Commuting in Greece and the spatial variations of its intensity

Abstract

The intensification of commuting is a phenomenon that is more and more common in Europe. This kind of mobility is part of a wider context of mobility, such as regular mobility between the main and secondary residence or the inflows of foreign population. Such a process is also observed in our country. It seems, however, that commuting’s intensity presents relatively high variations at the intraregional level. The different types of mobility reflect changes in the spatial organization while an interesting case Goodis that of rural areas close to small and medium-sized urban centers. The expansion of the living space could contribute to the economic, and consequently demographic, revitalization of these "small" territorial units, corresponding to geographical and / or socio-cultural territories. The aim of this paper is to formulate a method allowing to assess the labor force’s mobility at low spatial scale through indicators adapted to such a scale. The relevant data are available for the 2001 and 2011 censuses. The proposed method allows not only to detect the spatial patterns of commuting and their recent trends but also to identify the variables that successfully reflect the spatial heterogeneity of human behaviors.