Pécs, a capital of a peripheral region

Abstract

Pécs is the administrative, public service and economic centre of South Transdanubia. The peculiarity of this central role, however is related to the peripheral position of its surrounding region. Hence, Pécs itself can be considered a relative periphery in all centre-periphery dimensions, with a weak economy, limited foreign investment and a significantly declining population. There are many aspects of a cohesive, cooperative or rivalrous relationship between a city and its region that need to be examined. In our research we focused on the governance dimension of this relationship, i.e., how actors with public authority or influence at different levels and in different sectors of government contribute to the reduction of disadvantages and the exploitation of the potential benefits of peripherality. This study examines which of Pécs' central functions are the strongest, and whether the city's development plans - including those along these functions - reflect a conscious commitment and a strategy that can be mutually beneficial for both the centre and the periphery. Is it more likely that Pécs radiates a development potential to its region or that it drains resources from it? On the basis of semi-structured interviews, we also tried to find out how the city's elite viewed the past two to three decades, what and why they considered successes and failures, how they saw the city's options, its ability to assert its interests, mobilise its internal resources and attract external resources, and how they assess the role of the Baranya county seat as the centre of its agglomeration, county and region.

The research block focusing on Pécs used a mixed methodological apparatus. As one of our starting points was the importance of the city's place in the region as defined by various development plans, we subjected the territorial and urban plans to a thorough content analysis. Our empirical research was based on a telephone questionnaire survey covering 233 persons in 2020-2021, and on semi-structured interviews: 45 interviews with a common theme were conducted in the county, and 7 interviews with a specific focus were conducted among people living and working in Pécs in 2021-2022. The interviewees are typically former or current leaders who have played or are playing a role in local advocacy and decision-making.

In the first part of the paper, we analyse what the main district functions of the city are, and how much influence urban governance can have on shaping them. We will then look at the evolution of the city's 'designated' central role, and the extent to which spatial functions have been considered in development plans at different levels and in different ways. A separate sub-chapter is also devoted to the European Capital of Culture project in Pécs, because the case is an excellent illustration of the contradiction between the city's limited scope and its ambitions as a regional capital. Finally, based on interviews with leaders from Pécs and other municipalities in the county, we present their perceptions of the city's governance, its place in power and in the region, showing that the discrepancy between the city's prestige and its role as a centre is very complex and needs to be further explored.