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The article aims to identify the geographical dimension of social (in)justice in the context of the existing permanent differences in the level of socio-economic development in Poland from the geographical and historical point of view. It also discusses the consequences of these inequalities for development policy on regional and local levels. The study consists of two essential parts. The first one presents synthetic deliberations on the geographical aspect of the social justice discussed. In the second part, an attempt was made to exemplify a geographical dimension of social (in)justice through the analysis of the spatial distribution of the socio-economic development level (a synthetic indicator) and selected partial indicators. In addition, the presence of dependencies of the socio-economic development level and the degree of political support for political fractions proclaiming the slogan of “social justice” was verified. The results of the conducted research confirm the existence of considerable developmental differences in the Polish space. Their strength is historically determined and, despite the passage of time, their pattern invariably corresponds to the former partition boundaries. These disparities are not minimised and the influence of economic growth on the income rise remains limited, especially in economically weaker areas, which leads to growing social dissatisfaction. As a result, one can conclude that in Poland those differences constitute the geographical dimension of social (in)justice.

Regions can get involved in international-relations activity defined as paradiplomacy. It is similar to state diplomacy as it is subject to its law and policy and uses similar tools such as diplomatic protocol, but is not pursued by professional diplomats. Regional paradiplomacy needs to be analysed as a source of new international relationships. Consequently, regions should be perceived as new actors in international relations. The article focuses on the paradiplomacy of Polish regions (voivodships, or województwa) and Croatian counties (Hrvatske županije). The case study discusses the cooperation between the Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodship and the Split-Dalmatia County.

Whose is the city? This question only superficially refers to the past when at least some cities were in fact law-making, autonomous communities of their citizens. Unlike in the past, the contemporary city is a random collection of individuals gathered in a space with no clear boundaries, who in their majority have a weak sense of identification with the place of their residence, whether longer or shorter. The residents of such a city are not citizens but merely users of space which has become a commodity. Taking Warsaw as an example, the paper shows the process of selling out the city space, which is driven by globalisation and metropolisation processes. The consequence of this is privatisation and fragmentation of space, leading to the evaporation of public space in the city.

The main objective of the study was to identify regularities related to selected aspects of stability of cross-border cooperation on the example of Polish borderlands. The basis for the analysis was a comprehensive study of cross--border cooperation projects Interreg, ETC, ENPI, ENPI implemented in 2007–2013 and 2014–2020. The study covered a total of about 1500 projects in terms of stability of the subject of cooperation and stability of spatial structures of cooperation. The analysis allowed to find partial stability in relation to selected thematic categories of implemented projects and spatial stability in terms of distribution of cooperation beneficiaries by locality.

In the paper, we calculate Okun’s coefficients in the regions of Poland. We compare the coefficients estimated for each region separately with the calculations obtained from seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models. The results reveal that the latter method gives better estimates, because shocks in output are highly correlated across regions. Then, we consider the question concerning the existence of macroeconomic “clubs” among Polish regions. Two such clubs are found: the northwest of Poland and the eastern border region. Finally, some conclusions concerning economic policy preventing unemployment are drawn.

The paper proposes a model in which centre-periphery relations defined at a high level of generality (from the global level down to regional structures) can be analysed from a perspective of a number of disciplines, including political science (e.g. Rokkan’s theory of peripheries and centre-periphery cleavages), sociology (e.g. Bourdieu’s theory of the forms of capital) and linguistics (discourse analysis including code switching and politeness theories). It focuses on the nature of the discourse of peripheral elites which, as it is argued, live in a two or more dimensional social space and communicate in at least two separate codes (particularly languages): peripheral and central. Using the above mentioned theoretical concepts, the paper offers an attempt at theorisation of the mechanism of mutual perception of the centre and the periphery.

The article was published in Polish in "Studia Regionalne i Lokalne", 1/2005

Metropolisation is one of the most dynamic processes of contemporary world, changing the existing settlement patterns and creating new relations between large cities. In the recent years, metropolisation has also come to include Central and Eastern European countries. The paper looks at the role of these countries in the European metropolitan network, and describes the process of the emergence of Polish metropolises, in addition to their social and spatial transformation.

Social councils (SCs) are local collegial actors formally created by local authorities as consultative bodies for different policy issues. The main objective of this article is to define the role of SCs in collaborative governance (CG). The paper is based on the quantitative research conducted in 65 Polish cities. The research is focused on the members of youth, senior citizen councils, and councils for residents with disabilities. The research results indicate that SCs meet many of the prerequisites of CG, however their potential to influence decisions and consensus seeking has not been entirely proven.

The article was published in Polish in "Studia Regionalne i Lokalne", 2/2004

The paper offers a review of the evolution in defining and describing regions, showing mutual relationships between particular approaches and logical succession between various analytical concepts of the region. The analysis highlights the strong relationship between individual theories and overall social change. Three main approaches to regional research are outlined: the chorological approach, Regional Science and contemporary social and cultural interpretations of the region. Each approach is presented in three perspectives: theoretical, methodological and practical. The changing role and status of geographical research in regional studies is also discussed.

The paper refers to sublocal units within metropolitan governance, focusing on Wrocław in the context of multi-level governance and good governance. In Poland, such units function as ancillary units of municipalities (gminy). The paper describes their legal status and functioning within the Polish territorial government and discusses selected urban districts (powiaty). The analysis is based on legal acts and interviews with people involved in the local and sublocal government in Wrocław. The organisation of metropolitan governance based on smaller units is an efficient solution applied in cities worldwide, however, in the case of Wrocław, the borough model leaves a broad potential to develop this element of municipal management structure. Currently, a clear concept of their role in the city is needed.

The ecological activity of municipalities can be a very important element increasing their attractiveness. Modern digital technologies offer intelligent solutions and help fulfil many economic and social demands related to environmental issues. The study primarily looked at the degree of activity of municipalities in the implementation of optional ecological projects and revealed a low level of participation of municipalities in cross-border projects. A questionnaire survey was designed as a universal tool for studying digital maturity in a cyclical, low-cost manner, which provides extensive information by verifying various areas of municipal activity and then formulating conclusions for climate and regional policies, etc. On the one hand, the study fostered the need to implement ecological projects, especially of a cross-border nature, and on the other hand, it disseminated knowledge and indicated various possible solutions.

The article considers the peculiarities of local government reform based on the examples of Ukraine, Poland, and Latvia. It is substantiated that the Ukrainian vector of European integration requires the implementation of the principles of deconcentration, decentralisation, and subsidiarity in the local governance systems. It is indicated that regional disproportions in the development of the territory of Ukraine, the inability to implement the reform on the ground in specific administrative-territorial units, the spread of corruption schemes – all these are the consequences of an ineffective model of local self-government and public administration of regional development, inherited from the Soviet system, which requires fundamental changes. Broad powers for sub-regional units characterise the Polish model of the administrative-territorial structure. However, this model is underpinned by a high level of political activity and community self-awareness. The Latvian experience of decentralisation of power emphasises the basic principle of success: the volunteer approach to the reform’s implementation. In conclusion, it is proved that for the successful implementation of the Ukrainian local self-government reform, the following factors are necessary: firstly, the victory of Ukrainian armed forces against the military aggression of Russia; secondly, the elaboration of a legal framework for the development of local self-government and the support of society; thirdly, qualified personnel capable of continuing the implementation of the local self-government reform.

Polish farmers, including rural pensioners, make up a social group which is difficult to define. It is a diversified population, dominated (in numbers) by ‘quasi-farmers’ – those who run small subsistence farms and do not sell their products in the market. This category has many negative, economic, social and psychological features. In their political choices, farmers often choose to support populist agrarian parties. The author, referring to her earlier concept of ‘blocking development’ and ‘moderating changes’, describes the political mechanisms of slowing down the reforms, triggered by a broadly understood community of Polish farmers.

The paper provides a comparative analysis of so-called land management and spatial development studies of the biggest Polish cities regarding the scope of functional and morphological delimitation and zoning. Due to the lack of detailed regulations, individual cities developed their own zoning methodologies. The authors of such studies take into account three factors: functional, morphological and administrative aspects. The zoning in the analysed cities is determined by individual factors which vary from city to city.

The article shows how the Four Capitals Model was applied to evaluate the region development strategy document and its implementation in terms of sustainable development. Firstly, it defines these types of capitals that could be used to analyse the sustainability of regional development. Then the authors describe the results of the exercise carried out together with representatives of the regional authorities, intended to assess the impact of the strategy implementation in the context of the four capitals. The results were confronted with the opinions of local governments and SME owners. This helped to identify the weaknesses of the strategy and potential trade-offs between different types of capital. Finally, the recommendations related to the updating of the strategy were formulated.

The article provides a comparison of the dynamic increase in the number of enterprises relative to the working-age population in the private sector in the years 2001–2004 (the immediate pre-accession period) and 2004–2007 (the immediate post-accession period). The study was conducted with regard to the main sectors of economic activity (agriculture, industry, lower-order services and higher-order services), as well as the functional diversity of municipalities, or gminas (urban and suburban categories, transportation corridors, tourism, etc., for a total of 16 categories). The study indicates a decline, inertia, spatial polarisation and tessellated spatial structure of the development dynamic of private enterprises.

The paper critically discusses several widespread views about regional development and how it can be stimulated by regional policy. It is argued that in the current development paradigm it is neither possible nor expedient to achieve regional convergence, which in effect would lead to a deep change in understanding the very assumptions of the EU Cohesion policy. It is indicated that external stimuli do not lead to an accelerated growth in lagging regions, which is especially true in the case of infrastructural projects, especially those which are related to incidental events, like expositions or sports championships. One of the most broadly used models for an ex ante evaluation – the HERMIN model – is also discussed.

The main purpose of the paper is to recognise the impact of statutory Sunday trading restrictions on consumer behaviours (shopping time) and mobility (activeness, motivation, modal division) of residents in Łódź, one of the largest Polish cities. An additional aim is to determine the independence of the indicated elements for selected features of the surveyed residents and their households, for which purpose a two-stage questionnaire survey was conducted among the residents/dwellers of Łódź. The first stage was performed during a week following a non-trading Sunday, and the respondents were asked to refer specifically to the previous Sunday. The second phase was carried out during a week immediately following a trading Sunday, with the questions focused on that particular Sunday. The returned results showed that the main factor determining the time when people do their shopping to make up for a non-trading Sunday is their professional Sunday activity. The answers also revealed that the residents of Łódź chose an inactive and rather a “couch-potato” lifestyle on the analysed Sundays, whether trading or non-trading.

The article was published in Polish in "Studia Regionalne i Lokalne", 3/2004

Theory and empirical literature relate educational quality to two main explanatory factors: family education (intergenerational transfer of human capital) and the quality of schools. The model proposed in this paper is intended to verify the significance of these factors in explaining territorial disparities in educational quality in Poland. The dependent variable is the test score of sixth grade pupils in 2002, averaged at municipality level. The test results prove to be strongly correlated with human capital stock in the municipality`s adult population, which points to the key role of intergenerational transfer for educational quality. On the other hand, the role of school resources (understood as expenditure on education) is rather small. Average test results differ significantly between Poland`s historical divisions. Surprisingly, the more urbanised and relatively affluent regions, like Greater Poland (Wielkopolska), Pomerania (Pomorze) and the so-called Regained Territories (ziemie odzyskane) reveal a substantially lower educational quality than the territories in the east and south-east of the country, generally less developed and with a significant share of agriculture in the economy. These differences can only be partly explained by an additional environmental factor, related to the prevalence of state-owned economy before 1990 (e.g. state farms PGRs) and today`s high structural unemployment. Interestingly, the dissimilarities between the historical regions are not only illustrated by average test score levels, but also by parameters of the determining functions for these results. It can be concluded therefore that location in a historical region has a substantial impact on the flexibility of educational outcomes with regard to different explanatory factors.

The notion of a network is one of the key terms used to describe the contemporary world. The role of cooperation networks is also stressed in the context of innovation and its spatial aspects. In this particular case, most attention is given to metropolises as major networks of flows not only of people, capital or goods, but also of information and knowledge. The paper discusses selected spatial aspects of collaborative networks in Polish science. The discussion of examples is preceded by a theoretical introduction intended to outline various aspects of innovation networks at national and regional levels, with particular emphasis on the role of metropolises in collaborative networks.

The title of the article may suggest that it presents issues important to the global economy, and not to a district, city, region or university. This is not the case, however, because the process of globalisation of production, services, investments, finance, the labour market and knowledge will continue over the coming years, irrespective of the scale of national protectionism. Therefore, the effects of globalisation will be experienced by everybody: countries, regions, local communities and individuals. If we want to achieve success, both as a country and as individuals, we have to be well prepared for globalisation.

This article aims to present the rarely examined process of rural gentrification in Poland via the example of the vineyard sector, which is a new and dynamically growing segment in the local agriculture. This paper uses quantitative data collected from public statistics, a spatial analysis conducted by GIS, and an authorial survey conducted among vineyard owners. The research findings have revealed that ‘vineyard gentrification’ does not match the classic rent gap theory; furthermore, being a non-socially severe preliminary rural gentrification performed mostly by high-class representatives, it differs significantly from the traditional pattern in Polish farming.

The aim of the article is to analyse the strategies undertaken by urban movements in the process of advocacy promoting the interests of the inhabitants of Polish cities. The strength of urban movements in the first years of their activity in Poland was their grassroots nature, lack of connections with the public policy system, and therefore independence and being able to put forth uncompromising postulates. Over time, urban movements began to undergo transformations, and the strategies of representing the interests of the residents they implemented evolved as well. When starting research on this text, the author assumed that the results of the analyses would be the observation of a clear trend from bottom-up activities to professionalisation. However, an in-depth analysis of the issue showed that there is no uniform trend in the development of urban movements nor in the strategies of advocacy for the interests applied by them. The study was based on desk research analysis; additionally several individual in-depth interviews were conducted.

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.

The aim of the study is to examine how and at what stage in the evolution of the cohesion policy rural areas have been incorporated, thus gaining space for empowerment. The role of the territorial instrument, CLLD, will also be considered. The research problem was verified through a review of literature and EU legislative documents as well as empirical material from two evaluation projects. It was found out that the extension of the cohesion policy to include the objective of territorial cohesion was of particular importance for rural areas. In the 2014–2020 financial perspective, due to the territorialisation of cohesion policy – previously perceived as mainly urban – rural areas were considered for participation. CLLD has been proven to strengthen the sense of empowerment of local communities.

Academic research indicates that total or current expenditures have been most commonly used in sub-central or local government’s efficiency analysis as dependent variables, and a proxy for the cost of service provision. Our research applied in the case of Polish districts for 2019 and 2020 indicates two important results: firstly, regardless of whether total or current expenditures have been used, the determinants indicate the same direction of impact, and, secondly, the COVID-19 pandemic did not change the direction of the impact. The regression results confirm the positive direction that the administrative, educational, protection, and safety variables have on dependent variables.

This article aims to explore residents’ preferences and perceptions of the actual styles of local political leadership in Poland over the past decades. In particular, it analyses the size of the gap between preferred and perceived leadership styles. The paper uses a classification developed by Peter John and Alistair Cole distinguishing city boss, visionary, care-taker, and consensus facilitator styles. The primary empirical material comes from a nationwide survey of residents conducted in December 2022 and surveys in a few case study cities conducted in the spring and summer of 2023. In addition, previously published results from surveys conducted using similar methods are used. The results indicate a growing preference for consensus facilitator style, assuming an inclusive style for both policy preparation and policy implementation. The size of the ‘expectations gap’ is explained by the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents (age, education) and the size of the city. Younger and better educated respondents have a particularly high expectation that mayors should involve different stakeholders in the preparation and implementation of local policies, while at the same time being more critical in assessing the actual behaviour of local authorities.

The main goal of this article is to investigate how the structure of inter-sectoral links affects the dynamics of human capital. This structure has been split into related variety (RV) and unrelated variety (UV). The assembled empirical evidence shows that RV positively affects the rate of human capital growth in a region, while UV has negative effects both in the group of all Polish regions and in the most developed regions located in western Poland. Moreover, among all the analysed control variables, only RV determines the existence of the effect of human capital convergence.

Decision-making in a conflict situation in public policy practice is most often associated with conflicts of interest. One of the frequent forms of this conflict is the so-called NIMBY phenomenon, which has become a subject of interest mainly because of the distinctive spatial characteristics of the conflicts. A very rich base of empirical research has been provided by the Polish geographical sciences, which allowed us to attempt in this study to propose an analysis of NIMBY-type conflicts in terms of different types of collectivised interests. Hypothetically, on this basis, it would be possible to find a new approach to the resolution of these conflicts no longer only in the processes of participation of stakeholders but based on merit-based criteria. When making these decisions, it is necessary, first, to check whether there are legitimate supra-individual (group) interests at stake, since sometimes this legitimacy is questionable, and it may be only an individual interest. Different types of individual interests are justified and collectivised according to different criteria. When it comes to legitimate interests, there may be a conflict between the vertically differentiated bearers of these interests. However, even in this case, the higher hierarchical position of one of the bearers cannot imply a preference for his/her legitimate interest. As in the case of a horizontally-situated conflict, the decisive factor is the content, where interests with a higher degree of substance should be privileged over others: interests that are already concerned at the individual level with values such as human life, health, etc., must be privileged over others. They must be privileged over the interests of an economic nature, etc., and these over ordinary short-term interests. It turns out to be obvious that it is the degree of legitimate collectivised supraindividual interests that is the primary criterion for assessing preferences in decision-making in conflicts of public interests, rather than the simple preference of legitimate supra-individual interests only according to the position of their bearers in the vertical hierarchy.

The aim of the article is to depict the issue of commemorating foreign partnerships of municipalities present in the public space. The municipalities of the Gniezno district were selected as a case study. The author initially verified the following hypothesis: although foreign cooperation is an optional and secondary task of municipalities, their authorities commemorate it as a manifestation of their international ambitions. The source base was: secondary data, first-hand sources (information from town halls), as well as photographic documentation made during field trips. The identified commemorations took various forms: welcome boards at the entrance to the municipality, monuments, and the name of the square. They were established in locations important to the municipalities. In the case of one of the monuments, state diplomacy and paradiplomacy merged.

The article presents a synthetic assessment of the diversity of the housing situation in Polish communes in the context of ongoing demographic changes. In addition, it presents an original method of typological research combining measures of the housing and demographic situation for all 2,477 communes in Poland as at the end of 2021. The scope of the study covered the years 2011–2021. The article identified that both functional urban areas and coastal municipalities have their own specificity in terms of housing and demographic situation, to a lesser extent this phenomenon affects mountain municipalities. It was also pointed out that the lack of a place-based policy in the National Housing Program makes it difficult to shape the national housing policy in a manner adapted to local and regional conditions.

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 analyzes the problem of delays in the preparation of local spatial development plans in Polish communes. Data from the annual survey sent to local governments and carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and the Statistics Poland were used. On this basis, the categories of communes in which there is highly possible to identify occurring of planning works prolongation (referred to in the article as delays in drawing up plans), as well as its reasons, were identified. No territorial differentiation in this scope was found. The basic differentiation is related to the population of communes, i.e. the larger the commune in this respect, the greater the delays are. The interviews obtained from 16 communes (at 68 over 50,000 inhabitants, where the highest number of delays in preparing plans was identified) show that the main reasons for delays include problems related to public consultations and arrangements of draft plans, changing legal regulations, and staff shortages in commune offices. The article shows how these issues are related to the broader problems of the Polish spatial planning system. Further research directions were also proposed.

This article is an attempt to compile the existing knowledge from many fields about the aesthetics of Polish urban space: the conditions of its creation, its perception, and the problems it currently faces, of which a pressure for absolute aestheticisation appears to be the most dangerous. Through a multidisciplinary literature review as well as an analysis of public discourse and interviews with experts, the author attempts to answer the question about why there is such a large discrepancy in the assessment of the aesthetics of urban spaces in Poland, as well as how this is influenced by cultural, legal, administrative, and historical conditions.

It has been substantiated that the increase in the concentration of heavy metals in the environment has especially aggravated in the conditions of military operations on the territory of Ukraine. The use of woody plants for the purposes of phytoremediation is one of the most effective options for optimising the state of the environment in urban ecosystems, regardless of the nature and source of contamination by metallic elements, which is of significant relevance in the conditions of post-war environmental restoration of Ukraine. The purpose of the study is to explore the peculiarities of some heavy metals accumulation by the assimilation apparatuses of the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) plants growing in the recreational areas of the city of Dnipro in order to further optimise tree plantings with the aim of improving the environment. The content of heavy metal elements (Cu, Zn, Pb, and Cd) in the biomass of the Robinia pseudoacacia L. leaves and in the soils of Dnipro recreation areas has been determined. The intensity of the accumulation of heavy metals in the phytomass of the Robinia pseudoacacia L. represents the following sequence Zn > Cu > Pb > Cd, which demonstrates a more intense absorption and accumulation in the phytomass of the leafy fraction of Zn and Cu in the phytomass of the deciduous fraction, and less significant of Pb and Cd. With the help of geo-information systems, cartographic material has been developed. It demonstrates the concentration gradient of Pb, Cu, Cd, and Zn in the assimilation organs of the black locust plants in the city of Dnipro recreational areas. Based on the cartographic analysis, it has been proved that the general condition of the soils in the recreation areas of Dnipro is characterised by significant disproportions in the level of pollution. The maps show the existing potential of the accumulative capacity of Robinia pseudoacacia L. to deposit Pb, Cu, Cd, and Zn, which allows for additional city functional zoning by considering phytoremediation functions of the existing and planned green spaces.

The French territorial system is marked by a historical very large communal dispersion. Strangely the French State, although considered very strong, has never managed to impose the merger of these municipalities, as was the case in most other European countries. This resistance of local elected representatives, often also national parliamentarians, then led the central government to use another strategy: their grouping in public institutions of intermunicipal cooperation (EPCI). The creation of the Metropolis of Lyon is, therefore, very original. Created by the law of 27th January, 2014, it is the only “metropolis” with the status of territorial collectivity and merges on its territory the Rhône department and the former “urban community” of Lyon. This metropolis is thus unique in France, and the authors will tend to verify whether it could serve as a model to follow by other metropolises, considering the case of the first institutionalised metropolis in Poland, namely the GZM Metropolis, which is struggling with structural problems. The GZM Metropolis was established in 2017 by the Polish Parliament’s law and provided with a specific governance regime comparable to the “manager and council model” and decision-making based on a double majority of the municipalities and population. After the first five years of functioning, the leaders of this first Polish metropolis seem to be ready to adjust their metropolitan institutions, understanding its limits and searching for inspiration at the international level.

The quality of the delivery system – along with theoretical underpinnings, development strategy and the country’s institutional system – has a decisive influence on EU regional policy implementation. An analysis of the management system of the Integrated Regional Development Programme (IROP) shows that there are definitely more weak than strong points. The main weaknesses include: strong centralisation and ‘red tape’, far exceeding the usual practices in the EU; not transparent, politically sensitive project selection and time-consuming procedures; unclear allocation of responsibility, high costs imposed on beneficiaries, low managerial skills, and, finally, conflicting solutions with existing legal distribution of powers between regional government and regional representative of the central government. Implementation effects of 2004–2005 confirm that the delivery mechanism fails to meet expectations.

“Zombie developments”, i.e. the problem of unfinished development projects, is an unrecognised phenomenon in Poland. In the USA, research on the causes, consequences and actions aimed to reduce the nuisance has been conducted for years. Therefore, the aim of this article is to show, through case studies, that the problem of “zombie developments” also occurs in Poland, causing many negative consequences for various entities. At the same time, this study is intended to help identify the causes of this phenomenon in Poland.

In this essay the author explores the relation between fragmentation, segregation, and reconstitution of urban order. Although metaphors of cohesiveness are usually applied to the past, and fragmentations to the present, nevertheless the city of fragmentations coexists recently with another image of the city – a nostalgic city of lived body. It will be hard to speak in simple notions of true and false experience here; the difference is in the very idea of Aristotelian “the good life”. Dealing with Edward Soja’s concept of somatography she will argue that in an age of informational technologies, mobility, and consumer culture, such old metaphors like city as a fragmented dead body and city as a lived body are more important than ever. Acts of differentiation, separation, and segregations are based both on urban somatophobia and urban somatophilia. The question to be asked here is what is reconstitution of urban order in the first sense, or revitalisation of city space in the second.

The aim of the paper is to identify and diagnose problems relating to Poland`s metropolitan areas. In the frst part, the authors offer a review of the most important features metropolisation process and indicate problems associated with such processes on the local and regional scales. This is followed by an identification of major urban centres in Poland, and a delimitation of their metropolitan areas. In the subsequent part of the study, the identified metropolitan areas are characterised in terms of their pertinent development problems. Finally, a set of conclusions and recommendations is proposed, with the aim of improving the functioning of the largest cities and their environment.

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.

The article presents a model of functional-spatial structure in the strategy of supra-local development, which is an attempt to translate the assumptions of the new planning paradigm, referred to in the world literature as strategic spatial planning, into Polish ground. In this regard, the new legal regulations set forth in the Act of July 15, 2020 on amending the Act on the principles of development policy and certain other acts were used, which, due to their high generality, allowed the authors’ approach to their interpretation and implementation. The paper presents the various dimensions of integration of strategic and spatial planning undertaken in the Polish legal system over the years up to the present day. In addition, the role of supra-local development strategies in integrated development planning in Poland is defined, and different types of functional areas are described, which are the starting point for differentiating the scope of the functional-spatial structure model. Then the description of the most important elements of the model was deepened, and other elements of the spatial dimension in the new supra-local development strategies were presented. The added value of integrating the spheres of strategic and spatial planning was pointed out, which is important for improving their effectiveness and efficiency, as well as for increasing public acceptance of the measures taken.

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.

The article was published in Polish in "Studia Regionalne i Lokalne", 2/2004

At the end of the 20th century the concept of development as a synonym of modernisation and progress came under heavy criticism, together with its various forms such as Europeanisation. It has been criticised for treating development as a teleological, uniform, linear, normalising and instrumental process. Such an approach is frequently underpinned by the concept of dichotomous division of space. Post-development criticism includes various ideologies, such as conservative anti-modernism, neo-liberal rejection of state interventionism and leftist cultural relativism. The author claims that the main weaknesses of the development concept stem from unfounded generalisations with respect to the object, time and space in which such processes are observed. Such weaknesses can be overcome without adopting radically post-modernist positions, rejecting any valuation of regional development trajectories. Regional studies may treat development as an open process, not necessarily leading to predetermined outcomes and not always following the paths taken by the more developed regions. There exist different development paths that are nonlinear processes, in which endogenous factors, such as activity of local actors, play a significant role.

Human capital stock affects economic growth by raising the productivity of labour in a given area or by enhancing the ability of the regional economy to create and absorb innovations. From the perspective of an academic city, this process can be reinforced by attracting students and researchers to study and work at the local universities. To do this successfully, the city needs not only high quality academic institutions but also a wider labour market for educated individuals and, more generally, the ability to attract the creative class to settle down. The article provides a comparative analysis of the capacity of the largest Polish cities to attract and absorb human capital. The research is based on a unique dataset coming from the nasza-klasa.pl website (which allows users to contact their former classmates). The research concludes with the typology of Polish cities with respect to benefits from performing the academic function.

The paper discusses the development of gated and guarded housing estates in Poland`s capital, Warsaw. It contains a presentation of recent empirical findings based on a series of field research carried out since the 1990s in Warsaw, with a special focus on its largest residential district of Ursynow. Detailed mappings of the researched housing estates are included, which evidence their rapid spread in the district. An attempt at classifying the housing estates according to different clusters of their physical design is made. A functional analysis of their physical features is carried out against the background of a global discourse of in/security which is presumed to play a major role in the development of contemporary cities. However, several local factors, which have a bearing on gating the city of Warsaw, are also reflected upon.

This paper focuses on the link between women’s civic engagement and elected political participation. The first part presents the theoretical aspects of both concepts – i.e. civic engagement and political involvement – and combines them with another category, namely the descriptive representation of women. The second part of the paper is devoted to the methodology of the present research, which consists of both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative research examines the composition of six city councils in Poland (Wrocław, Kraków, Gdańsk, Łódź, Lublin, and Poznań) as well as city mayorships after the last elections (2018). The results confirm a positive correlation between women’s elected political participation and women’s civic engagement. The qualitative research, based on 11 semi-structured interviews, aims at explaining why the civic sector is dominated by women, even though politics still remains men’s domain. Another objective is to identify particular obstacles that prevent female civic activists from further engagement in politics. Specific recommendations for mitigating the identified obstacles and increasing the number of women in politics are provided.

From the five senses that men have the sense of sight and touch, though seemingly the most acute, are limited when it comes to examining space and all phenomena that occur in it. Moreover, it is much more difficult to examine space through the sense hearing and it is almost impossible to taste it, even if it is humanized. Another human sense i.e. the sense of smell which enables us to recognize different scents may, due to its transitory and temporary nature, appear to be useless when it comes to examining space. Nonetheless, if we concentrate on all the scents that fill the space, they are frequently a more distinctive and prominent landmark than, for example, a building or a road. Therefore, it seems to be vital that the perspective of sociology of scent be adopted if we want to make a more in-depth analysis and interpretation of space dynamics. The scents that fill a chosen urban and suburban old industrial region are analysed and observed in this study. What are the scents that fill urban space? On the one hand there is the tempting scent of private space, which is filled with artificial perfumes and air fresheners. However, on the other hand there is the unpleasant and offensive odour from neglected backyards and outhouses; the odour coming from a local beer stand and an aromatic bouquet of cognac in a hotel bar; obnoxious odours emitted by mine slag heaps and the scent of the pine forest. We aim to show that a wide range of different smells, ranging from delicate and lovely scents to offensive and foul odours, have a growing influence on fragmentation and privatization of urban space.

Public space of the post-modern epoch is a conglomerate or blend of discontinuous functions, a collection of loosely connected fragments, increasingly more frequently unrelated to a city. People compose for themselves their own town from individual trajectories that are outlined by means of motor roads. Neo-liberal logic of city development recognizes the rule of spontaneity wherever the interest of big capital groups dominates, pushing onto the sidelines the more important task of contemporary urban planning – the protection and development of public spaces. Due to the crisis it is undergoing at present (commercial pressure), the efforts are taken to regain its social and spatial significance. The purpose of these transformations is bonding public spaces with broader surroundings (with open terrains, waterside zones, promenades, playgrounds, etc). Such recomposition is part of a regeneration process that unites the city and reconstructs the identity of the place where relationships of inhabitants with their urban environment were not completely abandoned.

The aim of this article is to outline growth tendencies and growth factors in the subregions (NUTS 3) of Central and Eastern Europe in the period 1998–2006. A wide range of complementary research methods has been used in order to triangulate results, starting with classical beta and sigma convergence analysis, to kernel density estimation, transition matrices, spatial autocorrelation and multi-dimensional comparisons. Some rarely discussed aspects of the influence of capital regions on growth processes have been taken into account. An additional analysis of the data in relation to country averages produced results independent of the country context. As a result, we have been able to answer the following questions: do the analysed countries experience regional convergence or rather divergence/polarisation processes? What factors determine the dynamics of regional growth? What are the main dimensions of spatial disparities in Central and Eastern Europe?

Inter-municipal cooperation is a specific phenomenon in local public administration across the world. It is a concept that has been applied globally, particularly in countries with more fragmented local government. Often its implementation helps to solve problems or challenges associated with the existence of fragmented public administration in the delivery of public services. From the existing investigations dedicated to this specific issue carried out in the Czech Republic, it appears that this model of local public administration is very often mentioned in this country; however, its real use in the territory by public administration even after a long period of its existence in this country still has a great potential for development and use even in comparison with how it is abroad. The aim of this article is to identify and characterise the motivation and willingness of municipalities in the country to cooperate in order to meet the current conditions.

Apart from traditional fashion trade fairs understood as specialist events addressed to a limited number of business clients, a growing popularity of B2C fashion fairs has been observed in recent years in Poland, in particular in large cities. Such events provide opportunities for purchasing unique clothing, offering possibilities for cultural distinction but also for spending leisure time, engaging in social interactions, and participating in urban arenas. They are in line with broader phenomena such as the festivalisation of urban space, the development of the experience economy, and the ecologisation of consumption. The aim of this article is to show the scope of this phenomenon in the Polish context. Proposing a typology according to this sort of fashion events as well as places where they occur, the authors attempt to show the intraurban and interurban specificity of fashion fairs, pointing to main centres and important factors of their location.

Cross-border economic relations are analysed by many researchers. However, the concepts of cross-border cooperation illustrated in the literature of regional studies do not present the EU market as a factor of cross-border economic relations. In consequence, it is necessary to carry out an in-depth analysis of the literature on cross-border cooperation and economic integration in order to capture the impact of the single market on cross-border relations. The aim of this study is to describe cross-border cooperation in the Polish-German border area, taking into account the economics of the single market.

The article discusses the differences in the mayors’ political strength in European countries and the implications of their role in horizontal power relationships for the operation of the local government scene. First, it shows how the role of the mayor is measured, taking into account various institutional settings such as the election system, the scope of competences vis-?-vis the legislative body and possibilities of recall before the end of the term of office. Second, it demonstrates how such dissimilar contexts of the mayor’s political strength impact on several selected aspects of their activity, including the propensity to be formally affiliated with a political party, perception of the mayor’s autonomy in their day-to-day management of the municipality and the possibilities to keep the mandate for several terms in a row.

At the end of the XX-th century the concept of development as a synonym of modernization and progress has been heavily criticized. It has been said that such an approach defines the development as a teleological, uniform, linear, normalizing and instrumental process. This critique, known as post-development approach includes various ideologies, e.g. conservative anti-modernism, neo-liberal rejection of state`s interventionism, and cultural relativism. The author claims that the main weaknesses of development concept are due to the unjustified generalizations with respect to the subject, time and space in which the processes are observed. Coping with those weaknesses do not necessarily require taking radical post-modernistic positions, rejecting any valuation of regional patterns of development. Regional studies may treat development as an open process, not necessarily leading to predetermined outcomes, and not always following the paths of the developed regions. There are development paths that are nonlinear processes in which the crucial role is played by the endogenous factors, such as activity of local actors.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the symmetry of demand and supply shocks affecting Polish voivodeships and to assess the risk of asymmetric shocks in the future. The study employs the SVAR-based Blanchard and Quah (1989) decomposition as modified by Bayoumi and Eichengreen (1992), and uses a new method of estimating quarterly GDP by voivodeships. The results point to a relatively high symmetry of shocks and a rather low risk of their occurrence. Shock asymmetry does not appear to be strongly related to differences in production structures, which is claimed in most theoretical approaches, including the Optimum Currency Areas Theory.

This study aims to clarify the role of actionism as a peacebuilding tool, identify the advantages and disadvantages of its various techniques (performance, happening, art installation, flash mob, etc.), and evaluate their effectiveness in the urbanized space. The research methodology is based on postmodernism and its comprehension of activism, public action and protest. Anti-war actionism is considered an element of the system of socio-political actionism. It is characterized as a set of spectacular forms of non-violent public protest against armed aggression and its consequences. The expansion of today’s anti-war actionism beyond the narrow artistic environment and its entrance into the broad social dimension is demonstrated. The empirical basis for the conceptualization of anti-war actionism includes two groups of actions: (1) anti-war actions carried out since the 1960s in the United States and Western Europe; (2) anti-war actions carried out in various countries in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The regional features of anti-war actionism under the conditions of armed conflicts and wars are determined, and the advantages and disadvantages of anti-war actionism as a peacebuilding technology are identified within the space of modern cities.

The study aimed to examine the determinants of car choice in daily trips of the inhabitants of four Polish cities: Białystok, Gdańsk, Kraków, and Warszawa. Data from the Eurostat’s Quality of Life 2019 study was used to achieve this goal. The results of the empirical exercise revealed that the main factors affecting travel mode choice included the respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics. The perceived satisfaction with air quality, the city’s noise level, and public transport quality were found among the important predictors of car choice. The homogeneity of travel mode preferences at the city level was also analysed.

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.

Along with time-related changes in the migration of Poles to Germany, the invisibility that has been ascribed to them has also evolved: from intentional hiding to deliberate merging into local social and spatial structures. The city of Berlin, perceived as an open, modern and multicultural metropolis, is an exceptional laboratory of transformations and diversity of social behaviours shown by Polish migrants. It attracts new citizens who not only want to make a living here, but also – and more frequently – to achieve self-fulfilment. While the invisibility of the economic migrants is mainly a result of their alienation in a new country, the representatives of lifestyle migration deliberately merge into the culturally diverse society of Berlin and they try to identify with other social groups. The aim of this article is to identify the existence and forms of every-day functioning of Polish migrants in Berlin in the context of invisibility.

This paper examines the impact of the implementation of participatory budget (PB) projects on the development and creation of public spaces in the city. The first part of the paper describes the main assumptions and models of participatory budgeting as well as the legal basis and rules of PB implementation and financing in Poland. In the second part, those are confronted with the implementation of PB (civic and green) in Lublin in 2015-2019. In the third one, detailed analysis of the PB rounds 2015-2017 show that 86% of investment projects submitted and 87% of projects selected for implementation were directly associated with activities in public space. Furthermore, the spatial distribution and thematic scope of those investments in 27 districts of Lublin in relation to 10 categories selected by the authors as well as the motivation and activity of residents of individual districts in applying for projects were presented. The fourth part shows the changes in Lublin’s public spaces caused by the implementation of PB projects and Lublin’s experience in relation to other cities in Poland. The summary includes recommendations on how to effectively implement BP to create a high quality public space in cities. Three aspects are distinguished: 1) organizational and procedural; 2) mobilisation of the stakeholders and 3) implementation of projects.

Migration management is one of the key tasks faced by regional authorities in Poland, which experience deepening processes of shrinking and ageing of population. The aim of the article is to determine whether policy makers are aware of the role of migration processes and migration policy, to show their presence in demographic development strategies, and to describe the activities undertaken at the regional level in response to the ongoing demographic processes. The analysis is based on the example of the Łódzkie, Opolskie, and West Pomeranian voivodships. The article proposes an analytical model assuming a gradual process of decision-makers’ reaction to demographic changes. An analysis of documents and interviews with people responsible for regional demographic policy confirms they are aware of ongoing population processes and their consequences, at the same time, however, there is a lack of actions aimed at stimulating inflows of foreigners. The initiatives aimed at stopping the population from emigrating are more important.

The main purpose of this article is to systematize issues related to recognizing and measuring the gentrification process using quantitative methods. The article discusses the definition of gentrification, its phases and types, factors influencing the creation and development of the process, as well as gentrification indicators, and it briefly reviews existing research of their use. Although there are Polish publications on the process of gentrification, there is a perceptible lack of comparison of gentrification indicators and the conditions in which they are used. Thanks to the selection of indicators that are appropriate for gentrification analysis in Polish cities and their testing in a case study of the gentrification process in Kraków, Poland, this article may help to create a methodology for empirical research.

The paper focuses on problems related to modelling the development of maritime economic space. This entirely new issue has emerged from the recent changes in the intensity of use of marine areas. First, the economic significance of maritime space is discussed, followed by a simple model based on maritime spatial rent which aims at explaining the patterns of its development. This model encapsulates the interplay between both market and public choice factors that affect the development of maritime space. The paper also includes a discussion of attempts to obtain a monetary value of maritime spatial rent for key offshore maritime sectors in Poland. The paper concludes with suggestions on further developments in this field.

For many years, public participation has been a very popular subject of research and of interest for practitioners. Little attention has been devoted, however, to the issues of formal and organizational tools of managing this process. The paper contains the results of research aimed at creating the concept of participation infrastructure and at measuring its application in 17 Polish cities. For these purposes, the authors develop their own method of examining the practical use of participation tools. Typologies of participation tools are created and cities are classified according to their advancement, basing on the results of the research. The most popular and most willingly used tools are indicated, together with the levels of their implementation.

The aim of the article is to identify in spatial and thematic terms the so-called special areas in strategic and planning documents at the national and regional levels, and a quantitative and qualitative description of spatial delimitations (comprising the communes categorised in particular special areas). The analysis included documents at the national, supra-regional and regional levels, i.e. 10 country-wide strategies (including 7 industry-specific strategies), 5 supra-regional strategies and 16 regional strategies and voivodeship spatial development plans. All the special areas were vectorised or assigned to the relevant municipalities, and then such issues as the number of special areas within them were examined. The analysis demonstrated significant over-regulation of strategic planning (in one of the communes 87 different categories of special areas at the national or regional level were identified). This article expands the issues examined in the project carried out in 2015-2016 at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organisation PAS for the Ministry of Development, entitled “Identification of the state intervention strategic areas, including problem areas” (Śleszyński et al. 2017a, 2017b).

Uptade from 2.03.2021: Parts of this article were subsequently used in the following publication: Swianiewicz, P., & Łukomska, J. (2016). Local tax competition in Poland?. Miscellanea Geographica, 20(3), 37-43

The paper considers the usefulness of the tax competition theory for the analysis of local tax policies in Poland. The concept has been successfully used for analyses conducted in several European countries, but it has not been systematically tested in Poland yet. There are two types of competition discussed in the paper: classic competition for mobile tax base and yardstick competition, in which local politicians compete for political capital related to a comparison of tax rates with neighbouring municipalities. Due to the limited size and types of local taxes in Poland, it is expected that yardstick competition is more important than classic competition for mobile tax base. The paper also examines regional variation in the intensity of local tax competition, and it formulates the hypothesis that it is more visible in regions with higher bridging social capital. Results of the conducted research indicate that the theory of local tax competition is a useful concept helping to explain the variation in tax policies among Polish municipalities.

Uptade from 2.03.2021: Parts of this article were subsequently used in the following publication: Swianiewicz, P., & Brzóska, A. (2020). Demand Elasticity for Local Public Transport in Polish Cities: Do Local Policies Matter?. Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, 16(61), 125-142

After 1990, the number of local public transport passengers has been systematically decreasing at the expense of individual transport, which led to an increase in traffic congestion and deterioration of air quality in cities. However, for the last few years, a reversal of this trend has been observed in some cities. The article, using the data on the present number and recent changes in the number of passengers in nearly 100 Polish cities, discusses regression models to explain the factors influencing the diversity of demand for public transport services and its dynamics. The independent variables of the model refer both to the characteristics of cities (their socio-economic environment) and the organisation of services (e.g. organisational and legal forms of local transport companies, tariff policies, etc.). The results show that the density of the public transport network is the most significant factor explaining variation of the demand, while the level of ticket prices is almost insignificant. Demand in the largest cities has also recently been on the increase, but the relationship between the demand and the population size of the city is not a linear one.

The purpose of the article is to present the evolution of the economic space in the modern metropolis. The paper systematizes the most important changes of that space, in particular those expressed in the emergence of new areas and places of economic activity. To present this evolution, three axes illustrating various types of activity are used, constituting the contemporary pillars of metropolis development: production and technology, control and information, and consumption and culture. The ongoing transformation is shown in the context of centrifugal and centripetal The purpose of the article is to present the evolution of the economic space in the modern metropolis. The paper systematizes the most important changes of that space, in particular those expressed in the emergence of new areas and places of economic activity. To present this evolution, three axes illustrating various types of activity are used, constituting the contemporary pillars of metropolis development: production and technology, control and information, and consumption and culture. The ongoing transformation is shown in the context of centrifugal and centripetal.

The article examines the evolution of functions of evaluation systems. It is based on the comparison of evaluation studies conducted in eight evaluation systems in the Polish regional administration in two periods: 2007–13 and 2014–20. The findings are to some extent contradictory to the expectations formed on the basis of the existing literature of the subject. Although the analysed systems were established in response to external pressures, they support accountability as well as learning. These systems do not focus on procedural issues only, and generation of strategic knowledge increases over time. Numerous regulations imposed on the analysed systems suggest, however, that the use of evaluation in the analysed systems may be symbolic in nature.

The goal of the present study is to determine what types of emotions are displayed by mayors in social media. Their posts at the Facebook social network were tested using sentiment analysis. The study shows that the top concern of the mayors’ agenda built on Facebook is to create their positive image of someone willing to build relationships with citizens. In their personal profile pages, mayors also favour information about specific decisions rather than more general information about events in the municipality. The most important conclusion is that the mayors use emotionally charged social media posts more often than the administrators of the city organization profiles, and that these are usually positive emotions.

The article offers a multidimensional analysis of the dynamics of population ageing in Poland. To this end, the spatial dynamic shift-share method is used. The data used in the analysis include the number of people aged 65 or over per 1,000 population, based on the criteria of sex and place of residence (urban or rural areas) in 72 Polish subregions in the period from 2003 to 2016. The study analyses the pace of changes in the scale of the phenomenon and identifies structural and local factors underpinning the net effect in specific subregions. In effect, subregions with the greatest pace of change and its underpinning factors are identified.

Modern cities are developing dynamically in search of ever newer concepts of management. One of them, developed in Poland since the 1990s, is the concept of the marketing management of the city, which is based on the marketing mix concept. The city authorities also look for new sources of the competitive advantage (this is how the concept of slow city management was born). At the same time, in addition to competition, there is a desire for cooperation between cities, manifested by the development of the Citt?slow city network. The study identifies the marketing mix instruments of cities which are used by Polish cities after they joined the Citt?slow network. The method employed was a questionnaire survey, which was sent to 26 Polish Citt?slow member cities in 2017. It was observed that the greatest changes occur in the product strategies under which cities are obliged to develop these urban sub-products that are necessary for the city to function in accordance with the slow city philosophy. As part of promotional efforts, PR activities should be emphasised, whose aim is to create the image of a slow city. The “hospitality” of the city and openness to contacts with the external environment has also increased.

The paper discusses the development of gated and guarded housing estates in the Polish capital city of Warsaw. It contains a presentation of recent empirical findings based on a series of field research carried out since the 1990s in the city with a special focus on its largest residential district of Ursynów. Detailed mappings of the researched housing estates are included, which evidence their rapid spread in the district. An attempt at classifying the housing estates according to different clusters of their physical design is made. A functional analysis of their physical features is carried out against the background of a global discourse of in/security which is presumed to play a major role in the development of contemporary cities. However, several local factors, which have a bearing on gating the city of Warsaw, are also reflected upon.

Uptade from 2.03.2021: Parts of this article were subsequently used in the following publication: Swianiewicz, P., & Chelstowska, K. (2015). Neighbourhood Council as a Path of Political Career Development in Poland. Polish Sociological Review, (190), 223.

On the basis of data from six Polish cities, the authors discuss the role of sub-municipal (neighbourhood, city district) councils as paths to political career in big Polish cities. The analysis of social composition of neighbourhood councils is based on Putnam’s law of increasing disproportionality, while various theoretical concepts inform the division of the selection process into three stages: self-selection, pre-selection (top-down selection), and bottom-up selection. Neighbourhood councils are considered as incubators and respirators of political career.

The article was published in Polish in "Studia Regionalne i Lokalne", 3/2004

The paper assesses the state and conditions of the development of Polish cities in the context of processes and issues that occur in the cities of highly developed European countries. The latter, particularly those located at the very core of Europe, enter a new phase of development. Interconnected through networks of various links, the countries form economically integrated urban spaces characterised by the highest competitive potential in the global economy, at the same time losing their nature of self-contained, self-standing socio-economic systems. The author describes the underlying processes, pointing to the fact that they are visible in Poland, but rather not yet advanced. Poland is a country of retarded urbanisation with insufficiently competitive in Europe economic base of cities, quite well-developed human capital, but with mediocre social capital and low quality urban space. The main challenges of Polish cities` development are outlined from the perspective of European integration, including a discussion of the most common visions of European cities of the 21st century, in the context of developmental aims and ways to attain them.

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 JESSICA initiative was set up to provide a more sustainable and efficient response to the needs of urban areas, as compared to non-repayable grants. Anchored in the literature on place-based policy and territorial cohesion, this paper addresses the question how the JESSICA funds were allocated among Polish cities – whether, intuitively, only to key urban centres, or to smaller cities as well. The results illustrate that the repayable assistance of JESSICA was dispersed throughout the regions, although the degree of dispersion remains mixed across them. Almost half of the JESSICA funds was transferred to small and medium-sized cities. It was also found that the bulk of the assistance went to the projects that were implemented in cities situated within metropolitan areas of the regional capital cities.

The article is devoted to researching the Labour Market Digital Ecosystem (LMDES) in terms of its effect on the recruitment process during the remote work outspread. The research aims at analysing remote staff attraction through job portals using the Job board software and determining their impact on recruitment. The LMDES applies automation of the staff searching and selecting, scouring for employment opportunities, and the remote interaction with employers, recruiting agencies, applicants, and job seekers in the digital environment. The creation of a virtual space for such an effective interaction can be realised through a Job board software.

The aim of the study is to examine the impact of the amendment to the Municipal Self-Government Act (hereinafter: MSGA; Journal of Laws 2018, item 994) on the implementation of participatory budgeting (PB) in 2019 and 2020 in Polish voivodship cities. Using the desk research method, 36 PB regulations and over 3.4 thousand projects were selected for implementation in 10 categories: 1) sports (investment and other), 2) leisure and recreation (investment and other), 3) construction or modernisation of sidewalks, 4) construction or modernisation of streets, 5) pedestrian walkways, 6) parking lots, 7) lighting, 8) city bicycles (bicycle infrastructure), 9) modernisation of buildings, and 10) other (e.g. educational, cultural, training). Detailed studies were carried on the influence of legislative changes on: 1) financial mechanisms; 2) principles and organisation of the budgeting process; 3) generic structure of projects; 4) participatory budgeting model. In order to verify the results obtained, changes in the PB regulations not resulting from the MSGA provisions were additionally analysed. It was shown that the amendment to the Act had a significant impact on the implementation of PB in all the analysed cities. The changes mainly concerned the financial and formal-organisational aspects of participatory budgeting process. The most crucial ones include: increase in the size of the overall subsidies (in 15 cities), modification of the distribution of the financial means (9), introduction of letters of support at the stage of project submission (7) and appeal procedure (9). Among the “non-statutory” activities, the abolition of age limits in the remaining 7 cities should be mentioned. These activities brought positive effects on the increase in turnout (15), the number of projects selected for implementation (12) and their average value (13). On the other hand, the changes in MSGA did not affect the generic structure of the projects (in both years, in 10 cities the category “leisure and recreation” prevailed, and 1149 projects from this category were selected for implementation). The final unification of the PB implementation model in Polish voivodship cities has been completed. Finally, three modes of PB implementation according to the new rules were indicated: financial, procedural and combined.

The following article presents the results of a study investigating employment of private and non-governmental organisations in Polish municipalities as providers of versatile public services and the resulting nature of the relationship among the latter. The passing of legislation that requires or allows delivering public services through non-public entities triggered the development of a contract culture in municipalities. The resultant relationship may be either of a competitive (mainly technical services market) or cooperative (social services) nature. The research findings support the hypothesis that larger municipalities have better developed processes of contracting public services.