Measuring functional polycentricity developments using the flow of goods in Iran: a novel method at a regional scale

Hashem Dadashpoor and Sadegh Saeidi Shirvan

International Journal of Urban Sciences, 2019, vol. 23, issue 4, 551-567

Abstract: The debate concerning the polycentricity concept and its related methods has led to numerous studies. However, these studies have focused less on the analysis of polycentricity in developing countries, such as Iran, which is peculiar because of its various socioeconomic and political features. Also, while most of the current studies have measured the polycentricity at one time, only a limited number of them have paid attention to the longitudinal perspective. Thus, this paper intends to examine functional polycentricity developments by exploring a novel method on a regional scale. To do this, we have applied a dynamic method in the case of Iran to measure the polycentricity by using data concerning the flow of goods. Our findings indicate that the polycentricity index of the system raised from 0.24 to 0.81 over a 15-year period. Therefore, theoretically, the spatial system moved towards more polycentricity. The outcome of the socioeconomic flows in Iran was such that they continuously reduced the distance between centres and reproduced moves towards a more polycentric pattern.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/12265934.2018.1556114 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rjusxx:v:23:y:2019:i:4:p:551-567

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjus20

DOI: 10.1080/12265934.2018.1556114

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Urban Sciences is currently edited by Dongjoo Park and Mack Joong Choi

More articles in International Journal of Urban Sciences from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().