In geography, industrial culture is a surprisingly understudied concept. Even when it is considered to play a role in the transformation processes of industrial cities or regions, it is not only terminologically diverse, but also lacks a firm theoretical and conceptual basis. This study conceptualises industrial culture and relates it to ongoing debates in various fields of geography by examining a range of literature from geography and related disciplines. This review structures the existing knowledge into four theoretical approaches: social class (Bourdieusian view), anthropological, institutional and evolutionary. Industrial culture is defined as a dynamic phenomenon in which past and present industrial production is embedded in the human physical environment, social structures, cognitive abilities, and institutions that may influence the future development choices of (post)industrial communities. This concept brings a more nuanced view of the less tangible aspects of culture to economic geography to strengthen its theoretical and empirical basis. This study explores how this concept can be integrated into current geographical research, focussing on the interaction between industrial culture and regional development through different approaches in economic geography (e.g., studies of regional assets, evolution of development paths, agency, deindustrialisation, innovation, entrepreneurship).

This article presents central settlements in Slovenia and their main characteristics in 2016. We defined central settlements based on services of general interest and the population of an individual settlement, and developed the analysis further by using competitiveness indicators. We defined 360 central settlements at six levels of centrality, among which the significance of Ljubljana as a national center of international importance and the significance of intermunicipal, local, and rural centers are increasing. The significance of certain regional centers at the second and third levels of centrality is decreasing. The level of services of general interest supplied to Slovenian territory is relatively appropriate, but it should be improved by promoting competitiveness, especially in centers of national and regional importance.

The economic transition in Slovenia has undoubtedly led to major changes in Slovene urban landscape. The political transition in the 1990-ies was only the beginning of other fundamental processes that followed: the socialistic economic system started collapsing, new markets emerged and cities were exposed to global socioeconomic forces. Slovene cities were and still are at the forefront of the mentioned change. Major spatial, cultural, social and other transformations as results of the economic transition can be seen and felt by citizens, workers and visitors. A theoretical framework of the economic transition was based upon the paradigm of postfordism. The paradigm can sufficiently explain the economic transition and its main results – the deindustrialisation and tertiarisation of urban space. Empirical findings of the socioeconomic structure of the Slovene urban system support the post-fordist paradigm since it has experienced a sharp deindustrialisation and a consecutive tertiarisation in the past two decades. An empirical analysis of the Slovene urban system was accomplished with the use of complex multivariate statistical and classification methods and its final result was a typification of Slovene cities according to the fordist/post-fordist regime of accumulation. The Slovene urban system is characterised by industrial (neofordistic) small cities on the one hand and polyfunctional large tertiary cities on the other. On the micro spatial level the city/region of Ljubljana was examined to identify the main spatial characteristics and changes caused by the economic transformation in the past 20 years. Detection of two main spatial processes was discussed: centripetal and centrifugal economic forces in the city. The centrifugal forces are stronger since suburbanized areas in the city region are gaining economic functions. A visible outcome can be seen in the formation of new suburban »edge« business zones, shopping centres and secondary office zones. But the centripetal forces are also notable especially in the city centre, which is gaining certain new functions. New forms of economic activities are shaping the spatial structure in the compact city, such as cultural industry and leisure activities. The end result of this economic restructuring is in the new economic geography of the city region of Ljubljana, which is marked by the fragmentation, specialisation and deconcentration of economic activities. These urban changes should be considered when new strategic spatial plans are to be developed. Polycentricism in the urban region is one possible solution to alleviate the emerging unsustainable spatial patterns that are a direct outcome of the economic transition. Monografija je pregled aktualnega dogajanja v slovenskih mestih in vpliva na vsakodnevno življenje. Izhaja iz sodobnih konceptov, kot so globalizacija, postfordistična proizvodnja, pomen ustvarjalnosti in inovativnosti. S temi koncepti skuša razložiti in tolmačiti spremembe v urbanem sistemu in zgradbi mest. Slovenska mesta so se v povprečju terciarizirala, zlasti so postale pomembne tržne storitve. Del slovenskih mest je še vedno »na prehodu« med industrijsko in postindustrijsko fazo. Nekatera mesta ne zmorejo priti na storitveno stopnjo in se soočajo z brezposelnostjo, nekatera imajo bolj neofordističen značaj. Nekatera regionalna središča bodo najverjetneje sledila Ljubljani, ki izkazuje najvišjo stopnjo preobrazbe. Slovenska mesta so del globalne mreže in doživljajo podobne spremembe kot druga mesta in urbani sistemi po svetu.

The article introduces a new form of economic activities, which has attracted much attention during the past years. This new form is cultural industry, a term which defines a certain part of tertiary activities, the importance of which is rapidly gaining in importance within cities. The term cultural industry includes all highly specialized services, which provide products and services, that have a higher symbolic than material value and trade with intellectual property rights. The article provides precise definitions of cultural industry and an empirical presentation in the case of Ljubljana. Furthermore the article also implies possible consequences of cultural industry on the economic and spatial development of cities.

The socioeconomic performance of industrial small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) in comparison to that of non-industrial SMSTs, is subject to evaluation in this paper, to see if the presence of industry has adverse effects on socioeconomic factors. We studied 32 variables accounting for dimensions of socioeconomic performance in Slovenian SMSTs and conducted various statistical tests. We found only minor differences between the two groups, pertaining mainly to some elements of economic structure and demography, and some mixed relations of industrial employment and socioeconomic performance. The results demonstrate that industrial SMSTs should not be labelled automatically as ‘disadvantaged’. We discuss why our results differ from general research expectations in the literature: in the local context, we outline the “egalitarian syndrome” and policies of polycentric spatial development; in the global context, we discuss the “failed tertiarisation effect” and the differences between post-socialist and “Western” countries. We conclude by proposing that research should be re-oriented towards the more place-sensitive issues of industrial towns across Europe.