Spatial gravity centres of the dynamics and the crisis in Hungary

The transition into market economy in Hungary was coupled with an increase in regional disparities and the restructuring of the spatial pattern of economy. The study presents some spatial processes of the Hungarian transition (1990–2000) by the classic method of the spatial analysis: method of gravity centres. The basic points of the analysis are the settlements of the country. The characteristic geographical location of individual gravity centres – population, income, unemployment, phone lines – and their mobility or stability refer to the fact that the method is suitable not only for the analyses of static features of spatial structures of society or showing long-time, historical trends of movements, but for describing new connections in the examination of periods of radical changes (typically in the transition in Eastern Europe). The investigations prove the dominant role of capital in the spatial structure of transition as well as the sharp West-East disparities