Etymologically, metropolis (Greek metropolis) meant in ancient Greece: a mother city, a city –
a parent state in relation to a city founded by it –
a colony, with which it was usually connected by economic relations, religious and cultural ties, a state –
the founding city of a colony. Subsequently, this concept was used to denote the economic and political capital of a state possessing colonies. Later, the term was used to describe the main city of a given province or country, the most important cultural and economic center.
Nowadays, a metropolis means cities numbering first over 100,000, 200,000, 500,000, a million inhabitants, and these size criteria evolve over time. Metropolises are large urban complexes, currently numbering at least half a million inhabitants. Adopting a size criterion is not enough. If we want to understand the essence of a metropolis and its functions, we should supplement it with such qualitative features as:
Nowadays, a metropolis means cities numbering first over 100,000, 200,000, 500,000, a million inhabitants, and these size criteria evolve over time. Metropolises are large urban complexes, currently numbering at least half a million inhabitants. Adopting a size criterion is not enough. If we want to understand the essence of a metropolis and its functions, we should supplement it with such qualitative features as:
1. Excellence of services (developed service sector –
primarily these are institutions and services related to financial intermediation, media, telecommunications, economic management, science and research, art, culture, as well as public administration), institutions and equipment,
2. Innovative potential in technical, economic, social, political, and cultural terms –
I consider this criterion to be the most important,
3. Uniqueness and specificity of the place. Adopting such a set of features –
quantitative and qualitative –
it should be noted that no Polish city meets these conditions.
Among metropolises, special attention should be paid to huge cities –
with a population exceeding 8 million inhabitants, which were once defined by the UN as a “megacity”. Currently, the status of a megacity is held by those cities whose population exceeds 10 million. Megacities are formed as a result of the merging of agglomerations and their suburban zones into one urban complex, creating a kind of “supercity”. In 2001, there were 17 such megacities –
most of them were located in developing countries. The UN predicts that by 2015, as many as 21 cities will be classified in this category. According to this same UN demographic forecast, in 2015 as many as 16 (out of 21) metropolises will have a population of around 15 million. The emergence of multi-million metropolises is an unfavorable phenomenon, as it leads mainly to overcrowding and the creation of slums. Some of them, such as Kolkata, Mexico City (wrongly referred to in English as Mexico City, if anything it should be written in Spanish as Ciudad de Mexico) or Sao Paulo, are cities of social catastrophe, slums, hunger for a significant part of their inhabitants, and informal primitive construction. Such metropolises, violating the principle of controlled development, do not meet the postulate of organizational (institutional) excellence, not to mention the coexistence of residents of different social status. Only a few global metropolises, such as London, Paris, or Stockholm, manage to develop in a planned manner and avoid strong social polarization. Table 1 lists the world’s largest metropolises along with their population exceeding 10 million in the years: 1950, 1975, 2001, and according to the forecast for 2015.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2007.