Europe is a continent of great cities. City life has been at the core of civilization since classical times. Indeed the very word "civilization" originated in the Latin word for city, "civitas".
Many geographic studies deal with specific European cities or national systems of cities in Europe. Less attention has been given to the evolving structure of urban systems and urbanization in a broad, trans-national European context. Examining European urbanization from this perspective several new and important factors seem to be emerging.
The process of economic and political integration in Western Europe may make the old nation-bound system of cities obsolete. Previously, national boundaries provided the context for urban growth. In the future, new trans-national factors should become dominant. European urban systems have to a great extent favored the primate capital cities (e. g. London, Paris, Athens, Copenhagen, Stockholm). A new trans-national system may work toward the detriment of these long-established national centers.
Paramount among the trans-national factors affecting urbanization are changing configurations of economic hinterlands to include areas in several nations. International frontiers will have a less inhibiting aspect on the delineation of future urban hinterlands.
A new trans-national core region is emerging in Europe extending from southeast England across the Low Countries, western Germany, eastern France, Switzerland, into northern Italy. To a great extent this new urban core corresponds to the old domain of Charlemagne's grandson Lothar, hence it can be called the Lotharingian core.
The recent opening up of eastern Europe and the prospect for the integration of its economies with those of western Europe will have a major impact on European urban system. Perhaps most important of these developments will be a shift eastward of the Lotharingian core, a shift likely to benefit cities such as Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Vienna, Budapest and Trieste. Moscow, however, may lie sufficiently to the East so as not to be significantly affected.
The opening up of eastern Europe can have a negative impact on economic growth and urbanization in western peripheral areas such as Scandinavia, Iberia, southern Italy, Greece, and the British Isles beyond southeast England.
Most of the papers making up this special issue deal in one way or another with these new circumstances. Smith's study of the London Docklands offers a radical dissenting interpretation of the private sector-dominant urban development process. Marc de Smidt and van der Mark assess the relative locational strengths of twelve European cities for office and other tertiary services development. The erosion of the old national boundaries is seen as an important aspect in a city's relative attractiveness for this kind of development. Palomaki identifies through a series of interesting methodological approaches, the core areas and core cites for an integrating Europe. He concludes that no one city can claim to be the new European capital, but several cities wili benefit substantially by the forthcoming economic integration because they are well-positioned to take advantage of enlarged hinterlands.
The remaining papers examine specific cities. Costa traces the planning conflicts that beset Rome from the time of its designation as the capital of united Italy until the beginning of World War I. Vroom reviews the postwar planning of Antwerp which has in recent years emphasized preservation of the city's important historic resources. Dutt and the Achmatowicz-Otoks' study the preference patterns of different occupational groups for housing in Warsaw. Noble, Costa and Pendleton describe the planning experiences of three southern European Capital cities from this mid-19th century to the present day.