Original scientific paper
Developmental Goals and Inherited Developmental Limitations of Croatian Middle Towns
Ognjen ČALDAROVIĆ
; Faculty of Philosophy, Zagreb
Abstract
Middle Croatian towns have so far not been a separate subject
of sociological analysis. It is therefore difficult to give reliable
assessmentsof their possibilities of development. With regard to
past characteristics of Croatian urbanization, it may be expected
that within its framework bigger and big Croatian towns will
have greater possibilities of development. However, under a
more meaningful planning policy whose goal is to encourage
policentric tendencies in an urban network, middle towns can '
play an important role. The special developmental advantages
they are offering are the following: (i) greater chances of
securing/building an apartment according to housing
aspirations; (ii) a more favourable environmental situation; (iii)
urban services are (will be) of a higher quality than in big towns;
(iv) in middle towns, as a rule, unemployment is lower; (v)
middle towns facilitate the use of the private plot-garden as a
specific family developmental resource, which is specially
important for the stability of the household; (vi) in smaller
centres it is easier to activate, in terms of rational development,
the local tourist and recreational resources and, based on that,
improve complementary economic activities; (vii) due to a lesser
complexity of social network there is also, as a rule, a smaller
level of conflict between the participants. In contrast to these
advantages there are quite a number of developmental
limitations. The most important among them are the following:
(i) undeveloped cultural infrastructure; (ii) negative social control;
(iii) feeling of "isolation" and separation from global events; (iv)
small-town mentality; (v) uniform social, cultural and
civilizationaloffer. Therefore, if there is a wish to stimulate the
development of middle Croatian towns, it is necessary to
develop a unique policy with well-defined organizational and
financial parametres and clearly stated developmental
advantages of middle towns.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
31476
URI
Publication date:
30.4.1999.
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