Generations and urban development: evidences from an on-site survey of 37 settlements in Hungary near to the Slovenian borderline

Nowadays, as Simmie and Martin (2010) point out, regional and local economic development is far from a smooth and incremental process, instead, it is the subject to all sorts of interruptions and disruptions (such as periodic economic recessions, the unpredictable rise of major competitors, unexpected plant closures, the challenges arising from technological change and the like), and the state responses answering these challenges and the degree of decentralization and the adaptive capacity of territories differs to a high extent even in the same national economy. There is increasing stress on small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) from the viewpoint of long-term viability, as the economic concentrations attract increasing number of residents small and medium-sized towns. Therefore, they must design programs which improves their population retention. Challenging that, the KRAFT (‘Creative City, Sustainable Region’) Concept developed by iASK (Institute of Advanced Studies Kőszeg, Hungary) is a regional development initiative, which focuses on the connectivity and cooperation of key players. One of the major outcomes of the initiative is the ‘KRAFT’ complex system of indicators (‘KRAFT-index’), an analytical tool suitable to demonstrate regional development tendencies regarding eight specific development areas (economic development, governance, social vitality, health, culture, networks, natural and built environment and education, learning). In 2018 we have conducted an on-site survey in Nagykanizsa regional centre and its surroundings (36 SMSTs), a territory near to the Slovenian borderline. 2,000 questionnaires have been collected altogether by the computer-assisted data collection (filling one questionnaire required about 35-40 seconds) with the tracking ensure the representability checkable. The data collection aimed at identifying and collecting opinions and attitudes of local residents 16 years old and above, having permanent or temporary address in the region. The sample is representative by age, gender and territory. The current research aims at identifying behavioural and satisfaction patterns of generations in the regions challenging sustainability and capacity building factors of long-term viability. Applying regional statistical methods core-periphery, comparative and inequality analysis will be used to demonstrate the results of the survey on the eight areas. As part of the study an analysis will be provided in the light of sustainability for assessing potential synergies of the methodology and the framework.