GROWTH POLE DEVELOPMENT AND ‘METROPOLIZATION’ IN POST-SOCIALIST ROMANIA

Growth Pole Development and ‘Metropolization’ in Post-Socialist Romania. During the transition period the spatial planning institutions of Romania have undergone a constant and radical change from the communist system, based on state led industrialization and urbanization to a more flexible and democratic system. Among this changes are those induced by the creation and implementation of new forms of territorial governance, like the metropolitan areas, initiated in 2001. Since then the ‘metropolization’ process has advanced, more than 10 metropolitan areas being created, while many others have been proposed and are still in a pilot phase. One of the main features of this new spatial category is that it is based on major urban centres, which plays also the role of national growth poles. Therefore, we are asking in this paper for the linkages between the construction of metropolitan areas and the selection of growth poles, two questions which apparently differ, but they proved to be strongly interconnected in Romania