The paper addresses the issue of the constraint function and its use in methods of regional taxonomy and assessment of regional systems. It proposes an alternative definition for the constraint function for rule-based methods of functional regionalisation, such as the delineation of local labour-market areas, including alternative conceptions of the self-containment of the regions, and the trade-off between size and self-containment. An alternative constraint function has been applied in the territory of the Czech Republic as shown in the paper's illustrative example of its use from the original CURDS algorithm.

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Josef KUNC a kolektivVšechna práva vyhrazena. Žádná část této elektronické knihy nesmí být reprodukována nebo šířena v papírové, elektronické či jiné podobě bez předchozího písemného souhlasu vykonavatele majetkových práv k dílu, kterého je možno kontaktovat na adrese -Nakladatelství Masarykovy univerzity, Žerotínovo náměstí 9, 601 77 Brno.

Annotation The contribution is concerned with a concept of a region in spatial and regional science. A number of terms related to specific instances of a region can cause a misinterpretation of the concept both in

Some fifty years in the development of ideas about the definition and use of functional regions are elaborated in this article, as an introduction to this Special Issue of the Moravian Geographical Reports. The conceptual basis for functional regions is discussed, initially in relation to region-organising interactions and their behavioural foundations. This paper presents an approach to functional regions which presumes that such regions objectively exist and that they are based on more or less tangible processes (however, a different view of regions is also briefly described). A typology of functional regions is presented and the development of methods for finding a definition of functional regions is discussed, as well as a typology for these methods. The final part of this article stresses the importance of functional regions in geographical research, and introduces some emerging new prospects in the study of functional regions.