South-Western Skåne
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009) |
South-Western Scania (Swedish: Sydvästra Skåne), or more seldom Greater Malmö (Stor-Malmö) or Metropolitan Malmö, is the metropolitan area surrounding the cities of Malmö and Lund in the southern-most part of Sweden. It constitutes the south-eastern part of the Scandinavian Öresund Region.
Contrary to the concept of South-Western Scania, there is no common understanding of what is to be included and excluded in Metropolitan Malmö. The cities of Ystad and Helsingborg would typically be understood to be parts of the same metropolitan area as the cities of Malmö and Lund, and so understood the metropolitan area is of roughly the same size as Metropolitan Gothenburg, but clearly smaller than Metropolitan Copenhagen or Metropolitan Stockholm. On the other hand, South-Western Scania is a more limited concept with an identity of its own.
Lund, which for the past 150 years has not been on a par with Malmö in terms of population, was historically the most important city in Scania and the oldest one. As the seat of an archbishop in the Middle Ages (Lund Cathedral and the Cathedral School, both founded in the 11th century) it became a major ecclesiastical centre, and ´the setting up of Lund University in the 17th century initiated a tradition of science and learning. However, after the Reformation it lost its administrative position to Malmö which, driven by trade, shipbuilding and manufacturing industry, grew into the largest city of the region in the modern age. Although Lund has sustained an intense growth since the 1930s and has become much more of an industrial city - albeit with an emphasis on chemical, medical and electronics industry rather than consumer mechanical products and foodstuffs - it has not come near to catching up with Malmö. The two urban centres retain strongly individual identities and cultural and demographic profiles. While there is interurban cooperation on many levels and growing commuting, which since the advent of the Öresund bridge also includes Copenhagen, ordinary people of Lund or its outlying suburbs ("villages") don't think of themselves as belonging to a "greater Malmö".
Clustered along the shore of The Sound, from the medieval town of Skanör in the South to Bjärred in the North, a set of villages and towns have in the latter half of the 20th century expanded to an almost continuous set of suburbs. The commuter belt in the inland consists of more separate towns and expanded villages. The inclusion of the harbour town of Trelleborg at the Baltic Sea in the South, or the exclusion of Eslöv, Höör and Landskrona in the North, necessarily will appear arbitrary
Since the 1970s, improved highways and commuter train connections have led to the actual metropolitan area growing to include Ystad, Skurup, Sjöbo, Eslöv, Höör, Landskrona and Helsingborg. "Metropolitan area" is used in a wide sense here: often there are wide expanses of farmland and forest between the urban/village agglomerations, especially in the parts of the area located to the north or east of Lund. It's not uncommon to live near Malmö and work either in Ystad or Helsingborg, or vice versa. Mentally, however, these towns have kept their allegiance with older divisions of Scania. Inhabitants of Eslöv and Höör consider themselves to live in Central Scania, just as Landskrona is still grouped together with Helsingborg rather than Malmö–Lund.
South-Western Skåne, or Greater Malmö, consists of Malmö Municipality, Lund Municipality, Burlöv Municipality, Svedala Municipality, Lomma Municipality, Staffanstorp Municipality, Trelleborg Municipality och Vellinge Municipality.
