Moving towards more cohesive and polycentric spatial patterns? Evidence from the Czech Republic

Territorial cohesion discourse represents normative and ideological vision of ideal spatial practices that should be applied in order to ensure balanced and polycentric spatial development. However, spatial diversity of existing territorial settings often diverge from political representations of spaces. Using the Czech Republic as a case study, the paper focuses on the development of urban system hierarchy by analysing the changes of work-commuting flows in the post-socialist period. The results show that the configurations of everyday spatial routines and functioning of real urban systems differ from political imaginaries to a great extent and are moving towards a more polarized pattern.