Metropolisation in Warsaw

Metropolisation is affecting a number of m ajor cities throughout the developed world. This process results from the changes occurring in the eme rgent po st-industrial economy. We refer mainly to the rapid rise of high-order services, to the reign of information, and to the resulting transformations in production processes. Metropolisation is transforming the economic structure and the spatial organisation of the cities involved. These cities are becom ing increas-ingly specialised in high-order e co n om ic activities, w hich are intensive in skilled labour and inform ation. Th ese typic al “m etropolitan function s ” relate essentially to creation, decision, and control. They include research and de vel-opm ent, high-order pro ducer services, financial activities, large compan ies’ headquarters, and educational and cultural activities. Along with this e co n om ic restructuring, metropolisation is reshaping urban space, principa lly through the emergence of multicentric structures, especially in Europe, and through the specialisation of city-cores in specific metropolitan functions. These new econom ic and spatial structures involve intensive proximity interactions