Small Urban Centers as Drivers of Daily Migrations and Agents of Transformation of Rural Hinterland: Example of Blace Municipality

Abstract

Decades of regional polarity in Serbia conditioned the adoption of a polycentric territorial development as one of the main strategic goals of the country's spatial development. Politics of polycentrism specifically highlights the role and importance of small urban centers in generating a more balanced regional development. In constellation with their rural surroundings, they can serve as strong agents of change towards sustainable spatial development, functional cohesion, and transformation of the rural hinterland, and thus, contribute to the balanced spatial development. The main aim of the chapter is to examine the potential of small urban centers to generate spatial and functional integration, that is, to explore the possibility for small towns to integrate and transform their rural surroundings. The chapter analyses the field of functional influence of small towns on their rural surroundings on the example of Blace Municipality through determining the intensity of daily migrations which are a well-known indicator of spatial and functional integration of rural areas and urban centers.