Several tendencies seem to indicate that in the hinterland of Bratislava specific new residential zones are forming with a different socio-economic structure. This article analyses the hinterland of Bratislava from various perspectives of suburban development. The selection of variables covers the origin of in-migrants and their economic activity, education, and family status. Indicators of land use, housing construction, and property prices supplement these data. The data are processed based on a factorial ecology approach, which tries to discover the basic dimensions of the socio-spatial structure, and cluster analysis. Using these methods the authors identify similar clusters and categorise individual municipalities into relatively homogeneous units—suburban development types. The results lead to a number of very interesting findings. The same types of suburban municipalities are not arranged in concentric zones, which means that the factor of distance from the city does not play a prominent role. The prevailing factor is the sectorial structure, which reflects the different levels of attractiveness municipalities hold for different socio-economic groups of in-migrants. This article seeks to identify key factors that affect the formation of individual suburban zones and thus contributes to a better understanding of the processes that decisively shape the socio-spatial organisation of hinterlands in post-socialist cities today.
The article examines how different social and urban processes were reflected in the spatial patterns of three dimensions of population structure (demographic, socio-economic, and ethnic statuses) in Prague during the socialist and post-socialist periods. The article has three main objectives. First, it analyses inertia and change in socio-spatial patterns and evaluates the processes that have influenced them. Second, it investigates how the importance of all three statuses in the spatial differentiation of urban space has evolved. Third, the article focuses on the level of geographical variability as recorded within different spatial scales, and the development of this variability. It examines selected indicators of socio-economic, demographic, and ethnic statuses by employing detailed statistical data on the level of basic settlement units from the Population Censuses held in 1970, 1991, and 2011. The results confirm that the most significant changes in socio-spatial patterns between socialism and post-socialism can be observed for ethnic spatial differentiation. In addition, the city witnessed considerable changes in demographic spatial patterns in both periods, while socio-economic spatial patterns have remained relatively stable. New socio-spatial processes driven predominantly by movements of young and better-off populations have taken place in previously less attractive neighbourhoods. As a result, very different populations often live side-by-side in contemporary Prague.