Geography and medium-size cities of Spain: searching for an unnecessary definition?

Abstract

In the last thirty years the Geography and other related sciences in the territorial study have dealt profusely with Spanish medium-size cities, with the aim to achieve an identification of their socioeconomic reality and of the urban guidelines that allow to elucidate the current concept on this issue. So many have been the investigations carried out in this field with the double purpose of understanding what by medium-size city is meant and how it can be categorized, raising different type of indicators, from size and number of inhabitants, location, urban identity, urban land use, to economic activities and, finally, the urban functions. Thus, this article reviews the previous studies, classifies the most relevant analysis for this situation and ascertain that the debate on the definition of a medium-size city, far from being worked out, continues fully in force. The discrepancy in criteria concerning the significance of medium-size cities in Spain entails a controversial issue about the real necessity of a definition about this complex phenomenon with diffuse limits.