Sustainable territorial development and concepts of polycentricity in Slovak territorial development

This paper presents the situation and potentials for the development of polycentric structures within the Slovak settlement system in the context of spatial development in Central Europe. The trajectories in the development of the morphological and relational features of settlement structures are compared with official conceptual documents at the national and regional levels. The limits and potentials concerning the development of spatial structures at different hierarchical levels, resulting from the specific situation in Slovakia, are examined with a particular focus on trans-border development perspectives, including the appearance of new spatial-temporal patterns. The concepts brought forward in the ESPON analyses are critically discussed with an attempt to provide a more contextualized view of the nature of polycentric organization in the current phase of development of integration and transformation processes in Slovakia.