ABSTRACT
The dominance of Warsaw in the main connectivity table (Table 31.1) comes as little surprise since, for the past two decades, this city has been probably the main connection between the largest national economy of Eastern Europe and the outside world. One must point out that this has been an era of unprecedented economic growth, both in the region, and especially in Poland. This was powered to a large extent by foreign investors who tend to enter emerging economies by setting up their headquarters and branch offices ‘cautiously’, that is, often preferring the national capitals above anywhere else (EBRD, 1995). This, however, tends to change over time which can also be seen in Table 31.1. The high position of Budapest is definitely a remnant from the past Communist era; Budapest then served as a gateway city to the whole Soviet bloc. It was the main meeting point between the East and the West which had added to its otherwise remarkable metropolitan scale inherited from the Habsburg Empire. The high position of Budapest in today’s global city network shows how persistent and powerful the mechanism of world city formation can be once it becomes established (Jöns, 1999). Not only can it resist changes in the international landscape and survive national economic turbulence, it can also provide some consolation in times of global crisis. Budapest remains Eastern Europe’s third ranked city. However, because of Hungary’s difficult transformation over the past ten years it has been overtaken by Prague (ranked second) with its unquestioned rise as the most fashionable Eastern European city in recent years. Global network connectivity of Eastern European cities. https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
RANK
CITY
GROSS CONNECTIVITY
PROPORTIONATE CONNECTIVITY (1.00 = LONDON)
1
Warsaw
53,880
0.56
2
Prague
46,808
0.49
3
Budapest
46,420
0.48
4
Bucharest
38,648
0.40
5
Sofia
30,418
0.32
6
Bratislava
28,399
0.30
7
Zagreb
25,340
0.26
8
Ljubljana
24,053
0.25
9
Riga
21,067
0.22
10
Tallinn
20,374
0.21
11
Vilnius
18,442
0.19
12
Belgrade
16,096
0.17
13
Kraków
12,844
0.13
14
Skopje
10,366
0.11
15
Poznań
8930
0.09
16
Wroclaw
8177
0.08
17
Sarajevo
8128
0.08
18
Tirana
7212
0.07
19
Podgorica
4684
0.05
