Industrial medium size cities in Spain: geographical characterization, classification and typologies
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Abstract
Medium-sized cities have been traditionally linked to their administrative and service functions, basically associated with their role as province capitals. Likewise, medium-size cities have been portrayed for the operating agri-food industries related to basic transformation processes in rural environments. The industrial city concept has been barely used to describe a medium-sized urban space. However, if we look at some of the main social, economic and spatial indicators of productive activity in Spain, medium-sized cities offer a prominent significance and in numerous urban areas the industry are of greater importance and impact. This work proposes an approach to this territorial reality, developing a geographical characterization of the industry in medium-sized cities based on the study of different variables related to companies, employment, the active population and the area dedicated to economic activities. The work studies the 48 intermediate urban areas existing in Spain, ranks and classifies them and establishes typologies to clarify the concept of the industrial medium-size city.