A jugoszláv utódállamok fragmentálódó városhálózata

Several new states were born due to the breakup of former Yugoslavia, the running and length of state borders changed significantly. Furthermore, the way and the process of the break up of Yugoslavia impacted the transformations of the settlements and their network heavily. Today one can see the political geographical processes as the most important factors of the long-term development of the settlements of the former Yugoslavia.Beside the alteration of the settlement network, the shifts in the positions of the individual cities is a characteristic feature as well. It is possible to identify both winners and losers of the changes having taken place, experience of growth and also of decline which are all indicated mainly by transformations of and shifts in the functions and the number of people using these functions

A Vajdaság városhálózatának népességszám-változása a 2020-as évek elején

Vajdaság városhálózatára az elmúlt évtizedben a népességszám-csökkenés és a növekvő monocentrikusság volt jellemző. Ezek a folyamatok eltérően érintették a tartomány településeit. A 2022-es népszámlálás segítségével bemutatjuk Újvidék növekvő súlyát, a népességcsökkenés területi mintázatát és a városhálózatban bekövetkező változásokat, ahol Szabadka és a Tiszamente további teret veszít Újvidék agglomerációjával szemben

A jugoszláv városhálózat rang-nagyság eloszlásának változásai

During the existence of Yugoslavia its settlement system underwent serious alterations. The turbulent political geographical changes often transformed this system from the several creation of the state to the several dissolutions. After the birth of Yugoslavia its settlement system showed a polycentric pattern due to the various historical regions it included. Until the first breakup this polycentricity decreased a lot, but bipolarity (Belgrade-Zagreb) remained as a consequence of interwar politics of Yugoslavia. After the 2nd WW the system steadily headed towards a harmonic, ideal pattern –according to the terms of Auerbach thesis or Zipf rule– which lasted until 1991. From this turning point the fundamentally changed political geographical environment caused the settlement structure to be changed as well. Seeing as a whole, the settlement system of the former Yugoslavia started to be more polycentric again (Belgrade declining, the new capitals growing). Looking at the individual successor states we can state that monocenticity is general except in Kosovo, but there are differences in sub categories of monocentricity. Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia have classical primatecities, while Bosnia-Herzegovina inherited a bipolar system again due to the political situation. Montenegro and Slovenia are in between, with a monocentric system with strong second cities

Re-bordering of the Hungarian South: geopolitics of the Hungarian border fence

The Hungarian borders have been at the centre of political and social discourse since the 20th century. Subjectto whichever government dominated at a given time, border policies strengthened and disappeared frequently.During the summer and autumn of 2015, a fence was constructed in effort to discourage migration at the southern borders of Hungary. Building on collective social memory which links Hungary's southern borders with divisionary actions, the government organised a campaign effective in convincing voters that more aggressive border control measures should be enacted. Opposition parties had no effective tools to counter the government's actions; thus, popular support for the government increased significantly. This paper examines how the attention and resources concentrated on the southern borders do not directly correspond to purported objectives. In fact, this paper argues that the issues related to securing the southern border of Hungary are merely used as political resources to achieve domestic political- and power-related goals. Taking into account specific international trends of border research, this work aims to illustrate how the border itself (more concisely, the policy of strengthening the southern border) became a political resource, through the remarkably efficient communications campaign of the ruling Hungarian government party