Steffen Büssers (p), Christina Fischer, Matthias Freund, Rüdiger Hamm (p)

Amit Batabyal

see extended abstract

Agnieszka Majorek (p)

Rüdiger Hamm

A neglected area in the field of spatial economy is special type of space which is so-called urban vacant land or “empty space”. Though by definition, the physical space is infinitely large and has no boundaries, the environment of human life (including the cities) is divided into smaller fragments of space taking into account various criteria of division, such as functions, types of land use, space perception of people, etc. Selected fragments are assigned certain features, the distribution and mutual relations of which allow for the interpretation of many socio-economic phenomena (including those taking place in the city). Nowadays, the deficit of free space is increasingly recognized. It is pointed that out for space saving reasonable space management (in accordance with the policy of sustainable development) are crucial because space is treated as a limited good. In relation to the above, the purpose of the article is to identify a special type of space which is the so-called urban vacant land or “empty space”.
Most studies have only focused on development space in the city to the detriment of urban vacant land. Meanwhile, according to american research saw, that type of space covers on average as much as 15% of space in 70 cities in the USA. The experience of many cities in highly developed countries suggests that urban vacant land is a significant part of the urban landscape that can be re-used as part of local development policy. Although they can be both a problem and potential for the city, few scientists take care of them. Knowledge about the genesis of their formation and characteristics is an important element of building urban policy. The paper focused on the typology of urban vacant land conducted on the basis of literature studies and own observations.

Irina Antonova (p)

Agnieszka Majorek

Although “company towns” are found in a number of different countries and at various stages of development, they are understood differently, depending on the country. Russia, in the early stages of developing company towns’ economies, already sufficiently understands the concept and the criteria of company towns. This article focuses on company towns located in the Kemerovo region, which is famous for its coal industry. Here, all but one of the towns in the region is a single-industry town, generally related to mining. The region, therefore, is suitable for a case study. This article, which examines a sample of 14 urban districts between 2012 and 2016, makes conclusions about the legal efficiency of the diversification process in all the monotowns under consideration, except for the Yurginsky urban district. The results use a diversification efficiency matrix, which compares the diversification index, revenue growth, and the number of single-industry companies. Correlation and regression analyses indicate a direct dependence between the number of new enterprises and ones liquidated. This characterizes the process of companies’ reregistration to obtain new business tax benefits and explains why the unemployment rate is determined both by the number of newly created and liquidated enterprises. The process of creating new enterprises is directly related to the size of the population, which suggests that the enterprises being created are oriented towards the domestic market and do not significantly diversify the economy of single-industry towns. Thus, a single-resource region, with a high concentration of monotowns, in the fourth stage of industrial development that is trying to diversify its economy, faces high inter regional competition for investment resources, low-efficiency tax incentives, and an orientation to a domestic market with a decreasing population.