The article deals with the evolution of the regional policy in the UK whose traditions in this respect are the richest among West European countries. Its genesis is linked with attempts to reduce unemployment in industrialised regions. It is commonly agreed that state interventionism in regional development began with the publication of the Special Areas Development and Improvement Act of 1934 which covered Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and northern England. The article focuses on the assumptions behind the regional policy, its objectives, scope, instruments used, and institutions responsible for its implementation indicating changes made by subsequent Conservative and Labour governments. While the former restricted the scope and volume of support in aid of assisted areas, the latter did the opposite. The regional policy defined and modified by the European Community plays a significant role in determining its shape as much as deregulation, reinforcement of the regional tier itself, predominance of social matters over economic ones as well affective and selective nature of support.
The study focuses on the spatial concentration of street art in Belfast within the context of the conflict in Northern Ireland and the influence of the city’s ethno-national composition on its distribution. Both majority- and minority-British areas featured loyalist (pro-British) murals. Nationalist (pro-Irish) art was present in areas with an Irish majority. There was a difference in the frequency of the themes depicted between districts, influenced by factors such as tragic events from the Troubles and the control of territory by paramilitary groups. In the city centre, street art unrelated to the subject of the study was observed. This can be attributed to restrictions on access to the area and limitations on organising public demonstrations in this part of Belfast during the Troubles, as well as to subsequent urban regeneration, the high proportion of foreign residents, and the presence of a large young population.
The aim of the research was to identify and measure the level of economic freedom across the EU at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. Special attention was paid to the changes in (i.e. liberalization of) the Polish economy. The basis of the comparative analysis between the 25 EU countries (excluding Malta and Cyprus) was provided by data acquired from the annual economic freedom study conducted by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal in the years 1996–2008. The overall economic freedom index consisted of the average from marks for 10 different features – more detailed criteria. The average index acquired from all 10 features was the basis of a country’s mark for the level of liberalism (economic freedom) or statism. The proposed methodological approach, in which the two main currents of statism and liberalism are exposed, was especially useful in evaluating the processes occurring in the Polish economy. The results of the research show that, in the group of 15 countries of the “old” EU, 10 can be considered more liberal. This group includes, as the most liberal EU state of all, Ireland. The second group is formed of 5 countries apparently less liberal, i.e. Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Greece. Poland is found to be the most statist country anywhere in the EU, notwithstanding its status (along with the Czech Republic and Estonia) as one of the three leaders of liberalism in the first years of transformation. In this situation it is hard to identify the Polish economy with advanced or even excessive liberalism. It is – according to the present standards – a rather state-controlled economy, albeit with certain but scarce elements of liberalism. The research shows that the economic crisis which occurred from mid 2007 cannot be identified only with the liberal economy, even though the implemented methods of dealing with the crisis seem to point to such a source. Statist solutions prevail here, but some liberal methods appear as well. A solution to this dilemma can only be anticipated after several years have passed.
A representative sample of 1328 participants, coming from three historically different regions of Poland (Western and Northern Lands, Eastern Wall and former Galicia), and an analogous sample of 900 participants, recruited from two different regions of Ukraine (western and eastern Ukraine) were compared with respect to different aspects of identity (place identity, place attachment, psychological rootedness, neighbourhood ties, regional and national identity, etc.). In line with the predictions, Poland turned out more homogeneous than Ukraine. Western Ukrainians showed more similarity to inhabitants of the eastern and the southern regions of Poland than to the eastern parts of Ukraine.
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.
The paper discusses the findings from a survey conducted on representative samples from three historically dissimilar regions of Poland (Eastern Poland, Galicia, western and northern regions) and two in Ukraine (western and eastern Ukraine). It outlines the results of analyses investigating regional disparities in Poland and Ukraine, and similarities shared by all the five regions in terms of different aspects of local and national identity, taking into account the role of objective factors affecting regional disparities (mainly urbanisation rates). A series of cluster analyses has proven that the area of Poland is much more homogeneous than that of Ukraine. Likewise, western Ukrainians showed more similarity to the inhabitants of eastern and south-eastern regions of Poland than to the eastern parts of Ukraine.
The article attempts to indicate the hypothetical spatial extent of the process of rural gentrification. To this end, using the extended case method, the author elaborates on the rural gentrification index that has been developed by describing demographic, social, economic, and spatial changes. This approach made it possible to identify areas where the phenomenon in question is the most active. It turns out that the potential range of gentrification in Poland mainly includes counties located near large cities – especially those located in central, northern, western and, south-western parts of Poland – which could be described with the English-language term as city’s countryside.
The author discusses different definitions of social justice related to equality of outcome and equality of opportunity. It is argued that, in the territorial perspective, public policy should aim at improving the equality of opportunity by means of reducing social exclusion rather than at fighting regional disparities in the standards of living. What is challenged is the interpretation of the relationship between political preferences and the core–periphery division of Poland into Northern and Western Territories on the one hand and Eastern and South-Eastern regions on the other, as presented by R. Perdał et al. (2020).
New Public Management – inspired reforms have influenced implementation of management principles in local government, the marketisation and outsourcing. These reforms were mostly visible in the United Kingdom but appear also in other European countries, for example: Ireland, Sweden, Germany, the least in France (among described in this article). There is a risk that NPM-led reforms may come to lose sight of the underlying social purpose of public services. NPM has not became a new, universal model of public sector management. The debate about public service reform has moved (particularly in UK) beyond the concerns of NPM to an emerging concept of networked community governance.
The aim of the article is to present the process of changes which occurred from the 1970s until 2012 in the areas of urban agglomerations in Poland. In contemporary agglomerations in Poland, their socio-economic function is centralized while land use and building development become progressively decentralized, which results in dynamic growth of the central metropolitan area, and in simultaneous deurbanization of its zone of influence. The described problem is typical of the Warsaw Urban Agglomeration (Warszawski Zespół Miejski, WZM), where the population of the metropolitan zone increases while the importance of the surrounding towns, particularly in their central areas, decreases. The objective of this paper is to present these contemporary trends in the communes of the northern zone of WZM. The analysis involves three towns: Legionowo, Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki, and Zakroczym, and two communes – Jabłonna and Wieliszew. The results are compared with relevant changes occurring in the communes of the Piaseczno district. The examined processes are also confronted with the proposals and arrangements included in planning concepts prepared in different periods for the agglomeration. The escalating suburbanization, characterized by deurbanization visible in spatial planning, affects the effectiveness of newly created building developments and their rank of service centres, and also shows the failure of long-term planning, which is not supported by detailed analysis and research.
Urban renewal in derelict sites has become a focal point of interest in many traditional industrial cities. Having adopted the case study of the Cork City (Ireland), the authors presented four urban renewal schemes which were implemented in this city over a 25–year period. It ought to be emphasised that not only has Cork implemented various rejuvenation programmes since 1979, but also revived three entirely different urban sites: the former industrial areas, the historic centre and the docklands. However, the latter still requires further regeneration. The urban renewal schemes contributed to an enhancement of the quality of life and a rise in local and inward investment. Moreover, the number of tourists increased considerably. In consequence, the image of the city was improved. Hence, the urban renewal has become a factor of Cork’s redevelopment.
The article presents intraregional convergence processes in different types of European metropolitan macro-regions in the years 1995–2004. The typology is based on factor analysis using principal components methods as well as cluster analysis using the Ward method. The results of the analysis indicate the presence of a specific situation in particular types of macro-regions. On the one hand, a clear internal divide of capital city regions of Central and Eastern European Countries was observed, as well as large interregional differences in the level of development in other peripheral macro-regions. On the other hand, Northern Italian and Southern German macro-regions, dependent on modern industry, were internally quite coherent regarding their level of development. The situation was similar also in some regions that experience problems and undergo restructurisation processes. Capital city regions of smaller European countries, especially from the former EU15 (but not constituting any particular type), were the most differentiated group of macro-regions.
The paper analyses the Irish way of implementation of the structural assistance from the European Social Fund within a context of Ireland`s development strategy. Identification of the factors influencing considerable efficiency and effectiveness of Ireland`s performance is the article`s main focus. The paper begins with a review of the Irish labour market situation and, responding to it, human capital development policy of 1990s. Then, implementation and evaluation of the measures supported by the ESF within a programming period 1994-1999 are examined in detail. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations from the Irish case for Poland are outlined.
The article focuses on the discussion over attempts to re-interpret causes and effects of the state of permanent socio-economic under-development of peripheral regions in Europe invoking Italian Mezzogiorno as a case. Mezzogiorno widely held to be a monolith paradigm of unsuccessful modernization, is being cognitively deconstructed in the face of a two-way running stream of analyses and enunciations. Ideologically imbued political discourse originating in the separatist North reinforces and emphasizes an image of South as a lawless consumer of the Italian state’s resources produced in the North. As a response arises an equally ideologically motivated discourse of academic and cultural elites of the South, whose aims to produce a new, positive image of the South as a space alternative to northern egoism and materialism, a space bridging Europe and the rest of non-Atlantic world. In this context, a discourse of social sciences ever stronger marks its presence; considering conditions of socio-economic development of peripheral regions it forfeits a unidimensional neoliberal approach and instead turns to multidimensional analyses of institutional environment as a primary source of socio-economic dynamics. The debate surrounding Italian Mezzogiorno may constitute at the same time a useful vantage point for a debate over the Polish model of development, especially with regard to peripheral and backward regions in Poland.
The reforms driven by New Public Management (NPM) led to the introduction of management principles in local governments, marketisation and outsourcing. They made the greatest impact in the United Kingdom, but were also put in place in other European countries such as Ireland, Sweden, Germany, and – to the least degree – in France (compared to other countries discussed in this paper). There is a risk that NPM-inspired reforms may come to lose sight of the underlying social purpose of public services. NPM has not however become a new, universal model for public sector management. Issues tackled in the debate concerning the reform of public services have moved (mostly in the UK) beyond the concerns of NPM towards the emerging concept of networked community governance.
