Polycentrism

Polycentrism is the principle of organization of a region around several political, social or financial centres. Examples of polycentric cities include the Ruhr area in Germany, Stoke-on-Trent in the UK and the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States. These "cities" have no single centre, but several. Other examples are Randstad in the Netherlands, Berlin in Germany (due to seperation of the city by the Berlin wall) and the Gold Coast in Australia.