Extern

Abstract:
The process of suburbanisation and metropolisation of major Polish cities that hasbeen increasing since the mid-1990s involves specific socio-demographic changes. Oneof the most notable developments is the reverse migration flow. Until the early 1990s thepredominant direction was from the surrounding countryside to the city centre. Today, thepredominant direction of migration is the outflow from the centre to external zones in themetropolitan area. Similar processes as nationwide are observed in Cracow [Kraków].The people’s migration is accompanied by the relocation of industrial and service companies,which leads to the process of post-suburbanisation resulting in the development ofdifferentiated functional and spatial relationships within the Cracow Metropolitan Area(CMA). The purpose of this study is to examine changes in the scale and direction of theserelationships within the CMA using data on commuting collected by the Cracow StatisticalOffice for 2006 and 2011 as well as survey data collected and analysed by the authors.The study demonstrates that besides the prevailing process of suburbanisation the CracowMetropolitan Area shows diversified patterns of commuting, which may indicate ongoingpost-suburbanisation.