Hardi Tamás - Tóth Károly (szerk.): Határaink mentén. A szlovák-magyar határtérség társadalmi-gazdasági vizsgálata (2008) (Somorja, 2009)
Esettanulmányok
210 Summary state or empire frameworks but also by the spatial features of the modem economy on European scale.- One of the most important influencing factors of the movements (or potential movements) of the inhabitants is the space of action of the cities, the relationship of the urban network and the state border. The separating role of the border narrows down the theoretical hinterlands and vice versa, there are areas that are not in the hinterland of any Hungarian town or city or are only weakly integrated, they are peripheries without urban centres. In general we can say that one of the most important manifestations of the historical spatial development role of the state borders is the transformation of the urban hinterlands. The majority of our daily movements are linked to the characteristics of the settlement network: employment, or the use of different services, schools are less and less restricted to the place of residence, we have jobs or use these services in different settlements or centres. For the population in the border region these can be in the same country but can also be other settlements closer in space but in the territory of another country.- The development of the transport network usually has a mutually reinforcing interaction with the above two factors. The cross-border sections of the elements of the large-scale networks are usually designed for transit traffic and are not very important in themselves for the border regions. The actual crossing of the border is not a loss of time these days, the former function of the border, the stopping of the traffic does not exist any longer. These tracks, however, may be very important for the accessibility of the border regions, which may lessen the peripheral situation that is often caused by other factors. The other important level of the transport network is the elements of the network connecting the inner areas of the border region, whose cross-border integration is often much more problematic than that of the large axes. One of the most important determining factors of the spatial structure of the border regions are these roads (including bridges, ferries and lines of public transport), as they directly influence the accessibility of the centres (including the ones on the other side of the border). All these designate the range of those movements and interactions that shape the internal network and integration of the border regions. The number, intensity and direction of these movements allow us to differentiate among the basic types of the cross-border interactions, on the basis of which we can define the basic inner structure of the whole border region (alienated, co-existing, mutually cooperating and integrated border regions). These types are splendidly featured by the model of Martinez {Martinez, 1994, 7), that we used during our work. THE SLOVAK-HUNGARI AN BORDER REGION History of the border The Slovak-Hungarian border region is situated in an area that belonged to single state formations until the end of World War I: the Kingdom of Hungary and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The state border between Czechoslovakia and Hungary was created by the peace treaty concluding World War I. The state border did not follow the ethnic border: significant areas with Hungarian majority were annexed to Czechoslovakia. In the peace treaty of 1920 the border was designated mainly on the basis of economic, militarystrategic and transport geographical considerations {Hevesi-Kocsis, 2003), thus the network of personal relations, the aspects of
