Economic and technological determinants of urban development 1900-SM-1-24

The lecture intends to familiarise students with the economic and technological conditions of urban development. There are two thematic blocks. The first block will be devoted to the impact of technological changes, in historical and contemporary terms, on the functioning of cities and urbanisation processes. Applications of intelligent technologies in cities and the consequences of these applications for economic, social and spatial processes will be presented. In particular, the latest trends in the field of the information economy and technological revolution 4.0 will be discussed on the functioning of the city, its infrastructure and its management, moreover, the consequences of economy digitalisation on the conflicts related to the coexistence of virtual economy and real processes. The second block of the lecture will concern the factors of city development and market forces shaping the city's spatial structure. It will answer, among other things, the questions why cities exist and what their size depends on, as well as indicate the reasons for the formation of spatial clusters of enterprises and show the relationship between location and type of business activity. In particular, it will present the most important factors determining the development of cities related to the economic base, the central place theory, the rank-size rule, as well as those determining the existence of benefits of the agglomeration. Moreover, it will discuss the spatial implications of the phenomenon of bid rent and the relations between the spatial structure and the distribution of economic activity and population in the city.