Breaking with the spatial-cycle model: the shift towards ‘syncurbanization’ in polycentric urban regions

This paper criticizes traditional models of urban-regional expansion, which depart from monocentric ideals of urban core and ring. The original spatial-cycle model (SCM) suggests repeating stages of urbanization, suburbanization, disurbanization and re-urbanization. We reconceptualize the relations between core(s) and ring(s) to test the formation of urban regions under mono-, multi- and polycentric trajectories. The analysis employs local population data in functional urban regions in Finland, Austria and the Netherlands, three countries with different urbanization patterns, for the period 1961-2011. Results suggest a 'break of the cycle' in polycentric regions and a shift towards a different period, which we call 'syncurbanization'.