining of tourism and the practices of tourism development in rural places and communities.

The plan-form of the early twelfth-century town of Bridgnorth in Shropshire, England, is  analysed to establish a methodology for determining how the spatial relationships of the constituent burgages laid out within an orthogonal planned street system can provide information about the spatial development of the town as a whole.  From this it is possible to infer a new historical narrative of the town's early development.

PRIVATE TOWNS IN CROWN RUTHENIA UNTIL THE END OF THE 15TH CENTURY
Red Ruthenia, incorporated into the Crown of Poland in mid-14th century, underwent numerous integration and modernisation processes, including urbanisation. The process of urbanisation led to the creation of ca. 117 towns in Ruthenia until the end of the 15th century; they were all organised according to the urban model applied in the Polish territory. Out of these urban centres, 69 were private towns, founded primarily on the estates of magnates and wealthy nobility. The classification of the towns, encompassing the evaluation of their population, wealth, consumption scale and economic power, shows that they were predominantly small-sized towns and localities. The dominance of small towns was characteristic of the entire urban landscape of Red Ruthenia, but it was most visible among private towns.

This literature review aims at summarizing the state of knowledge related to small urbanised settlements. The significance of researching these localities can be inferred from the fact that a growing share of urban population lives in such agglomerations with a population above 10,000 and below 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. This fact is not limited to India and a large share of the urban population worldwide lives in small and medium cities, which are understudied. The same dearth of research applies to the Indian context, as will be evident in this review, despite the importance of the resilience of an urban system comprising a large number of small towns and the diversity of these settlements in terms of their economic base and their social structure. This literature review is structured around five themes: A) the first section lays out issues related to estimating the magnitude and sources of demographic growth in order to infer the contribution of small towns to urban dynamics;...

The premise for the development of sustainable forms of road infrastructure in small towns is the appropriate plan at an early stage or modification in the case of existing spaces. A multidirectional approach is extremely important, which takes into account the specificity of the regional (country) road system, availability, and capacity of traffic network, but also social and environmental factors. Efficient management of transit space in small cities through the implementation of the concept of managing green areas in traffic zones allows improving safety and quality of residents life. Therefore it is important to develop comprehensive projects covering  not only the project itself but also its implementation through the proper control of movement of vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians, using e.g. traffic calming elements. The aim of this study is to enhance the design of traffi c calming measures by using principles of zoning, public space design and planting strategies. Examples of development of traffic calming measures in small towns and suburban zones in the regions of Europe and MENA are presented and recommendations regarding the planning of roadside space and the introduction of plants to the traffic calming measures are formulated.

The township planning in Perak was affected post-signing of the Pangkor Treaty in 1874, as the state became the first state in Malaysian Peninsula intervened by the British. Introduction of grid system by the British has apparently affected the early layout of major cities such as Ipoh, Taiping, Kuala Lumpur, George Town and Singapore. This study attempts to investigate the theory of town planning during the British era after noticing a knowledge gap in regard to early town planning system of small towns in Perak. Based on purposive sampling using varying topographies as the criterion of site selection, 10 out of 20 small towns in Perak were selected for data collection. The small towns were Kuala Kurau, Klian Intan, Bagan Datoh, Lumut, Parit, Tanjung Rambutan, Pusing, Sungkai, Padang Rengas and Lenggong. Besides measured drawings, interviews were conducted with the locals and historical manuscripts of the research locale were also revisited. Based on comparative analysis, the study found that topographical factor was insignificant in influencing the early layout of small towns in Perak since linear system was used at different topographical background (riverside, coastal, hilly terrain and flatland areas). Moreover, location factor was found to be significant in terms of influencing the arrangement of early shophouse buildings into rows, which influenced the early layout of small towns in Perak.

Sources of information about women in Irish towns in the early 17th. century are relatively rare, so the entries which concern the female inhabitants of New Ross in the single surviving folio of the town’s Corporation Minute Book are particularly interesting.  It records provides the most detailed information we have about women in that town, and, indeed, a unique insight into the role of women within urban communities in the early 17th. century.  It shows women able to act very independently, with a significant degree of economic power and social freedom and playing a significant role in the daily life of the town.

The article discusses the competence problem of defining the cultural values of a small town, especially the spatial and compositional values of historical centers and creating a local spatial development plan (as a local law act) that will help to protect the unique features of space. The text includes recommendations for improving the quality of planning studies at the local planning level. Key words: local spatial development plan, recommendations, town, urban interior. STRESZCZENIE Artykuł porusza problem kompetencyjny na poziomie definiowania walorów kulturowych małego miasta, oceny wartości przestrzennych i kompozycyjnych historycznych centrów oraz konstruowania rysunku i zapisów miejscowego planu zagospodarowania przestrzennego (jako aktu prawa miejscowego), które przyczynią się do ochrony unikatowych cech przestrzeni. W tekście zawarto rekomendacje w zakresie poprawy jakości opracowań planistycznych na poziomie gminy. Słowa kluczowe: małe miasto, miejscowy plan zagospodarowania przestrzennego, rekomendacje, wnętrze urbanistyczne.

Published in: "Roczniki Dziejów Społecznych i Gospodarczych", 77 (specjalny) (2016), s. 427-456

The paper focuses on the network of towns belonging to ecclesiastical institutions:  bishops,  monasteries,  cathedral  and  collegiate chapters,  and parish priests, located in the territory of the Polish Crown in the 16th century. Most of these towns belonged to bishoprics and monasteries, much less to cathedral and collegiate chapters. Occasionally, parish priests owned a part of the town they resided in. Most ecclesiastical towns were located in Sandomierskie Voivodeship (25). No church-owned urban centres could be found in the following provinces: Pomorskie, Malborskie, Podlaskie. Ecclesiastical towns were
usually  middle- and small-sized, which falls in line with the general trend in the size of towns in the 16th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Over the course of the period, seven new towns were founded: five in bishop-owned estates, one in an estate owned by a monastery and one in the property of a cathedral chapter. At the same time, there were 10 failed foundation initiatives, unsuccessful for various reasons.
The second part of the paper consists in a short description of conditions of settlement foundation. It can be observed that these were connected with the coexistence of church-owned land property. Towns were usually surrounded by at least several villages belonging to the same owner, even though there were also cases of urban centres being located far away from other settlements. The town was usually the economic and administrative centre of the property key.
All the issues touched upon in the paper should be more thoroughly analysed.
Two maps are annexed to the paper – one presents ecclesiastical property in the entire territory of the Polish Crown at the end of the 16th century, while the other – ecclesiastical property in Greater Poland in the same period.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) are receiving intense attention. However, the revitalization of inactive EEs in unmunificent contexts is understudied. To investigate this phenomenon, an inductive study was conducted of a once-vibrant EE that became dormant because of an undiversified industrial base and a precipitous decline in its regional economy. The study revealed that the community members working to revitalize the city's EE ("EE champions") used a holistic collection of economic, socio-cultural, community, and discursive strategies. The findings have implications for scholars focused on entrepreneurship in atypical contexts, the micro-foundations of EEs, and EE leadership. The study also generates concrete insights for practitioners seeking to reinvigorate EEs.

Around 60% of the global urban population resides in urban spaces having less than 500,000 population. Yet, the scholarly literature predominately focuses on megacities and large urban centers. The urban studies literature does not adequately engage with small towns’ socioeconomic and environmental dynamics. To fully comprehend the broad contours of twenty-first-century urbanization, it is crucial to understand the emerging socio-environmental dynamics and urban sustainability challenges of small towns. In this background, this entry engages with small towns in Asia, one of the most rapidly urbanizing regions in the world, and charts out the urban sustainability challenges emanating from such spaces.

Голосистые петухи с четырех утра, цветущая картошка в огородах,
грунтовая дорога без тротуаров — про индустрию ли эта история?
Определенно да, если дорога ведет к ферросплавному заводу. Все
главные пути ведут к храму. Заводы (как и жизненно необходимые им водонапорные башни, плотины и т. п.) в индустриальную
эпоху становятся современными святынями и властно стягивают
к себе как городские маршруты, так и жизненные пути жителей
и самих городов.

Study on the District House building in Central Bohemian town od Slaný (architect Jan Vejrych, 1900–02), discussing the aspect of choice of architectural vocabulary and its "propriety" in traditional built environment. Published in Czech (with an English summary) as a chapter of a book focused on art historical methodology and named Od Kabaly k Titaniku: Deset studií nejen z dějin umění [From Kabbalah to Titanic: Ten Studies not only in Art History], edd. Lubomír Konečný – Anna Rollová – Rostislav Švácha, Praha: Artefactum 2013, pp.  69–101. ISBN 978-80-86890-58-6.

Dieses Buch stellt 150 Dokumente des 13. bis 19. Jahrhunderts aus dem Kirchenarchiv Neumarkt im Bozner Unterland vor. Im Vordergrund stehen – der nieder organisierten Grundherrschaft der Neumarkter Kirche entsprechend – für das Spätmittelalter typische Urkundengattungen wie Leihe- und Stiftungsurkunden, erb- und ehegüterrechtliche Akte, Schuld- und Gerichtsurkunden. Dieses Dominieren von zivil-, insbesondere immobiliarrechtlichen Akten eröffnet einen guten Einblick in "gelebtes Recht" und überschreitet dadurch den rein lokalen Bereich. Die urkundengeschichtlichen Besonderheiten des Untersuchungsgebietes mit seinem Nebeneinander von süd- und nordalpinen Rechtstraditionen sind typisch für den geschichtlichen Werdegang des ehemaligen nördlichen Trienter Bistumsgebiets im Spannungsfeld des tirolisch-tridentinischen Kondominiums.

Aus der Besprechung von Andreas Meyer in QFIAB 75, 1995, S. 788:
"151 Urkunden, davon 133 im Original oder abschriftlich überliefert und 18 als Deperdita rekonstruiert, werden hier in der Form ausführlicher Regesten vorgelegt, wobei alle Namen von Orten und Personen, Datierung, Zeugenreihe und Korroboratio sowie bei Notarsurkunden ausgewählte Formularteile im Originaltext wiederholt werden. Die zeitliche Verteilung des Bestandes zeigt ein deutliches Übergewicht des Spätmittelalters: 13. Jh. 1, 14. Jh. 16, 15. Jh. 91 Urkunden. Rund 80 Prozent sind Notariatsinstrumente, der Rest sind meist deutschsprachige Siegelurkunden. Interessant ist, daß das Notariatsinstrument im ausgehenden 15. Jh. zugunsten der Siegelurkunde an Boden verliert. Zu Beginn des 16. Jh. tauchen sogar deutschsprachige Notariatsinstrumente mit lateinischer Unterfertigung auf. In der Einleitung wird noch auf die andern Archivbestände verwiesen (u.a. ein Zinsregister der St.-Nikolaus-Kirche in Neumarkt von 1429/1430, ein Rechnungsbuch des Brückenmeisters der Etschbrücke bei Neumarkt von 1495/1496 sowie Tauf-, Ehe- und Sterbebücher seit 1672). Mehrere Indices, ein Sachregister und Glossar, ein Verzeichnis der Notare mit Abbildungen der Signete erschließen den schönen Band."

The East Slovak Lowland is a predominantly rural region featuring marginalized historical development and low concern of ethnologists. The essay presents photo- -documentation of vernacular buildings from this region, which is open to the public in eight museum archives, heritage offices and academic institutes in five Slovak and Czech cities – Michalovce, Košice, Prešov, Martin and Prague. Even though most photo-documents come from the second half of the 20th century, they could capture many ancient building phenomena even in that younger period. The presented collections are a valuable basis to study vernacular architecture and habitation in the East Slovak Lowlands as well as in lowlands generally.

The small cities are settlement units of a very diverse genesis
and character. Th ey include small satellite cities of large
urban centres, as well as monofunctional cities - both historical
and agricultural, forming a centre for the surrounding
rural areas and also cities, whose operation is or was based on
a single industrial plant. Most of them aff ect similar, degrading
socio-economic phenomenon. Solving the problems of small
towns requires special attention, very individual approach to
the search for alternative functions and development opportunities
retaining their specifi city. Question about the future
of small towns is extremely important - it is a question about
the quality of life of half of the Polish people. And such improvement
of the quality of all aspects of small communities life is
an overarching goal of the Cittaslow philosophy. In this case,
the peripheral location and falling behind the latest trends in
the global economy, although at fi rst glance seems to be a big
disadvantage, with the right strategy development, full use of
own resources, as well as signifi cant involvement of residen ts,
may lead to strengthening their identity and enjoying what
the „province” brings.

Małe miasta to jednostki osadnicze o bardzo zróżnicowanej genezie i charakterze. Należą do nich małe
miasta satelitarne większych ośrodków miejskich, a także miasta monofunkcyjne – zarówno historyczne miasta rolnicze,
stanowiące ośrodek centralny dla otaczających obszarów wiejskich, jak i miasta, których funkcjonowanie opiera się lub
opierało na bazie jednego zakładu przemysłowego. Większość z nich dotykają podobne, degradujące zjawiska społeczno-
-gospodarcze. Rozwiązywanie problemów małych miast wymaga szczególnej uwagi, bardzo indywidualnego podejścia
przy poszukiwaniu alternatywnych funkcji i możliwości rozwoju zachowujących ich specyfi kę. Pytanie o przyszłość małych
miast jest niezwykle istotne – jest to pytanie o jakość życia połowy Polaków. A właśnie poprawa jakości wszystkich dziedzin
życia małych społeczności jest nadrzędnym celem filozofii Cittaslow – sieci miast dobrego życia. W tym przypadku,
peryferyjne położenie i nienadążanie za najnowszymi trendami w globalnej gospodarce, chociaż na pierwszy rzut oka
wydają się być dużą wadą, przy właściwej strategii rozwoju, pełnym wykorzystaniu własnych zasobów, a także znacznym
zaangażowaniu mieszkańców, mogą stanowić podstawę do wzmocnienia własnej tożsamości i cieszenia się tym, co
niesie ze sobą „prowincja”.