OPPORTUNITIES OF NEW TOWNS – THE EFFECTS OF GAINING TOWN STATUS ON THE SETTLEMENT – SYSTEM IN NORTHERN HUNGARY

The paper discuses an important process related to urbanization – the granting of town status for village-type communities from Northern Hungary and assesses the implication of this process for local economic development. The paper presents several mini case studies of different communities which have applied for town status and discusses the steps taken by those communities. The conclusion of the study is that despite nonquestionable bene ts for those communities and the entire region which is under-urbanized, the situation is far from simple. The entire process is highly political and future developments are not completely predictable.