Territorial Competitiveness Strategies in Medium Size Cities: Segovia Functional Area with Room for Business Opportunity

Abstract

An analysis of functional re-adaptation processes observed in medium-sized European towns is
here felt to necessarily enrich our knowledge of changes in contemporary urban spaces. Such
strategies would answer to the same factors in the urban system as a whole and attempt to seize
upon the opportunities that arise from large-scale interrelations and links generated upon the basis
of the mechanisms for growth deriving from large urban areas. All this is the outcome of advances
made in accessibility and connectivity, and their potential for stimulating those capital and labour
fl ows upon which that development impact is based, which is so decisive for housing and innovative
business initiatives, along with the promotion of a fruitful diversifi cation of any urban economic
base ground, with its proper social setting. Examples of these trends is provided by the city of
Segovia, which, basking in the advantages of a high speed railway link-up and already rich thanks
to the quality of life its advantaged environmental setting provides, seeks now to further optimize
its strategic location as a desirable economic siting area thus making itself a case in point that
demonstrates the validity of those moves to re-qualify the supply of land for its fl edgling businesses
as within an incipient metropolitan area.