The article discusses the results of empirical research on the competitiveness of municipalities covered by the Natura 2000 network. Authors conducted a correlation analysis of the share of the Natura 2000 sites in the general area of a municipality and the indicators characterizing dimensions of competitiveness and development. Questionnaire surveys were conducted among local governments in Poland. On this basis conclusions on the socio-economic situation of municipalities with a large share of Natura 2000 areas and the impact of this form of conservation for local development were formulated. The article is also an attempt to answer the question whether Natura 2000 actually delivers sustainable development, or simply forces environmental protection without taking into account social and economic needs of local communities.
Competitive advantage of a region, beside its natural resources, is determined to a large extent by the quality and competence of local and regional authorities. In order to benefit from region`s full potential, it is essential to involve the authorities into efficient information policy. It is reflected by the results of a Poland-wide research, where 67% of respondents perceived that it was the creation of an information system enabling fast and accurate decision-making that was the key factor determining efficient management of a company. It is therefore important to analyse how the Western Pomeranian companies see the role and activities of local authorities in this aspect. Local governments play a unique part in information delivery as they represent a group of entities which should actively affect development conditions for companies in the region, within existing legal and administrative system. The paper presents results of the research on information policy in local governments in Western Pomerania.
This study is devoted to the evaluation of tourist traffic and factors differentiating it between the voivodeships of Poland and the counties of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. Within the country, factors related to the general economic development of a specific region play a more and more significant role in differentiating the tourist traffic. In the Podlaskie Voivodeship, however, there are continuously the natural values which are the main attraction for visiting tourists.
The aim of this study was a synthetic evaluation of EU funds’ distribution between 16 voivodships. It was found out that the regional EU funds’ distribution in the years 2000–2005 is an effect of a method, according to which the voivodships that more populated are privileged. In absolute numbers the biggest recipients were: Masovia, Silesia and Malopolska – regions with a high level of urbanization, equipped with a broad business environment and with a relatively rich scientific background. At the same time, these voivodships win the most direct foreign investments. Thus we deal with a double privilege of these voivodships in relation to other regions. In relative numbers, described by an index of received funds in relation to the share of produced GPD, the dominating regions are: Warmia and Mazury, Podlasie and Western Pomerania. But it does not mean that in this way the distance between these voivodships and the most developed regions is reduced. The research did not prove that there is a connection between GDP per capita and the amount of aid per one inhabitant. The lack of any connection (positive or negative), which is a logic effect of the assumption that the regional distribution of EU funds is conditioned mainly by the number of inhabitants, indicates that the criteria do not differentiate voivodships according to the anticipated economic effects. They take an egalitarian approach – every inhabitant should receive statistically equally.
The authors put a hypothesis of positive net agglomeration effect in Polish subregions in 2000–2005. The net agglomeration effect is a relatively new theory explaining spatial differences in economic activity. A production concentration function suggested by Ciccone and Hall is used in analysis. The hypothesis was verified with econometric methods. Multiple scenarios gave ambiguous results. Panel methods appeared to be ineffective, as opposed to pool methods. Cumulated number of patents was used as an approximation of the level of technical development. Among pool scenarios, domestic patents allowed to reduce problems connected with co-relation of explanatory variables. This approach gives conclusions about positive net agglomeration effect.
The author investigates the citizens perception of the impact of Polish-German border on local economies and communities in Western Poland. The research, based on the survey conducted in selected municipalities, reveals also the attitudes of the citizens towards the protection of natural environment and their opinion about the neighbours at both sides of the border. Finally, it attempts to assess the degree of citizens identification with the border area.
Marek S. Szczepański, Małgorzata Tyrybon
Tadeusz Stalewski, Adam Szpak
In the paper we present two neoclassical growth models of Solow-Swan type: with regional budget deficit and without it. The main aim of the paper is to analyze the convergence of regions in Poland towards their stable steady-states and to check the speed of this convergence. We use the method of calibration of parameters in models and numerical methods for calculating capital and output per worker in stable steady-states. The computations were made for the new administration division of Poland. On the base of empirical results we make conclusions about future distribution of wealth among regions and about potential possibilities of growth in regions. We also try to answer the question if in the future there will be convergence or divergence of welfare among regions of Poland.
Income disproportions that occur in Eastern Poland are becoming an important contemporary diagnostic problem due to their influence on human capital-related development of households. The diversity of incomes and of expenditures on human capital is the result of great differences in socio-economic situation of Eastern Polish regions, which are shaped by historical, technical and organizational, production-related, socio-cultural and natural conditions. Among the voivodeships with the lowest incomes there are those with low so-called ‘prosumptional’ expenditures – the expenditures related to investments in human capital.
The article was published in Polish in "Studia Regionalne i Lokalne", 3/2004
The notion of replacement migration is frequently used in recent literature on migration policy and demographic forecasts. Such migration streams could theoretically compensate for the natural decrease and population ageing, observed in most of developed countries. In the long run, however, international migration can only slow down, rather than reverse these processes. In this respect, the situation in Poland is unique as its migration balance will most likely remain negative until around 2020. Nevertheless, the population outflow abroad could to some extent be offset by the population inflow. This would require, among other conditions, a reformulation of Poland`s migration policy, with an increase of provisions enabling selective legal immigration, preventing at the same time the so-called irregular immigration. Such provisions are already being implemented in some EU countries (including Germany), and in the future will probably form the basis of EU migration policy.
Globalisation – characterised by dynamic economic growth, increasing exploitation of the natural environment, and deepening social inequalities – brings negative consequences and is strongly perceptible also in local communities. A new approach to development policy based on the idea of sustainable development must be incorporated into local governments’ strategies, programmes, and actions. We adopted exploratory approach to determine the level and identify the spatial patterns of sustainable development of Polish poviats. The aggregated (synthetic) indicators of economic, social, and environmental development were developed to analyse the spatial patterns of the poviats’ development trends. Our research shows that in Poland there are overwhelmingly more poviats characterised by lower development than those better developed in all three analysed categories. Hierarchical analysis using the Ward’s method revealed that Polish poviats can be divided into three relatively homogeneous clusters in terms of development levels. The largest group consists of poviats characterised by the relatively lowest level of sustainability in economic and social areas, and the highest – by environmental development. Analyses using the Moran method made it possible to determine the so-called spatial regimes of clusters. The captured spatial relationships indicate that selected poviats have a significant impact on the level of development in the neighbouring poviats.
This paper addresses the changes in the demographic development of Ukraine in the last 125 years in quantitative parameters of demographic sustainability: alterations in population size, its gender and age structure, and natural and migration movement. Demographic sustainability is considered to be the capacity of a country’s or a region’s demography to preserve a consistent population size with optimal proportions between its age categories. Eight historical-demographic stages related to specific military-political and socio-economic events are outlined and analysed. Demographic catastrophes and crises in Ukraine were directly related to the aggression of totalitarian regimes. They occurred at the initial stages of demographic transition, so Ukraine was capable of restoring the population size, albeit with deeply disturbed demographic structures. The large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine increases the risk of the occurrence of a modern demographic catastrophe. Nowadays, the demographic sustainability of Ukraine cannot be achieved autonomously without the positive impact of external factors – the respective governmental demographic and socio-economic policies.
The level of adaptability of basic administrative units in Poland (municipalities - gminy) has a huge impact on the extent of adverse consequences caused by floods, and therefore on the flood risk in municipalities. As part of the research, we selected 15 characteristics of the municipalities which shape their adaptability processes and allow a diagnosis of the municipalities’ adaptability to be made. The article aims at presenting the methodology of empirical research seeking to obtain observable data (indicators) using quantitative studies. These indicators make to possible to assess the level of the municipalities’ adaptability to flood risk. The empirical research with the use of the questionnaire produced the results which – by preparing a questionnaire –enabled us to obtain data which are unavailable to the general public, but are vital in identifying all characteristics of a municipality which impact its adaptability assessment. The questionnaire was applied in an adaptability research of 18 municipalities located in the Nysa Kłodzka basin, which are most at risk of flooding. Nevertheless, the research tool is a universal one and could be used for analysing any type of natural hazards.
Planned large-scale animal farms are often the subject of protests by local communities due to the nuisance they generate. The active participation of local residents occurs at an early stage of the investment process, namely the proceedings for issuing an environmental decision, because it is at this stage that location and characteristics of the facility are determined. The article analyses 52 cases of proceedings to set the environmental conditions for the construction of animal farms in which there were documented protests of local residents. The aim of the paper is to determine the course of environmental proceedings for animal farms under the influence of residents’ protests, as well as to determine whether environmental conditions are eventually established. The statements of protesting residents are presented by means of references to the category of knowledge in decision-making (Glicken 1999, 2000; Edelenbos 2011). The study showed that despite the binding rule that public opposition cannot be the basis for refusing to set environmental conditions, the protesting residents indirectly influence the final, usually negative, result of the environmental impact assessment. By blocking the realisation of unwanted investments, they have a real impact on the shaping of the local space.
The article analyses the expenses of local communities in zachodniopomorskie voivodship during the 2000–2005 period, with special regard to capital expenditures and to social care expenditures. Local communities conduct counterbalanced expenditures policy adapted accordingly to incomes. Whereas capital expenditures vary in time with growing tendency to diminishing, the social care expenses continually grow (in analyzed tenure). In spite of this the numbers of people taking advantage of social help diminishing very little (and even growing from time to time). What is more, as can be presumed, the social funds are constantly directed to the same group of beneficiaries without gaining the results in limiting the scale of poverty in community.
The purpose of the paper is to point out the characteristic features of spatial development in cities of the Metropolitan Union of Silesia (GZM), located in the central subregion of the Upper Silesian region. The specificity of its development is the result of both historical conditions arising from the exploitation of natural resources, which were taking place for many centuries, as well as the contemporary economic and social impacts that are affecting the functioning of highly integrated territorial units that co-create the GZM. The presented research results refer to a selected area of interest in urban morphology. In this case, it is the comparison of a combination of building types located in the GZM cities with buildings in other cities of the Upper Silesian region and all other Polish cities.
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the activity of local governments’ planning and investment service in the environmentally valuable areas of Podlaskie Voivodeship. Spatial planning at the local level is extremely important, especially in the environmentally valuable areas. It makes it possible to preserve the natural environment for future generations and to maintain ecological processes. However, protective measures should not disturb municipal investments. One of the appropriate solutions is the introduction of local land development plans – a framework of rational management of natural resources and of marketing development. This is particularly important in the areas of municipalities which, beside ecological functions, play an important role in the development of tourism and transport, and are situated in suburban areas.
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether it is feasible to ensure neo-endogenous sustainable development of valuable natural areas of the Lublin voivodship. In order to do that, the author analyzed the literature and documents on local development strategies, and the results of research carried out in 2013 in the Lublin voivodship, in 30 communes with the greatest natural value. As part of the study, she conducted a survey among 383 councillors – 86% of the total. The author shows that due to accumulation of many serious problems of sustainable development, such as deficiencies in environmental infrastructure, or underutilized (economic) potential of protected areas, it is difficult to implement neo-endogenous development – only 13% of the councillors said opportunities for development depended on a favourable arrangement of external and internal conditions.
Szanowni Czytelnicy, Autorzy i Recenzenci!
Z kwartalnikiem „Studia Regionalne i Lokalne” jestem związana niemal od początku jego istnienia. Mój pierwszy tekst ukazał się w czwartym numerze pisma w 2000 roku – pierwszym roku jego istnienia. Od tego czasu moje związki ze „Studiami” stopniowo się zacieśniały. Czytałam i recenzowałam artykuły, weszłam w skład redakcji, a teraz staję przed wyzwaniem kierowania naszym kwartalnikiem, zastępując pomysłodawcę i pierwszego redaktora naczelnego, profesora Grzegorza Gorzelaka, który budował kwartalnik z dbałością o jego jakość i rozpoznawalność.
Przejmując funkcję redaktorki naczelnej „Studiów”, czuję dumę i ekscytację. Z jednej strony, wchodzę w nową rolę ze świadomością, że będę kierować jednym z najlepszych czasopism w dziedzinie nauk społeczno-ekonomicznych w Polsce, pismem o uznanej pozycji, indeksowanym w SCOPUS, przyciągającym dobre teksty i świetnych Autorów, pismem, które pełni ważną funkcję w dyskusji naukowej. Z drugiej strony, już dziś wiem, że musimy dokonać wielu zmian, podyktowanych rosnącą konkurencją w zakresie publikacji naukowych i trendami związanymi z koniecznością udostępniania tekstów w formie elektronicznej i wymogami wolnego dostępu do prac naukowych finansowanych ze środków publicznych. Przygotowuję się, wspólnie z dr Dorotą Celińską-Janowicz, która szczęśliwie nadal będzie koordynować prace w redakcji kwartalnika, do podjęcia decyzji wzmacniających prestiż pisma, wykorzystując do tego także nowe możliwości techniczne i finansowe, które współprojektowałam w ramach Inicjatywy Doskonałości Uniwersytet Badawczy, uruchomionej na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim.
Chciałabym wspólnie z Państwem przeprowadzić te zmiany, by w najbliższych
latach „Studia Regionalne i Lokalne” wzmocniły swoją pozycję i cieszyły się niesłabnącym zainteresowaniem Autorów i Czytelników. Kierowanie kwartalnikiem to duża odpowiedzialność, jednak ze wspaniałym zespołem Redaktorów, Recenzentów, Autorów i gronem wytrawnych Czytelników, przy wsparciu Wydawnictwa Naukowego Scholar, podołamy temu zadaniu. Zapraszam Państwa do współtworzenia naszego pisma!
Agnieszka Olechnicka
1 października 2020 r.
Dynamic tourism development has resulted in equally dynamic growth of tourism industry, being the major source of income. Tourism development strategies are based on different concepts of economic growth which do not answer all questions. Among them is the issue of success factors: what makes certain localities enjoy fast tourism development while other similar places have problems? Against many beliefs on the significance of natural resources, more important are cultural assets and in particular development of tourist infrastructure and products. Having this in mind one should look for success factors in quality of human resources, elites and leadership.
This paper examines the development of international financial centres (IFC) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The study argues that the development of the financial services in CEE is characterized by external dependency, which is manifested in the form of hierarchical command and control functions over CEE financial subsidiaries within the West European IFC network. The paper quantitatively compares the factors of IFC functions of Budapest in comparison to those of Warsaw and Prague. It argues that despite the lack of market evidence showing signs of a regional centre focus during the transition period, there are some signs of IFC formation. The paper assesses the uneven impact of the global economic crisis upon CEE financial centres and confirms that their development trajectories became more differentiated as a result of the crisis. The steady decline of Budapest during the second half of the 2000s was accompanied by the rise of Warsaw. Our analysis concluded that Budapest, despite its earlier endeavours, most likely lost the competition to become an international financial centre.
The study discusses the processes of reactivation of passenger rail traffic in Poland in the years 2000–2020. After the reductions of the railroad network carried out before 2000, a renaissance of passenger transport could be observed. In the period under study, 63 sections of the railway lines were reconstructed. The total length of the reactivated routes was 1992 km, of which the electrified sections covered 549 km of the network. The largest areas of the concentration of reactivation activities were identified in south-eastern and northern Poland. The average speed on most routes was 65 km/h. The transport offer for 55% of the lines was based on more than six connections per day. Inconsistencies were also identified: out of 63 routes, passenger traffic was suspended again in 20 sections. Three types of reactivated routes can be identified, most of which are blindly terminated routes. The identified processes of reconstruction of traffic systems after 2000 represent yet another phase of railroad operations in Poland, after the previous phase of intensive regression and underfunding.
Convergence is one of the key issues of cohesion policy. The European Union applies different instruments of regional development to reduce disparities between regions and countries. Due to the discussion on the effectiveness of this policy, a research in this area seems to be required. The purpose of this article is to assess the diversity of wealth in the regions using the methods of measurement of sigma convergence. The main parameter used in the calculations is GDP per capita in 2000–2007 at the sub-regional level (NUTS-3). The research shows that income inequalities among some groups of Polish regions have increased after the accession to the EU. Convergence patterns vary in cities, rich sub-regions and poor sub-regions. In some cases, convergence is correlated with the dynamics of GDP, whereas in other there is no significant relationship between convergence and the economic situation.
Tourist sector belongs to most dynamic sectors able to absorb large and different human resources. Its chances to get developed depend not only on natural and cultural resources, but also increasingly on necessary infrastructure and appropriate development policy. While Polish natural resources were mostly overvalued, the cultural ones were seemed to be underestimated. In general most of the Polish territory does not have significant touristic resources and its chances to develop touristic sector depends to a large extent on ability to create touristic products and on involvement into networks with other, better equipped regions. The state policy should concentrate scarce development resources on 1. areas already touristically developed in order to improve their competitiveness and 2. support to diffusion processes and cooperation network creating.
Sustaining the development at the local level is associated with many different issues. One of the major ones is the urban growth policy. This can be justified by the importance of space as one of the most important environmental assets, which has to be treated as non-renewable one. At the same time it is necessary to remember that the shape of this policy is influenced by many factors, i.e. legal regulations and current paradigm of urban development. Along with introduction of the sustainable development concept this paradigm evolves. Currently as some of its most important components one should mention urban regeneration of the degraded areas and limiting urban growth to the areas already urbanized. As far as urban regeneration is discussed, it is possible to mention a number of issues that have to be taken into account. At the same time one can regard the inside growth of cities which means reusing degraded areas – as real alternative to the on-going suburbanization and encroachment of urban structures to the areas still remaining its agricultural or natural character.
The main purpose of this paper is to analyze depopulation processes of rural areas in Lower Silesia in the years 1995–2015. The authors intend to determine the scale, durability and spatial distribution of depopulation in rural areas, as well as to analyze the factors of population changes which contribute to population loss. It helps them to identify depopulating rural areas and to draw up their typology according to the specificity of contemporary demographic changes. With reference to the scale of depopulation, four types of rural areas are distinguished (developing, stagnating, depopulating, intensively depopulating), and according to the durability of depopulation five types are identified (constantly developing, episodically depopulating, temporarily depopulating, prevalently depopulating, constantly depopulating). The analysis shows that depopulation is a problem in the rural areas of the Sudety Mts., Sudety Foreland, and in peripheral areas, in main urban centres. What is more, the processes of depopulation in Lower Silesia should not be associated exclusively with villages located in the Sudetes. In depopulating rural areas of Lower Silesia, the population decline is compounded by negative demographic trends (low birth rate, increase in post-working age population).
The subject of this article is historical urban development, localization-specific and cultural urban heritage of the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi. All the urban development periods, from the very beginning until today, are described in a chronological order. Also, the author discusses general legal principles of urban space development applicable in this country. In all the cases, the author seeks to clarify the legislation problems and to discuss some examples of urban management of the twenty-hundred-years-old urban space. The text is based on the: (1) urban rehabilitation and revitalization documentation of Tbilisi, prepared in 2000 within an international project financed by the European Council and The Georgian Cultural Heritage Foundation, published in Strasburg in Georgian, French and English languages (Tumaniszwili 2001), (2) empirical documentation prepared in 2003–2006 within the international Project AIA and (3) historical documentation gathered in Georgian and foreign libraries in 1998–2008.
The notion of replacement migration is frequently used in the recent literature on migration policy and demographic forecasts. Such migration streams could theoretically compensate for the natural decrease and population ageing, as observed in most of developed countries today. In the long run, however, international migration can only slow down, rather than reverse these processes. The situation of Poland in this respect is specific, as its migration balance will most likely remain negative until around the year 2020. Nevertheless, the population outflow abroad could to some extent be matched by the population inflow. This would require, among other conditions, a reformulation of Poland`s migration policy an increase of provisions for legal, selective immigration.
This paper is a comparative study of main social theories of urban development in the last fifty tears. The author presents various approaches and social theories from across the world. He divides the after-war period into three phases according to the profound social changes. the first one covers the years of ending the post-war reconstruction of economy, infrastructure and cities damaged by the war. the second phase includes "the golden years" between approximately 1955 and 1975, when the formation of different types of welfare state, but mainly the urban population growth, suburbanization and metropolization processes and improvement of living conditions and urbanities took place. the third phase, covering the years between 1975 and 2000, is marked by the first signs of the decline of the welfare state accompanied by deepening social inequalities increasing urban poverty, marginalization of some groups of the population, political radicalization and urban conflicts as well as by urban and regional polarization.
Sociological research on the social bonds so far has analysed causes and a degree in which the community does not meet requirements of the traditional community any more. Modern research on the nature and the structure of local communities have introduced a new typology which reflects the advanced state of modern social bonds. Social relationships between the residents of cities and countries are reduced the number of the partners as well as people who seem to have the role of the partner decrease and the contact circles are homogenous as regards the socio-professional affiliation of partners. Interactions partners are willing to offer their help although they claim that they seldom use it and if only they turn to somebody for help it will be the closest family.
The turn of the eighties and nineties was a particular moment for the natural environment in Poland. Two important factors occurred at that time. First was the post-communist transformation of the country, which affected all spheres of socio-economic life in Poland. On the other hand, new ideas of sustainable development taking into account both quality of human life and quality of natural environment have been spreading all around the world. Changes in the system of environmental protection in Poland which occurred after the year 1989, took into consideration the consequences of both processes. It seems therefore interesting to find out how the new instruments worked and what effects they have brought to Poland in the nineties. This article describes the changes in the quality of different components of natural environment in the areas of environmental risk in Poland between 1982 and 2000. Using the results and methodology of Rolewicz and Kassenberg (1985), the situation in 27 such areas was analyzed.
