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).
This article investigates the theoretical background (definition, function, types) as well as practice of evaluation activities in the European Union. The analysis has been led on three levels. The first one is the evaluation use by national administration for the purposes of national public programmes. Second level is the use of evaluation within the EU Institutions (namely European Commission). The last one, is the evaluation of European interventions at the country level. Accent has been put on this last level (the most developed one) that is the practice of structural funds. Author also concludes that despite the evaluation boom in Europe (that has taken place due to the requirements of EU regional policy), the real evaluation utilization and impact on the EU management are poorly recognized. There is a significant gap between number and scale of performed evaluations and the scientific attempts to recognize the real effects and the real utility of evaluation in improving the management of EU programmes and policies.
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.
For some time local governments and urban politics have been undergoing significant changes related to the change of the traditional welfare state model. These changes have concerned economic, political and management dimensions. While describing these processes numerous authors refer to the notion of New Public Management. This article discusses three theories which have been created to help in interpretation of on-going processes. New Political Culture theory by T.N. Clark stresses value and economic changes and underlines their implications for changes in styles of local politics. Local governance theory developed mostly by Peter John concentrates on shape of local government institutions. Another T.N. Clark’s theory of the “city as an entertainment machine” focuses on evolving mechanisms of local economic development and their impact on policies adopted by urban governments. The paper formulates questions and initial hypothesis about applicability of these concepts to Polish environment.
The Information Society’s phenomenon is a subject of interest of many scientific disciplines, among them geography, economy and sociology. The ESPON 1.2.3 project differ against a background of research on the Information Society because of its thematic and spatial scope of the analyses. The operational objective of the project was not only the description of Information Society’s state and trends in Europe from the territorial perspective15, but also analysis of Information Society’s effects on spatial development in different types of regions and formulation on that basis of policy recommendations for macro-, meso- and microlevels. The project has been the first attempt to include the issues of the Information Society into research conducted in the field of spatial development within the enlarged European Union and it should be conceived as a pilot study for the future research.
Article analyses draft version of the National Development Strategy 2007–2015 adopted by the GoP in June 2006. This is the most important planning document. Its implementation may to a large extent influence competitive position of Poland within a decade. Analysis of presented diagnosis, objectives and priorities and outlined delivery mechanism leads to a conclusion that it is modern and interesting strategy, however not ambitious enough to ensure that Polish economy takes high place among other EU countries.
The paper discusses urban renewal projects implemented in Polish cities in the framework of Cohesion Policy 2004?2006. Renewal projects constituted only a small portion of the intervention under the Cohesion Policy programmes in cities. Relatively small outlays and a small number of projects resulted in a clear diffusion of the intervention, which undoubtedly affected the scale of results. Most undertakings classified as renewal projects were not comprehensive, i.e. they did not consist in restructuring of spatial, social and economic structures, but were rather repair and modernization investments. The general influence of the projects classified as renewal projects at the domestic level was small, even though most individual projects had a definitely positive impact on their direct surroundings or even the whole city (especially the projects concerning larger public spaces).
The aim of this paper is to examine the process of issuing decisions on building conditions and land management in rural-urban areas located in the outer zone of the Szczecin Metropolitan Area, and to determine whether the individual municipalities adopt a similar policy in this case. We also study the possible reasons for the differences. In the research, covering the years 2007–2010, we examined four rural-urban municipalities located in the outer zone of the Szczecin Metropolitan Area. We specified the number of decisions regarding the building conditions in each year and in each municipality, we counted the motions which were denied and the decisions to establish the locations of a public purpose investment. In the latter case, we also studied the purpose of such investments. Moreover, in the total number of the decisions issued for economic purposes, we defined the percentage of those made in favour of legal persons and those made in the city’s area.
Grzegorz Gorzelak, Bohdan Jałowiecki
The article presents the main topics of the European debate on the EU Cohesion Policy after 2013, i.e. a discussion of territorial cohesion, the new EU economic strategy 2010-2020, and the next EU financial perspective after 2013. The debate has been continuing in the shadow of the financial and economic crises (2008-2010) and the trouble in the Euro zone (2010), which were caused by continued structural differences between the Member States. The Cohesion Policy is too weak an instrument to solve these problems. The author’s analysis focuses on the main proposals of changes in the Cohesion Policy put forward during the debate, which were shaped mainly by political interests of the dominant actors, and based on experts’ opinions and scientific concepts. In the conclusion, the author presents some recommendations for future Cohesion Policies.
In light of setting up strategic documents in Poland for regional and developmental policy after 2006 the article proposes arguments for discussion about state-government regional policy in Poland. Nowadays there is no strategic document devoted to state intervention in Polish regions (voivodeships), which could be named governmental strategy for regional development. The article presents basic thesis for such document, including review of Polish regional problems, which needs governmental intervention, key priorities of state action in regions, basic rules of state-government policy for regional development, and major criteria of state financial support for regional self-governments.
The article explores the issue of social development of the local communes. This development process is defined as growth and differentiation in the fulfilment of needs of the social groups located on the particular area. There is spectrum of measures that allows us to define level of development and specificity of the particular territorial communes. Author presents the concept of Indicator of Development of Territorial Communes (IDTC) calculated for communes. This indicator is calculated according to the portfolio method and it takes into account both growth factors and barriers of development. The practical use of the IDTC is illustrated on the example of the communes in Zachodniopomorskie Region, for years 1999–2001. The results show uneven and incoherent development of the communes in the region discussed. The further conclusion is that this situation would not change in the short-term perspective.
The quality of the delivery system along with theoretical underpinnings, development strategy and country`s institutional system has decisive influence on EU regional policy implementation. Analysis of the management system of the Integrated Regional Development Programme shows that there is more weak than strong points. Main weaknesses can be described as: 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 delivery mechanism fails to meet expectations.
Democratic end economic transformations that occurred after 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe Countries have resulted in a new political situation in the Baltic Sea region. They created opportunities for unrestricted development of cooperation not only at international, but also at regional and local communities level. Those initiatives are a consequence of the necessity for social and economic activation, the belief in opportunity of achieving economic benefits for everybody and they are motivated by cross-sborder transport links, cultural and language similarities between communities living at both sides of the border. The paper aims at presenting the scope and scale of regional cooperation in the Baltic Sea region with particular focus on the current effects and potential of that cooperation in the border areas of Poland. The paper presents the results of questionnaire based on investigations encompassing representatives of local governments from border municipalities of the Baltic Sea Euroregion.
The main objective of the paper is to analyze the impact of 2004?2006 Cohesion Policy on the development of Zielona Gora (a city in western Poland). It concentrates on three key aspects of the development: competitiveness and attractiveness; social and territorial cohesion; and the diffusion of developmental processes. In our research, we have used a variety of methods and sources of information. Our main conclusion is that the Cohesion Policy of that period contributed more to the improvement of the quality of life in Zielona Gora and its surroundings than to its medium- or long-term development.
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).
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 article presents the results of a questionnaire received in Autumn 2013 from over 1,300 Polish municipalities whose population does not exceed 50 thousand people. The material obtained from this questionnaire offers exact data concerning the performance of local governments in promoting local economic development, as well as opinions and values shared by these governments. The research is related to a similar undertaking performed in mid-1990s, and confirms earlier hypotheses indicating that spatial differentiation of performance of the local governments in Poland has deep historical roots.
The goal of the paper is to indicate similarities and differences between strategic priorities of socio-economic development on the basis of research conducted in two local communities: Tymbark and Slopnice. The paper is based on a methodological approach called the AHP method, which is used to evaluate the benefits and costs of the basic criteria of socio-economic development and prioritizing models of development. The research indicates key factors of local development in the framework of the endogenous development paradigm. Moreover, the preferred development models have been chosen in the compared communities.
This article aims at creating the foundations for a coherent theoretical concept of cluster structure, meeting high requirements of a continuously changing area of social sciences. Such a concept should provide an opportunity to make comparisons between clusters of various branches and at various stages of development. To construct such a theory, a modified and supplemented Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of capital was used, putting large emphasis not only onto stricte economic sources of influence in the cluster but also onto human beings and their activities, which influence the operation of cluster structure to the greatest degree.
In recent years, the largest Polish cities have experienced intensive suburbanization processes. People migrate to suburban communes and hitherto undeveloped areas change their function towards single- or multi-family residential neighbourhoods. Spontaneous and dispersed suburbanization processes (urban sprawl) have many negative consequences that might become a serious problem, not only for the inhabitants but also for the local authorities in the suburban areas. The article presents the results of the evaluation of the role of Cohesion Policy projects in counteracting negative effects of suburbanization processes in potential suburban zones of the largest Polish cities. The results of the evaluation indicate that in suburban areas there is a major focus on meeting the current needs of residents, whereas strategic prevention of negative effects of suburbanization processes is neglected.
This article presents international relations of regional and local governments in lubelskie region. Analysis of the office structure and the rules of intraregional policy describe international relations of regional government. The most important research instruments used in gminas are the survey results conducted in all gminas in lubelskie voivoidship. The article`s main goal is to answer the question of the preparation process of periphery local governments in the face of European integration and their compete ability in the open economy.
Monofunctional industrial towns, born during the socialist industrialization and dominated by big industrial plants, faced some important problems during Poland’s economic transformation. Due to changes in the Polish industrial sector, its previous role in the peripherally located towns needs to be redefined. Based on the example of two towns from the Podkarpackie voivodeship, the author analyzes different development concepts of former industry-based local economies, considering the notions of endogenous development and path dependence.
As a result of broad demilitarization process, numerous military bases had been locked out in the last years all over the world. In the regions whose economies depended heavily on military orders, and large share of employment was in the army-oriented services, the closure of the military bases had huge negative impact on the economy, as finding new development path showed to be difficult. The article demonstrates the examples of successful demilitarization and conversion of the cities and regions in France, Germany and USA and formulates recommendations for the Polish communes experiencing military base closure.
The article analyzes the economic basis of Pax Americana over the next 10?20 years and describes the future position of Eastern Europe (New Europe) in the American constellation of interests. The main factors of geopolitical power are wealth – total and per capita, the production of leading goods, and innovations. An analysis of the position of different countries in the advancement of the new economy (knowledge-based economy) proves that in the next 20 years the US will be the most important power of the Western world. The position of Eastern Europe (New Europe) in Pax Americana will be the result of its rather poor impact on the national interests of the US.
The "Baltic" Euroregion after 7 years of functioning still is a developing structure, which implements the priorities identified in its charter and identifies new goals to achieve. Those goals are to be supported by appropriate information policy concerning e.g. publicizing the Euroregion activities through organization and participation in conferences, seminars and lectures on all aspects of cross-border cooperation within the"Baltic" Euroregion as well as organization of sports and cultural events for children and youth. However, at present, the Euroregion is not generally recognized, which might indicate lack of adequately wide promotional policy of the "Baltic" Euroregion concerning its activities on one hand and lack of active community participation in the political and economic life of the place of residence on the other. The paper discusses the issues of public relations activities and in particular their role in creating the image of the institution. That is important because the organization or institution can achieve the identified goals and priorities more easily when it has community support and understanding. During the conducted empirical studies the focus was on the level of knowledge of Warmia and Mazury province residents on the idea of cross-border cooperation and the "Baltic" Euroregion, including the information reaching the local community through the media.
Janusz Zaleski, Dariusz Podyma
Elżbieta Lorek, Agnieszka Sobol
Currently, cultural heritage is often thought of as a development resource in development strategies, monument protection and regeneration programmes. It is considered as an obligation and its potential is recognized by specialists and public administration of all levels. The aim of the article is to show that since heritage is a multi-faceted resource, its protection and usage is important for many stakeholders. Many individuals and organisations representing the public, the private and the third sector operate in various segments of the heritage market. Taking into account their expectations and goals is necessary to avoid or at least weaken potential conflicts brought about by using heritage for present day purposes.
The paper presents the problem of measuring and evaluating human well-being and socioeconomic development. The goal of the paper is to introduce the term ‘life dignity’, to define it and specify its relation to such terms as living standards and quality of life, and, more importantly, to show the advantages of using life dignity as a benchmark for evaluating urban public space. The term ‘dignity’ is used in other fields of research that have already recommended directions for constructing the index and measuring methods.
The aim of the article is to describe the phenomenon of non-partisanship of local governments in large Polish cities. It is a report from a research conducted in Wroclaw, Gdynia and Katowice. The article contains a description of typical justifications of non-partisanship, an identification of differences between partisan and non-partisan city councillors and a description of quasi-partisan organizations functioning as political support for non-partisan mayors. The results of the research confirm the existence of a specific category of local activists consistently rejecting party politics and very often having no political ambitions concerning higher levels of government; this category is typical for quasi-partisan organizations. The research demonstrates that non-partisanship can be a means of institutionalization of a particular manner of understanding and making politics. One of the final conclusions is that the problems of partisanship and non-partisanship at the local level are derivatives of a vague relationship between public administration and politics at the local level.
The article offers a forecast of GDP per capita growth in Polish regions (NTS2) and subregions (NTS3) between 2006 and 2015, based on the past deviations of regional economies from the national growth path. The simulation shows that highest rates are expected in two metropolitan areas – Warsaw and Poznan. The Mazowieckie region (the one including Warsaw) will become the first to surpass the average level of GDP per capita in EU27. Although Poland will generally close the GDP gap to EU, further polarisation between regions is expected. The per capita income of the most lagging Polish regions will in 2015 reach (in real terms) the 2006 level of Polish national economy.
The scale and structure of EU funds are one of the key determinants of Cohesion Policy impacts on socio-economic regional development, along with the magnitude of the Keynesian multiplier mechanism, spill-over elasticities, initial stocks of infrastructure, or human and physical capital. The aim of the paper is to analyze how changes in forecasts of Cohesion Policy public financial resources (available in NDPs & NSRFs) affect a counterfactual analysis of the Cohesion Policy impacts on the Polish NUTS-2 regional economies. On the basis of the financial data from the Polish Ministry of Infrastructure and Development which were made available in the years 2008?2013, simulations were carried out for the period 2004?2020 using 16 macroeconomic HERMIN models for the Polish regions. The results show that yearly forecast errors of the EU funds at the regional level account for up to 229%, and the forecast errors of allocations of the EU funds amount even to 32%. The inaccuracy of the forecasts of the EU payments and their volatility considerably distort the results of macroeconomic research of the Cohesion Policy impacts on development processes – even by 88% in the case of the yearly results, and by 49% in the case of cumulative results.
The article presents a comparison of the dynamic for the increase in the number of enterprises as set against the population of working age 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 had to the main sectors of economic activity (agriculture, industry, lower-order services and higher-order services), as well as the functional diversity of gminas (urban and suburban categories, transportation corridors, tourism, etc. – in total 16 categories). The research points to decline, inertia, spatial polarization and a mosaic like spatial structure to the dynamic for the development of private enterprises.
Among the features of globalization and metropolization of development, a growing number of mega-events can be observed. Among them are large sport events, as for instance UEFA 2012 in Poland and Ukraine (in preparation). What impact may such an event have on development? The main aim of this article is to present available conclusions of research on the cost-benefit analysis of previous events of a similar type. The data presented lead to a conclusion that – like in many discussed examples – the balance of EURO 2012 will be most likely negative.
The paper is an overview of selected aspects of sustaining the development of Brussels. The mechanism of multi-level governance of the capital of Belgium and the nature of its problems resulted in the emergence of instruments that give local actors greater control over the urban processes. The paper describes two of such instruments, namely the neighbourhood contracts and the Regional Development Plan. Despite some criticism, both are considered valuable tools of urban policy. The way in which they have been adapted and the results they give confirm that Brussels’ sustainable development is achieved most effectively by the application of system solutions, specifically those used in the smallest administrative areas of the city – neighbourhoods.
Grzegorz Gorzelak, Bohdan Jałowiecki
Sustaining the development at the local level is associated with many different issues. One of the major ones is the urban growth policy. This can be justified by the importance of space as one of the most important environmental assets, which has to be treated as non-renewable one. At the same time it is necessary to remember that the shape of this policy is influenced by many factors, i.e. legal regulations and current paradigm of urban development. Along with introduction of the sustainable development concept this paradigm evolves. Currently as some of its most important components one should mention urban regeneration of the degraded areas and limiting urban growth to the areas already urbanized. As far as urban regeneration is discussed, it is possible to mention a number of issues that have to be taken into account. At the same time one can regard the inside growth of cities which means reusing degraded areas – as real alternative to the on-going suburbanization and encroachment of urban structures to the areas still remaining its agricultural or natural character.
In the early 90’s public authorities in Poland considered all kinds of planning as a remaining of the socialist economy, unnecessary under the free-market rules. As a consequence, the chaos became a dominant characteristics of the Polish space at the beginning of the XXI century. This applies also to the situation in Warsaw Metropolitan Area, that exists as a real system of functional relations, but not as an administrative or planning unit. In effect, we observe the “wild urbanization” of the suburbs, and lack of development in the central part of the city. Recent centralization of local government in Warsaw has made the situation even worse, by blocking the investment and planning decisions. All these processes may lead to further marginalization of Warsaw as an European metropolis.
The reform of the EU cohesion policy for the period 2007–2013 resulted with policy adjustments in member states. The changes, as showed by the analysis for EU 15, new member states (with particular attention given to Poland) and Norway – take various forms, depending on specific local factors. Some of discussed reforms seem to be the consequence of changing the paradigm of development. The authors offer a review of the most important issues and define the subjects requiring further studies.
Tourist sector belongs to most dynamic sectors able to absorb large and different human resources. Its chances to get developed depend not only on natural and cultural resources, but also increasingly on necessary infrastructure and appropriate development policy. While Polish natural resources were mostly overvalued, the cultural ones were seemed to be underestimated. In general most of the Polish territory does not have significant touristic resources and its chances to develop touristic sector depends to a large extent on ability to create touristic products and on involvement into networks with other, better equipped regions. The state policy should concentrate scarce development resources on 1. areas already touristically developed in order to improve their competitiveness and 2. support to diffusion processes and cooperation network creating.
The aim of this paper is to discuss the situation of the EU-10 CEE capital cities during the years since the 2008 financial crisis. The paper concentrates on metropolisation processes that became particularly pronounced at the end of the first stage of the transformation, long before the accession of these countries to the European Union. The main hypothesis is that these processes also continued in the conditions of the economic crisis. As a result, the capital cities in most CEE countries should have done relatively well coming out of the crisis, mainly due to the nature of their diversified economies and the significant share of advanced business services in their structure. As a result, the crisis provided an opportunity to ‘verify’ the viability of the current economic model in the short term, in the specific conditions of transformation economies.
In the last years, the knowledge economy approach has started to gain strength in the analysis of the economic and social reality. The author presents four fields that characterize the knowledge economy, namely: the acceleration of the knowledge production, intangible capital increase in the macroeconomic field, innovation as a dominant activity and revolution in the knowledge means. The main objective of this text is to find a relationship between two great phenomena knowledge economy and regional development landed on a concrete region (Central Region of Mexico). Essential to this analysis is the inclusion of the third great current phenomenon: globalization. Article presents also an overview of the conceptual framework of knowledge economy and its relationships with the Central Region of Mexico. The main hypothesis of this work consists of giving an answer for the question: Are there any possibilities for this region to join the knowledge-based economy, taking into consideration the existing elements of such an economy here? The last part of the article gives some data that describe the development level of the knowledge economy in the Central Region in three aspects: abilities, efforts and outcomes.
The turn of the eighties and nineties was a particular moment for the natural environment in Poland. Two important factors occurred at that time. First was the post-communist transformation of the country, which affected all spheres of socio-economic life in Poland. On the other hand, new ideas of sustainable development taking into account both quality of human life and quality of natural environment have been spreading all around the world. Changes in the system of environmental protection in Poland which occurred after the year 1989, took into consideration the consequences of both processes. It seems therefore interesting to find out how the new instruments worked and what effects they have brought to Poland in the nineties. This article describes the changes in the quality of different components of natural environment in the areas of environmental risk in Poland between 1982 and 2000. Using the results and methodology of Rolewicz and Kassenberg (1985), the situation in 27 such areas was analyzed.
The article deals with the analysis of the anticipated middle-term demand for dwellings in Poland. On the basis of the empirical research this demand has been considered as being determined by the two groups of factors: demographic and economic, together with the level of the state of fulfillment of the basic housing needs. The finale set consisted of eight factors of the diverse wage. These were: the percentage of deficient flats counted as the difference between the number of households and the number of flats, the average space floor per capita, the population growth in 1998-2002, the percentage of people in the age from 20 to 39, prognosis of the number of inhabitants in 2002-2010, the unemployment rate, average wages, and the number of the business entities per 1000 inhabitants. The analyze has been carried out in the commune-scale pattern and can be useful for spatial planners and persons professionally involved in the housing market.
The question as to whether Warsaw is becoming a Third World city may be regarded as a metaphorical question, which expresses concern about whether the changes being wrought now are moving in the right direction and how the city’s spatial values are adhered to. Shaped as a traditional city, Warsaw lay in ruins in consequence of World War II. Imposed on it was an order of a total character, which, in chosen places, gave rise to forms dominating over the city huge areas which might be described as having a blurring and diluting effect. In the years of transformation, the spatial values leading to the expected balanced development, whose result would be the order of freedom with due regard for the sprit of the place, were not reasserted, and were not incorporated in the public dimension.
A socialist city is mainly associated with the imperial architecture of Minsk or East Berlin, the functional division into districts, monumental public buildings, or housing developments. This article aims at restructuring the prospect of city development in the first post-war period, i.e. 1945-1949. Based on the example of Łódź – Poland’s biggest city in view of the demolished Warsaw as well as the working-class capital of textiles – I reconstruct modernisation discourses in press, showing that in the first period of the reconstruction, modest suggestions as to the city development were made, ones adjusted to the needs of its inhabitants and the comfort of everyday life. It was only with the aggravation of the political course after the year 1948 when these were replaced with more daring prospects of a socialist city, gigantic investments, and the construction of new districts for the working-class masses.
Grzegorz Gorzelak, Bohdan Jałowiecki
The main question of this paper is a problem of importance of the National Strategy of Regional Development (NSRD), as a leading instrument for strategic planning of regional policy in Poland. I present the main characteristic of recent NSRD arranged for period 2001–2006. My basic interest is focused on structure of this document, its main priorities and basic implementation instruments. Particularly important is the analysis of effectiveness of the main NSRD priorities in practice. It is crucial problem, especially for Polish central-government regional policy which was implemented basically by voivodship contracts. My research proves that effectiveness of the NSRD implementation by the voivodship contracts was low. Recommendation for future Polish government regional policy is given.
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 purpose of this article is to highlight the organisational and financial aspects of managing property at the district level, as well as the role of those aspects in local development, resulting in how property is used and the income it generates. The article contains some suggestions as to how a property-managing program should be constructed, based upon research including both source analysis and questionnaire methods.
According to its development strategy and currently defined physical planning policy Warsaw should become the European metropolis, with a good quality of life, high culture, a durable physical order and public areas of high standard. These are the goals of the municipal authorities, but a short walk through the downtown shows that they are far from being reached. The obvious way for Warsaw to meet the ambitions of its authorities is through physical planning – transparent, with a high level of a public participation. That is – completely different from how it is now, what can be confirmed by some spectacular examples. If bad governance will be continued, Warsaw may soon become closer to the cities of the Third World, than to the European metropolis.
The paper analyzes the sources of economic growth in the regions of Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) using a multi-dimensional approach that takes into account: a) disaggregation of the economic structure; b) the international and national contexts of regional development processes; and c) the main types of regions. The results corroborate the validity of such an approach, showing the interrelationships between the development dynamics of individual regions and the structural changes that are difficult or impossible to identify using an analysis of aggregated values. In particular, the analyses conducted as part of the study help identify the key constituents of metropolization processes taking place in the regions of major city centres, the progress of reindustrialisation processes occurring in transitional regions, and the mechanisms underpinning development of peripheral regions. Based on these differences, the author formulates some general recommendations for policies implemented in these types of regions.
The transformation of the German economy, which has been in progress for the last twenty years, determines the changes of the labour market. Since the reuni?cation in 1989, a major increase in atypical forms of employment has been observed as a result of deregulation processes of the labour market. The aim of this paper is to present the spectrum of problems regarding the diverse development of these forms in the eastern and western parts of the Federal Republic of Germany, with particular focus on the different situation of men and women. The author assumes that in order for non-standard forms of employment to ?ourish, the employment of women has to be considerable. The differences appearing in both parts of Germany are caused not only by economic factors, but also to a high degree by social and institutional ones.
The paper is devoted to analysis of the changes of Cohesion policy (more broadly: development policy) in the period 2014?2020. The author analyzes key documents influencing final solutions for that period. On top of that, he analyzes phenomena that can hamper changes, in particular, indecisiveness and leniency of managing services, tolerating negative phenomena like goal substitution and other manoeuvres leading to money spending instead of goal attainment. The author also considers why and to what extent the analyzed hazards may reduce the revolutionary character of long expected reforms.
The main purpose of this article is the analysis of differences in dynamics and directions of development policy between Eastern Poland and the rest of the country. The authors analyze the structure and value of investments supported by EU structural funds in the years 2004–2006. The results obtained allow to identify some regularities characteristic for this region, namely high territorial and capital dispersion of the investments and a lower general financial value of all EU-supported projects. The tendencies may have a negative impact on the expected results of the cohesion policy. There is no significant qualitative change in development policy in Easter Poland. Most of the investment projects entrench the existing socio-economic structures.
The article is an attempt at a brief overview of the development strategies of Polish voivodeships in terms of the role of culture as a factor in regional development. The author compares the ‘old-generation’ strategies (applicable until 2005/2006) and the ‘new-generation’ ones (developed for the programming period of 2007–2013). Culture plays an important role in the development of regions as after the administrative reform of 1998 cultural policy became an element of the local government activities. The overview is preceded by a description of the constituents of cultural policy such as 1) the cultural industry as a sector of culture creation and development of cultural products, 2) cultural institutions, and 3) cultural heritage as a pool of resources to be used in the cultural creation process and promotion through the cultural institutions network. Each component analysis is accompanied by a brief discussion of the related ideas and opinions expressed in academic literature by experts from cultural institutions and culture-related academic centres. The author also offers his own concept of describing elements of cultural policy. He juxtaposes the perception of culture as presented in the available publications with the aims of cultural activity and the philosophy of cultural development in voivodeships. Consequently, the author assesses the usefulness of the widely available cross-sectional literature on culture in Poland for the building of the cultural development philosophy in the Polish regions.
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the importance of innovation in the formation of regions of development and those of economic stagnation in Poland. The test procedure adapted by the authors consists of two stages. In the ?rst one, the authors use cluster analysis to group voivodeships into two categories according to the strength and weakness of their economies, on the basis of socio-economic development indicators, structured according to the following aspects: (1) population and settlement, (2) the structure of the economy and the job market, (3) technical infrastructure and easy access, and (4) the ?nancial situation and wealth. In the second stage the authors use canonical analysis to identify the relationship between regional differences in the level of innovation and the distribution of development and stagnation regions in Poland. The results of the analysis shows a strong correlation between the level of innovativeness of a region and its level of socio-economic development in all highlighted aspects of this process, particularly in the relationship between the level of innovation development of a region and its ?nancial situation and wealth.
Analyses of nationwide business cycles provide information on the length, course and phase of a current cycle. However, the nationwide cycle is not always convergent with the economic situation of individual regions. Discrepancies in this regard are often described in the literature. In this paper, we presented an analysis of the economic situation of Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship from 2008 to the 3rd quarter of 2010 in the context of the recent turbulence of the global and Polish economies. What is more, we evaluated the usefulness of multi-dimensional comparative analysis methods to assess the condition of the business cycle in Warmia and Mazury. We verified the view of Michael P. Niemira and Philip A. Klein (1994) concerning the relationship between regional development level and business cycle fluctuation vulnerability. Finally, we showed that less developed and less economically diversified regions are more prone to economic fluctuations.
The article is devoted to the problems of the handicapped people with special reference to the functioning of the Railway Missions in a metropolitan environment. From the beginning of industrialization process the railway stations in Europe were creating a specific social environment, including such phenomena as prostitution, slaves trade, drugs dealing or just individual stories of the travelers. Specifically to deal with these problems, a social institutions called `missions` were established at the railway stations in Germany and Poland. This article shows the historical development of the German and Polish Railway Missions with special reference to its role for the local societies.
In this paper, we apply the fuzzy hierarchic process to evaluate the goals and strategic activities of the rural commune of Babiak. The procedure consists in building a hierarchic decision schema with a main goal, subordinate goals, and strategic activities, and using experts` (councillors`) opinions on the state and the developmental possibilities of their commune. Our study indicates that the development of a commune depends mainly on communal roads and sewage system construction, the development of agro-tourism and tourism, and securing EU structural funds and non-budgetary funds for the commune`s development.
This article contains the in-depth analysis of the distribution of funds from the Road Development Fund (RDF), the Local Government Investment Fund (LGIF), the 100 Bypass Road Programme, and the Strategic Investment Fund for possible alignment bias. It was demonstrated that in the case of every fund except the 100 Bypass Road Programme, municipalities ruled by the United Right received government grants significantly more often, or received higher grants. In the case of the LGIF, the scope of favouring was meaningful. To make the results robust, a set of control variables was used.
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.
Article assesses the administrative capacity of the regional institutions in Poland for implementation of the Integrated Regional Development Operational Programme 2004-2006. Organizational works has been delayed, mainly because of slowing down of the negotiation between Poland and European Commission, lack of required legislative framework and postponement of decisions on central government level. Author presents recommendations for improvement of pace and quality of administrative works in Polish regions. The main conclusion is also importance for general rebuilding of administrative regional framework for future implementation of European funds after 2006. The basic directions for this reform are recommended.
The aim of the paper is to examine the relation between pupil movement between school catchment areas and the examination results of primary and secondary schools. The problem is analyzed in a broader context of educational disparities related to the spatial organization of educational activity. The results show that the non-rigorous approach to educational zoning by the city authorities, school directors, parents, and their children, causes an intensive movement of pupils between school catchment areas (especially at the level of secondary school). It was found that pupil movement between catchment areas accounted for almost 50 per cent of variation in examination results in the secondary schools in Poznan. The consequences of this situation for the city’s educational policy and school management are discussed.
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 study proposes a method of designating areas at different levels of socio-economic development (problem, success areas, and the intermediate stages between them). In the adopted research procedure, the above-described areas were identified on the basis of a synthetic indicator, which took into account six features assigned to two thematic categories (socio-demographic and economic-technical). The years 2003–2019 were assumed as the research period. The applied dynamic approach made it possible to trace the path of socio-economic development of the surveyed units within the proposed four types of areas. The obtained results refer to rural and urban-rural municipalities of Dolnośląskie (Lower Silesia) Voivodship (województwo), with a particular emphasis on the Kłodzko district (powiat), which has been considered a problem area for many years.
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 article presents the analysis of spatial planning process in communities at the end of 2004, based on information by Ministry of Transport and Construction and Central Statistical Office survey. Briefly discussed are the most important indicators reflecting the advancement of planning works. As a result of the research carried out, the practical conclusions for the regional politics were formulated. The research helped to identify and judge the state of the preparation of planning works in relation to the forming of spatial structure in the country. The analysis shows that the state of the planning works in the municipalities especially in relation to local plans, is unsatisfactory especially in urban areas. The planning predictions, contained in Priorities and Conditions… should be also critically judged. They are unrealistic, inconsistent with the real socio-economic situation. In the future it is necessary to develop a detailed monitoring system for the spatial planning on a regional, sub-regional and local scale.
Several theories of regional development (e.g. new economic geography) claim positive relationship between administrative status of capital cities and their economic and population growth. Availability of capital goods as well as direct and indirect demand generated by administrative institutions are among factors which accelerate development. However, most of empirical studies so far have concentrated either on national capitals or on federal states. In our article we conduct empirical tests comparing the impact of reforms implemented in 1975 and 1999 in Poland on the development of cities gaining or losing their regional capital functions. On the basis of those results the article indicates differences in impacts of both reforms and attempts to explain those differences.
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.
Evaluation is an important element of the public policy cycle, providing information for improving the effectiveness of implemented policies and designing future ones. In Poland, the need for the diffusion of this practice from the field of structural funds to other public policy fields has been discussed for at least 15 years. Although one such obvious direction of diffusion is local government, very little is known about evaluation at this level, and in studies summarising the general evaluation practice in Poland, this strand is omitted. The aim of this study was to assess the extent and characteristics of evaluation practices in the period 2010–2021 in cities with county [Pol. powiat] status. The analysis was based on the information on evaluation studies provided by city halls. Out of the 55 cities that were included in the analysis, 62% carried out evaluations and they completed a total of 469 studies. A systematic increase in the number of studies and the number of cities carrying them out was also observed. The dominant thematic areas were civic budgeting, social policy, and development strategy. The shares of studies carried out internally and those commissioned from external companies turned out to be similar. In contrast, studies of intervention implementation processes dominate over evaluations of intervention effects. This research can serve as a starting point for further, more detailed analyses of the organisation of the evaluation process and its use in local government.
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 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.
The article presents the achievements of the “Diagnosis of the state of Poland’s spatial economy”, developed in 1981–1983, which critically analyses the effects of the thirty-year impact of the principles of building socialism on Poland’s spatial economy. These effects are related to the elements of the current state of the country’s spatial management, which leads to the conclusion that many of the unfavourable phenomena and processes of that time also occur today, after 30 years of market economy and the democratic system. The article ends with a proposal of research on the contemporary spatial conditions of the country’s development.
The purpose of the article is to theoretically analyse the nature and characteristics of territorial capital. The article examines the conceptual framework of this notion to identify its originality and added value. The applied research method is literature review. The concept of territorial capital amalgamates numerous findings from endogenous approaches to development. Its originality derives from a holistic and complementary perspective on territorial resources, which give rise to new development trajectories and foster territorial specificity. This concept emphasises the significance of network relationships and the intangibility of resources, along with their embeddedness. It highlights the importance of place specificity and territorial capabilities in creating new values and resources. It forms the basis for place-based development policy.
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.
Ensuring an appropriate level of transport accessibility of peripheral areas is one of the greatest challenges of regional and local policy. Higher accessibility has a positive impact on the attractiveness of a given area as a place to live and creates favourable conditions for running a business. An example of a region located peripherally and at the same time problematic in the socioeconomic sphere is the Jelenia Góra agglomeration. The aim of this article is to examine the validity of implementing urban rail in the functional area of Jelenia Góra and to determine the scope of its operation as part of shaping sustainable mobility in the Karkonosze subregion. A crucial part of the work is the original concept of the ‘Karkonosze Light-Rail’, which is a reference to previously published plans of the Jelenia Góra agglomeration railway.
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.
The purpose of this article is to analyse both the allocation of the financial support from the 2nd instalment of the CGFLI in the Opolskie Voivodeship and the debate in this region over accusations of the clientelistic allocation of this fund. According to the first hypothesis, the local governments affiliated with the German minority are not treated as politically neutral; therefore, they might be vulnerable to discrimination in allocation of the fund. The second hypothesis claims that the peculiarity of the local political patterns in the voivodeship, which is characterised by the low level of partisanship, gives the ruling party’s regional politicians the opportunity to undermine the thesis on clientelistic distribution of the CGFLI. The research has shown that the local governments affiliated with the German minority have a lower chance of getting financial support when compared to the non-partisan ones. Additionally, the study has distinguished five modes of counter-arguing against the thesis on clientelism, employed by the ruling party politicians of the region.
There are three Social Economy Support Centres (OWES) operating in the Łódzkie region. The basic role of such centres is to provide advisory services to the existing social economy entities and train people interested in setting up a social enterprise. The aim of the article is to present the activities of social economy support centres aimed at supporting social enterprises and promoting the development of social economy in the Łódzkie region. Evaluation of their activities and conclusions from this analysis may be of practical importance for the development of social economy. The research material is based on the desk research for the projects: “OWES – support to social economy”, “Social Economy Support Centre in Łódź”, “Social Economy Support Centres KLUCZ”, “OWES – development of social economy” implemented in 2016–2017, research of the Regional Centre for Social Assistance in Łódź and CATI interviews conducted with coordinators of social economy support centres operating in the Łódzkie region.
The work has two goals: 1) to identify the dominant charges in complaints to administrative courts regarding land use plans for municipalities (gminy), to assess their legitimacy and effectiveness, and to classify the complainants; 2) to show that the court rulings are related to the diversity of municipalities, i.e., their character (morphology, social and economic functions, etc.) and characteristics of socio-economic development. All the judgments of voivodship (regional) administrative courts issued in 2010–2019 concerning complaints about municipal plans were analysed (531). The problem turns out to be the undefined scope of such plans, which, however, does not affect the extent to which these instruments are challenged by property owners. A high concentration of complaints in the regional capitals and their suburban areas is also demonstrated.
This text addresses three key issues presented in the article by Perdał et al. (2020) and in the polemic by Bolesław Domański, published in this issue of Studia Regionalne i Lokalne: territorial aspects of social justice, the relationships between territorial differentiation of socio-economic phenomena and political attitudes and behaviour in Poland, and the problem of meeting the requirements of social justice in relation to territorial systems that are in a particularly difficult situation, mainly due to their depopulation.
Update from 25/07/2024: Parts of this article in the form of literal quotes without providing the source were used in a subsequent article by the same author entitled "Implementation of the partnership principle in the process of implementing regional operational programs in Poland" published in "Opinie i Komentarze Fundacji Rozwoju Demokracji Lokalnej" 3/2023.
The aim of the paper is to examine the level of application of the partnership rule in the process of implementing regional operational programmes (ROP) in Poland in 2014–2019. It has been assumed that the Monitoring Committees (MC) operate as the institutional manifestation of the partnership principle. The scope of comparative analysis includes practical aspects of the functioning of MCs within ROPs in three voivodships: Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Lubuskie and Świętokrzyskie. The analysis focused on five institutional factors: number of Committee meetings in the financial perspective 2014–2020, number of circular voting events, percentage of socio-economic partners in the total number of Committee members, number of working groups within the MCs, as well as the number of meetings of working groups. The research hypothesis adopted in this article assumes that the regulatory activities expressed in the preparation of guidelines for the application of the partnership principle under the regional operational programs in the 2014–2020 financial perspective turned out to be insufficient for disseminating developed partnerships under ROPs.
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.
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.
To assess the development level of Polish regions, it is necessary to observe changes in the country taking into account its sustainable development. Differences between regions are due mainly to their nature, their social, economic and institutional conditions and their political functions. The character of a region has a strong impact on the direction and the pace of development of individual spheres of sustainable order. Research shows that regions with big urban areas have much higher economic and social points than non-industrialised areas. However, agricultural and tourist regions deal with environment problems better. That is why all actions concerning region development and meant to decrease disproportions have to depend on the type of region. The taxonomical analysis can be a base for further research.
Jacek Gancarczyk, Marta Gancarczyk
The article deals with the fundamental theoretical and practical problems of regional development, the causes of poverty and wealth of regions, and factors influencing change of the region`s situation. The answers are being sought in the relations between the location criteria stemming from a current paradigm of development and the region`s features, the type and character of external factor influencing the region and the region`s reaction to these factors. The theoretical considerations are being illustrated by contemporary and historical examples.
The aim of the research was to evaluate disproportions in Polish local governments’ income and their connection with the level of economic development of voivodeships. The basis of this evaluation was an analysis including the income of governments at a voivodeship, district and commune levels in 16 voivodeships in the years 2002–2006. In the initial stage of the research, a hypothesis was made that in the voivodeships that are at a higher level of economic development the income of local governments is also higher. The changes in law introduced on l January 2004 caused an increase of local governments’ income. The income increased at the fastest pace in the most developed regions, thus contributing to the deepening of development disproportions between voivodeships in Poland. These differences were only partially decreased by subventions from the state budget.
The paper offers a comparison of changes which have been taking place in the eastern regions of Poland and Germany in the recent years. It sets out to identify the main problems of these areas and explain how they have affected economic development processes. The development trajectories of the eastern regions of Poland and Germany are discussed in the context of the reuni?cation and trans-formation processes, and are related to the policies implemented by the public authorities. In its conclusions, the study evaluates the relevance and scale of the problems affecting the eastern parts of Germany and Poland, among them the effectiveness of their regional policies.
The subject of the paper is the participation of non-partisan candidates in local elections in Poland after 2002. The analysis of the prevalence of non-partisanship provides information on the political parties’ performance at the local level. The paper presents analyses of electoral data from the local elections held in 2002, 2006, and 2010. We have used various indicators of non-partisanship which demonstrate the performance of non-partisans in municipalities of different size, the domination of non-partisan mayors over other candidates, the strength of their clubs in councils, and the disproportions of political support between them and their committees. The results of the research show that although the share of non-partisans in local authorities is still very high, it has been gradually decreasing since 2002.
Polish health spa are that category of communes whose development do not depend on the inhabitants? activities but on central solutions. The lack of comprehensive solutions that would control legal and financial basics of functioning and development of health spa causes the spa to be subject to one-sided economic development and one-sector employment. The spa must fulfil the tasks, unknown to other communes, connected with maintenance and development of infrastructure of health resorts and their neighbouring areas. The lack for finances to the development of health spa, many tax exemptions and tax relief often cause the communes to allocate their own inhabitants? means to the maintenance of health spa; means intended for the realization of their own statutory tasks. The lack of law about health resorts causes increase financial problems of this category of spa, rising unemployment and degradation of health resort infrastructure.
Multiculturalism is a kind of social policy that depends on cultural neutrality of the state. Huge communities of immigrants of non-European cultures arose in Western Europe. In response to this phenomenon, European states initiated a multicultural social policy. In effect, many behaviours of immigrants turned out to be at variance with human rights, but consistent with multiculturalism. Great cultural distance between European societies and immigrants caused more serious problems with integration than had been expected. Nowadays, we can observe a contestation, but not abandonment, of the multicultural policy, accompanied by anti-immigrant sentiments. A new social policy ought to facilitate the adaptation of immigrants in economic and politic institutions, and to respect human rights as a key value.
Tadeusz Kudłacz, Tadeusz Markowski
Michael Danson, Ewa Helińska-Hughes, Geoffrey Whittam
The paper reviews issues related to traditional food from the perspective of its producers and region development. Research conducted during the Poznan International Fair “Polagra 2006” among producers was used in the paper. This examination brought attention to problems stemming from the functioning of such basic ideas as regional and traditional products, including consumers awareness of such products, as well as the current possibilities of epidemiological – veterinarian rules and norms. A separate issue discussed in the paper concern barriers in the development of rural areas and possibilities of eliminating them by means of financing from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.
The paper shows the basic problems of implementation of the cross-sector cooperation, in the frame of area-based partnerships, for specified rural areas in years 2001-2004 in Poland. In this period partnerships were created with international sources support and with appreciable participation of non-government organisations. The main obstacles to their actions were: the insufficient financial resources, the lack of legal form of self-governments, NGOs and entrepreneurships cooperation with equal rights, tendencies for leaders` domination in group`s actions, weak organisational structures and the lack of long-term strategies. The first effects of cooperation are little; they deal with social affairs and tourist promotion, but they show the positive role of such type coalitions in local development.
The article describes the forecasts for the 2004-2006 National Development Plan implementation on the performance of Poland`s economy up to 2010. The estimations are based on the Polish version of HERMIN model. Several development paths for Poland are predicted upon varying assumptions on the ability to absorb the EU assistance, and varying efficiency of use of those funds. In general, it is demonstrated that Poland`s accession to EU will bring a significant economic improvement by increasing GDP growth rate and depressing unemployment rate.
Competitive advantage of a region, beside its natural resources, is determined to a large extent by the quality and competence of local and regional authorities. In order to benefit from region`s full potential, it is essential to involve the authorities into efficient information policy. It is reflected by the results of a Poland-wide research, where 67% of respondents perceived that it was the creation of an information system enabling fast and accurate decision-making that was the key factor determining efficient management of a company. It is therefore important to analyse how the Western Pomeranian companies see the role and activities of local authorities in this aspect. Local governments play a unique part in information delivery as they represent a group of entities which should actively affect development conditions for companies in the region, within existing legal and administrative system. The paper presents results of the research on information policy in local governments in Western Pomerania.
The absorption the European Union structural aid, available in 2007–2013 period, provides Poland the opportunity of fast development and improvement of life quality. A regional policy that will effectively use the structural funds may contribute to the improvement of infrastructure, development of entrepreneurship and restructuring of rural areas. The issue of absorption ability has to be considered with particular attention. This study – on the basis of experiences in implementing the Integrated Regional Operational Programme – points out some threats and bottlenecks limiting the potential absorption of funds. The barriers have been identified using the questionnaire based research on the experiences of local governments in the swietokrzyskie region.
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.
The Integrated Regional Operational Programme (IROP) management system in a weak manner prevents possibility of administrative and political corruption. Particularly susceptible to corruption are procedures of choosing projects and new public procurement system. We could list following reasons, why IROP management system is vulnerable to corruption: (1) system is very complicated, (2) division of competences between various public authorities is incorrect, as well as between politicians and civil servants, (3) some institutions are wrongly designed (particularly regional steering committees), (4) blur regulations, for instance not clearly supporting transparency of administrative procedures, (5) lack of special anti-corruption regulations, (6) Polish administrative and political culture. Decision makers preparing a new system for regional programs (2007–2013) should take into consideration conclusions of this paper and revise this system from the point of view of preventing corruption.
The aim of this article is to analyse trans-border entrepreneurial cooperation in selected territorial units of the Polish-Slovakian border. The authors estimated the number of enterprises operating on both sides of the Polish-Slovakian border and described the branches which are represented by these firms. They also presented other examples of entrepreneurship in the analysed area.
Many people wonder how suburban shopping centres and hypermarkets emerged and what are the economic foundations of their dynamic development in the last decade. The answer to the question is not impossible, although hard. It is based on the presumption that the expansion of this form of distribution may result from changes in the transport system, which additionally have a rather weak economic basis.
Structural funds – instruments of cohesion policy – are aimed to support local and regional development and to speed up regional convergence. For the last few years they have been the main source that enable realization of different activities and investments on local level in Poland. In the light of systematic extension of financial resources provided within structural funds effective absorption of those funds becomes a matter of great importance. Experience of previous implementation period gives some clues on the perspective of use of structural funds provided for Polish regions in 2007–2013 period. The results of previous research showed that effective absorption of pre-accession and structural funds depends on many both material and untouchable factors but the most important for effective absorption is adequate institutional system with procedures of programming, financial management, monitoring, evaluation etc. This paper presents the results of research conducted in 2008. The authors focused on three main areas: experience of 2004–06 period of implementation – identification of successes and barriers of structural funds implementation system, practical use of these experiences to improve institutional system for 2007–13 period and finally priorities of 16 Regional Operational Programmes realized in Polish voivodeships.
This paper presents analysis of different connections between institutional participants of three area-based partnerships (LEADER Local Action Groups) that have been created in rural areas to coordinate actions which contribute to social and economic development of the respective regions. The relations in three partnerships located in different historical-cultural regions of Poland were analysed in the context of the social capital concept, using basic network relation indexes. Various types of interactions between agents (coordination, conflict, co-operation, control and competition) and flows (information, financial assets, human resources and tangible resources) have been analysed.
The aim of this paper is twofold: to demonstrate development challenges of large Polish cities and to assess the extent to which Cohesion Policy in the 2004?2006 programming addresses these issues. The analysis covers different aspects of EU intervention: sums assigned for particular categories, types of beneficiaries as well as types of large cities. The results allow us to formulate the following observations. The thematic structure of the intervention only partially addresses challenges related to contemporary informational economy, which is due to the cities’ relatively low support for innovativeness and their metropolitan functions. In the analyzed period, the bulk of EU Cohesion Policy funds was devoted to the development of basic technical infrastructure (transport and water management), which was the result of huge underdevelopment in these fields in former years. However, EU intervention had some successes: thematic fields were well adapted to types of cities. Furthermore, most funding was allocated to the largest cities because of the strong involvement of their authorities in EU funds projects, while in smaller cities a significant share of the funds was given to large industrial plants.
The article is devoted to the role of the local political elites in the process of local commune (gmina) development. The research was made in three municipalities that differ in terms of economic development and their location on the territory of Poland. The author discusses the relation between the social-economic awareness of the councillors and the commune development strategy. She confronts the strengths and weaknesses of the municipalities in question as perceived by the local decision-makers with their communal development strategies and the course of action undertaken. The analysis of the development strategies of the three communes shows different approaches to strategic planning that result from differing attitudes of the councillors towards the creation of economic progress which, in turn, have a fundamental influence on the functioning of local structures.
The aim of this study was a synthetic evaluation of EU funds’ distribution between 16 voivodships. It was found out that the regional EU funds’ distribution in the years 2000–2005 is an effect of a method, according to which the voivodships that more populated are privileged. In absolute numbers the biggest recipients were: Masovia, Silesia and Malopolska – regions with a high level of urbanization, equipped with a broad business environment and with a relatively rich scientific background. At the same time, these voivodships win the most direct foreign investments. Thus we deal with a double privilege of these voivodships in relation to other regions. In relative numbers, described by an index of received funds in relation to the share of produced GPD, the dominating regions are: Warmia and Mazury, Podlasie and Western Pomerania. But it does not mean that in this way the distance between these voivodships and the most developed regions is reduced. The research did not prove that there is a connection between GDP per capita and the amount of aid per one inhabitant. The lack of any connection (positive or negative), which is a logic effect of the assumption that the regional distribution of EU funds is conditioned mainly by the number of inhabitants, indicates that the criteria do not differentiate voivodships according to the anticipated economic effects. They take an egalitarian approach – every inhabitant should receive statistically equally.
The article discusses the idea of co-production, understood as informed and intentional participation of citizens in the organisation and provision of public services in the context of the global ageing process, a phenomenon which necessitates actions aimed to secure the needs of older people. The basis for the empirical investigation was a study carried out under the aegis of a WHO agency, the Centre for Health Development in Kobe, Japan. It offers an analysis of the case studies of initiatives addressed to elderly people in the local communities of 10 selected developing countries (Chile, China, Iran, Libya, Russia, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ukraine, Vietnam). The key criterion in the selection of the analysed projects was direct involvement of institutional and non-institutional representatives of local communities in their implementation. As a participant (researcher) of this international survey, the author analyses the observable manifestations of silver co-production characterising the individual initiatives.
The paper presents the evaluation of Cohesion Policy impacts on diffusion of development processes from cities to their regional hinterlands. We evaluated two things: a) the indicators illustrating metropolitan and regional concentration of population, enterprises, employers, and local governments revenues, and b) the impact of EU funds on the development of municipalities located in the surroundings of large cities (based on local governments survey results). For the first type of analysis, we delimitated the regional surroundings into two zones: metropolitan area and regional hinterlands (the former was only applicable in case of capital cities of voivodships). The outcome of the analysis in this dimension indicates a lack of any significant impact of Cohesion Policy on agglomeration processes in the analyzed spatial scales. However, the studies in the second dimension allow us to identify the thematic categories of public intervention that have the largest relative impact on spread effects from developing large cities to their regional surroundings.
This article presents, from a sociological perspective, selected methodological issues concerning urban studies. The authors of such studies either create theories of a city’s rise and fall or describe a changing urban reality, investigating the history of cities. Examples of the first approach are the more or less formalized works of Louis Wirth or Richard Florida, as well as Geoffrey West’s and Louis Bettencourt’s quantitative concept.. The second type of studies is represented by Max Weber, Fernand Braudel and others. The author, although he is not denying the merits of the first approach, claims that the descriptive-historical perspective has so far been more useful in explaining the process of urban development.
The article presents intersectoral partnerships forming Local Action Groups, and analyzes the mechanisms of emergence of such partnerships in the Podkarpackie region, particularly factors contributing to their emergence, their initiators and partner-recruitment methods, as well as the relations of partnerships with their social milieu, decision-making inside partnerships and expectations regarding their future. The theoretical framework of the study is rooted in the neoinstitutional theory with its historical, normative, rational-choice and network approaches. Based on them, the authors formulate some hypotheses referring to the innovativeness of the partnerships, the supremacy of local authorities over other partners, the utilitarian character of partnerships and the assumptions concerning their future. The hypotheses are then verified on the basis of the results of quantitative research of Local Action Groups in the Podkarpackie region.
The study focuses on the mutual relations between the quality of government and the implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy in various regional contexts. The research shows quite significant differences in this respect between “convergence-oriented” regions and „competitiveness and employment-oriented” ones. The quality of government has a positive impact on the efficiency of spending of EU funds in both groups of regions, although the dependence is much stronger in the „convergence-oriented” regions. In turn, the scale of EU funds contributes to the improvement of the quality of government, but only in the „convergence-oriented” regions. In this group, changes in the quality of government took place immediately before and after accession to the EU, when the process of adapting the institutional system to the needs related to the implementation of Cohesion Policy occurred. Although the differences in the quality of government between the two groups of regions have decreased, the research shows that in the „convergence-oriented” regions, the potential causative power of EU funds was rather poorly used in this respect.
Investment policy is a driving force in the transformation of cities. It plays a significant role both in terms of daily living conditions and in the long-term consequences of decisions that are taken. The residents’ opinions about the investment policy should be accorded a special value. The aim of this paper is to analyse and estimate the scale of empowerment of the investment policy of all 71 cities of the Śląskie Voivodeship. Three models of residents’ participation are used in the paper: symmetric, consultative and asymmetric. The questionnaire survey and desk research form the basis for assigning cities to the proposed models. The analysis reveals that the mechanism of empowerment is becoming more and more important for Silesian local governments, although residents’ involvement in urban investment policies is still far from satisfactory.
The aim of the paper is to analyze the factors determining the likelihood of reelection of Polish mayors. In order to identify the factors impacting the likelihood of reelection, the author estimates the parameters of the binomial model. The results show that spending in the election year, especially on housing, is greatly appreciated by the inhabitants of cities. The mayors who are very likely to be reelected are leaders of cities that are successful in acquiring EU funds, where the labour market is stable, and the material situation of inhabitants and businesses does not deteriorate during their term. Cities that are capitals of voivodeships offer a greater likelihood of reelection, as do those formerly in the Austrian partition or on the so-called Reclaimed Lands of Western Poland. Variables belonging to the domain of sociology of politics have an equally significant impact on the analyzed likelihood.
The article concentrates on vehicle tax, which is interesting not only due to its efficiency, but also high mobility of the tax base. The study aims to examine the correlation between fiscal results and municipal policies, from the perspective of such criteria as the type of municipality and taxpayer category. The study is based on correlation analysis, in which Pearson’s independence test and Spearman’s rho coefficient are used. The results confirm that the tested correlations do exist. Municipal tax policy influences tax revenues of the studied tax, though the results in each unit are different between the current and later periods. Moreover, in the case of vehicle tax, municipal authorities’ main action was to lower the upper tax rates. For municipalities in which these relations were the most visible, econometric models were built. These illustrate the effects of tax policy in relation to certain taxpayer categories.
The article analyzes decision-making councils of Local Action Groups operating in Axis 4 LEADER Rural Development Programme in three Polish regions which were described in the literature as differing significantly in terms of their historical and cultural backgrounds. According to the concept of governance, implemented in programmes such as LEADER, the influence of representatives of various sectors of the economy on local decisions should be balanced and, in accordance with the rules of the support programme, no more than 50% of council members should represent the public sector. This provision, included in formal documents of Local Action Groups, is designed to ensure that non-public sectors do have some impact on council decisions. However, in the three studied regions, the real participation of mayors, officials and executives of the public sector was from 15 to 21% higher than in the official data, and in about one-third of the surveyed organizations it exceeded 50%, which gave the public sector representatives the dominant role in decision-making and selection of eligible projects. This practice was very similar in the studied regions, and is discussed in the context of the concept of governance, as an example of tokenism.
The article is devoted to a critical discussion of several widely accepted principles of regional development and regional policies. It is argued that the in the current development paradigm it is impossible to achieve regional convergence, which should lead to a deep change in understanding the very assumptions of the Cohesion policy of the EU. It is indicated that external impulses 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 sport championships. One of the most broadly used model for an ex ante evaluation – the HERMIN model – is also discussed.
The following article shows the problem of environmental pollution in contemporary world as an side-effect of economic development. The main aim of the article is to present two political theories of an environmental protection extend – Green Political Theory and environmentalism and ecological modernization as a possibility of solution for the environmental protection problem in the process of development. Action is complex and guided by the state. The role of context is pointed out, which is proved on the example of USA, Germany, Norway, Great Britain, socialist states, Poland and European Union. Additionally, article analyses the directions of environmental policies – ecocentrism, technocentrism, ecoliberalism and ecocollectivism.
The paper is devoted to the observed and anticipated impact of CAP on the modernisation of Polish agricultural sector and the attitudes of Polish farmers towards EU. Since Poland’s accession the approach of this group to the European community evolutes from the extreme scepticism to enthusiasm. CAP improved the financial situation of farms, stabilised farmers income and contributed to the fall of social tension in rural areas. Some structural changes are also noticeable: polarisation of area structure, specialisation of output in small farms, dualisation. There is a threat that Polish farmers will not be able to exploit all opportunities of the CAP, since they eagerly benefit from the traditional services and remain unconfident towards the innovative instruments, creating so called “rural policy”.
The article is devoted to problems of development of South-East Asia. Author describes geographical, demographical, social and economical conditions of the region. Significant part of article concerns cooperation between countries (e.g. ASEAN and other sub-regional initiatives).
The aim of this article is to identify the role of fees and user charges in the budgets of large cities (cities with county status) and policies of these entities in this regard. To achieve this goal, the article reviews the research on the importance of fees and user charges in local government finance, and analyses the role of fees and user charges in large cities finances in Poland from 2006 to 2012. The study confirms the global trend observable in different countries, i.e. the increasing importance of revenues from fees and user charges to local government budgets. Secondly, the relative size of revenues from fees and user charges in large cities in Poland are evening out. Thirdly, there are two key areas in terms of service charges: public transport and housing management.
The approach the authors use in order to distinguish types of developmental strategies of communes, based on the multi-criteria decision-making tool, is a complex procedure that can be useful in development programming, and in particular in assessing strengths and weaknesses of administrative units, as well as the opportunities and threats in their environment. Unlike the classic (descriptive) methods, the procedure allows the researcher to quantify the importance of the SWOT analysis factors, i.e. both qualitative and quantitative elements. It can be a useful instrument in identifying types of developmental strategies of administrative units. In the present article, the approach has been used to determine the strategic position of the communes in the Miedzyrzecki poviat.
The paper presents an analysis of usability of regional operational programmes 2007?2013 (ROP) evaluations. The elements of usability under study are: quality, relevance, and credibility of the evaluation assumptions. The study consists in desk research of a representative sample (n = 71) of the evaluation reports completed between 2008 and 2012. The results show that many reports do not contain important recommendations and do not answer key research questions. In most cases, the evaluations fail to supply an answer on the impact of ROP on the socio-economic development of regions. The limited usefulness of evaluation reports leads to conclusions about negative trends in the development of the ROP evaluation system, which is focused on providing simple information, reports production, and does not respond to actual demand for knowledge.
The institutionalized revitalization process is an important tool of contemporary Polish public policy. According to the declarations of local authorities, its programmes are designed to support the development of so-called degraded spaces and the effort against social exclusion of their inhabitants. However, as the analysis of municipal revitalization programmes (GPR) in the biggest cities reveals, planned revitalization leads to gentrification of a urbanized area and is therefore more conducive to segregation than to social inclusion. This paper discusses the relationships between revitalization and gentrification on the basis of the content and assumptions of urban regeneration programmes. It is based on the literature and on selected GPRs.
The paper is devoted to the problems of development of peripheral regions. It contains a review of theories of endogenous and exogenous development and a description of their evolution. Based on this theoretical discussion two model strategies are presented: (1) modernization of endogenous potential and (2) building the new endogenous potential of a region. In its further part the paper focuses on the experiences of peripheral regions in Portugal and Finland. Finally it offers the recommendations for public policies in the peripheral regions of Eastern Poland.
This paper examines the development of international financial centres (IFC) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The study argues that the development of the financial services in CEE is characterized by external dependency, which is manifested in the form of hierarchical command and control functions over CEE financial subsidiaries within the West European IFC network. The paper quantitatively compares the factors of IFC functions of Budapest in comparison to those of Warsaw and Prague. It argues that despite the lack of market evidence showing signs of a regional centre focus during the transition period, there are some signs of IFC formation. The paper assesses the uneven impact of the global economic crisis upon CEE financial centres and confirms that their development trajectories became more differentiated as a result of the crisis. The steady decline of Budapest during the second half of the 2000s was accompanied by the rise of Warsaw. Our analysis concluded that Budapest, despite its earlier endeavours, most likely lost the competition to become an international financial centre.
The paper’s main objective is to introduce into the topic of regional development in the postindustrial regions Ruhr and Upper Silesia taking aspects of economic and spatial planning under consideration. The region Ruhr has lived through a difficult period of development. A lot of self-given objectives could be accomplished. Anyway various long-term problems like the relative high unemployment rate, the demographic challenges or industrial waste lands are still present and are awaiting solutions. In some problem areas Upper Silesia might orient oneself to the strategies conducted in the Ruhr agglomeration and adapt strategies which delivered positive results and prevent failures which resulted by middle-rate measures.
Strengthening economic cohesion of regional economies is usually considered as one of the major goals of regional policy. At the same time, metropolitan cities are recognized as main centres of economic growth, influencing the development perspectives of more peripheral areas. It is therefore important to know the range and the mechanism of spillover of socio-economic development from metropolises to their surroundings, as well as to identify the areas which are economically lagging as a result of missing functional links with metropolises. The authors apply the local spatial correlation measures (local Moran’s statistics – LISA) in the analysis of municipal revenues in order to delimit the diffusion and polarization of economic development in Poland.
The article presents the results of the analysis of the impact of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2004–2006 and the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) 2007–2013 on divergence/convergence processes taking place in Poland as well as between its regions and the EU average, measured as GDP per capita in PPS. The analysis was made using simulation results received by applying 16 regional HERMIN models and data as well as forecasts concerning NDP and NSRF transfers prepared by the Ministry of Regional Development of the Republic of Poland. The application of HERMIN models allowed the authors to make forecasts regarding the following macroeconomic indicators: GDP per capita (in PPS) in relation to the EU average and to the national average by 2020. The results indicate that NDP and NSRF implementation can accelerate the convergence process between the Polish regions and the EU average and slow down the weak divergence process within the country.
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the activity of local governments’ planning and investment service in the environmentally valuable areas of Podlaskie Voivodeship. Spatial planning at the local level is extremely important, especially in the environmentally valuable areas. It makes it possible to preserve the natural environment for future generations and to maintain ecological processes. However, protective measures should not disturb municipal investments. One of the appropriate solutions is the introduction of local land development plans – a framework of rational management of natural resources and of marketing development. This is particularly important in the areas of municipalities which, beside ecological functions, play an important role in the development of tourism and transport, and are situated in suburban areas.
The article, referring to the elaboration offered in 2005 by Swianiewicz, presents the very recent development of the theoretical concepts used in urban political research. It concentrates on the rescaling concept, which assumes the need for territorial reorganization of urban research and practice. Reteritorialization implies an increase in the importance of the sub-state levels, i.e. the levels most affected by globalization. Globalization has forced big cities to compete internationally, which also influences their organization. The debate on metropolitan governance has changed significantly in comparison to the one of the old regionalism – less attention is paid to administrative solutions, more to conditions and mechanisms of international functioning of metropolises. Metropolitan governance has moved from vertical, redistributive and coordinative relations within the state towards a horizontal competition with other metropolises. New relations, cutting across the traditional levels of organization, are being created within the current stable institutional framework. One of the biggest challenges for contemporary urban political studies is the elaboration of conceptual frames for those relations. The challenge is especially important as institutional solutions to metropolitan areas still leave a lot of questions and doubts.
Dynamic tourism development has resulted in equally dynamic growth of tourism industry, being the major source of income. Tourism development strategies are based on different concepts of economic growth which do not answer all questions. Among them is the issue of success factors: what makes certain localities enjoy fast tourism development while other similar places have problems? Against many beliefs on the significance of natural resources, more important are cultural assets and in particular development of tourist infrastructure and products. Having this in mind one should look for success factors in quality of human resources, elites and leadership.
The debt of local government units (LGU) is part of the public debt. Therefore, the analysis of the phenomenon of local government debt is important for the financial security of the state. In Poland, in the period 2007–2013, the debt of local government units rapidly increased, in particular in the major cities with poviat rights – metropolises. Due to the dual nature of metropolises, they perform many important tasks in the social and infrastructure sphere that determine the quality of life of their residents and contribute to the socio-economic development of the region and metropolitan areas. However, an excessive increase in debt of the metropolis may in the future be a barrier to achieving a high rate of socio-economic development. The aim of the paper is to analyze the phenomenon of indebtedness in the largest cities with poviat rights – metropolises – in Poland in the years 2007–2013. The study draws on publicly accessible databases compiled by the Ministry of Finance (Wskaźniki do oceny sytuacji fiansowej jednostek samorządu terytorialnego).
The aim of the paper is to analyze the processes of localization and globalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in rural areas in Wielkopolska. The author discusses the problem of rural economy as the place of localization of internationalized and globally active enterprises. First, she analyzes the potential factors of enterprises’ localization in the condition of open economy. Then, she focuses on shares of foreign capital and foreign exchange of enterprises operating in urban and non-urban environments and in agricultural and non-agricultural areas. The author analyzes the data reported in the years 2008?2011 by the Polish Statistical Office GUS concerning entities with foreign capital and firms with capital abroad. She shows that the pace and advancement of the globalization processes in the investigated enterprises differ according to the level of urbanization and the economic structure of different localizations. The results show that globalization leads to polarization of the development of regional and local economy.
The article discusses the functions of the Committee of the Regions with respect to the legislative process and politics of the European Union, as well as to the politics of the Member States. The main assumption of the analysis, based on the deductive method, is that because of the current political situation in Europe, in addition to being a body giving opinions on the law, the Committee of the Regions should have a greater, fundamental role in shaping the future directions of development for the entire European Union. The discussion is set in the context of fiscal federalism theory and one of its elements assuming that a federal structure has a role in mitigating conflicts, as well as referring to the hybrid nature of the contemporary models of development. It is underpinned by the relevant literature, analyses commissioned by the European Commission, materials of the Committee of the Regions, findings of earlier studies, and the so-called impact reports of the Committee of the Regions published from 2014 to 2017.
The main objective of this paper is to analyze the reasons of development of the Integrated Territorial Investments in the new 2014-2020 period in the context of EU reforms, and to describe the creation process and the threats this experimental approach may encounter in Poland. The Author’s main thesis is that the experimental ITI concept causes additional conflicts between management authorities and beneficiaries who are used to the fact that declared and implemented intervention aims are different. The Author also assumes that there exist important factors that could potentially hinder the radical reforms and re-establish the status quo (or “domesticate” the policy). The main methods (desk research and involvement in preparatory works as a Ministry expert) determine the structure of the sources used. The paper offers some conclusions.
The aim of the paper is to present spatial variation of social capital in Poland, especially in relation to historical differences between various regions (resulting from the country’s partitions and border changes) and the level of urbanization. Previous studies indicate that such variation exists. However, they were carried out on the basis of declarations, an approach which has its drawbacks. This study uses a novel approach to assessing social capital: observing the behaviour of a study group using experimental economics, used in conjunction with a questionnaire which enables us to study the intention-behaviour gap. The study group consisting of 1540 individuals indicates very little variation between the regions. However, there are differences concerning the gap between declarations and behaviour in questions related to trust, trustworthiness, and cooperation, and our results confirm the conclusions from previous studies only weakly.
Poland has significant, though not researched and depicted in depth asset in the form of manors, palaces and castles. They differ in many ways: by location, technical state, quality of architecture, ownership, function played nowadays. Their contemporary state has been determined by a number of complex economic, political, legal and social factors. Utilisation of those objects for the needs of dynamically developing culture tourism calls for changes in national heredity protection and tourism development strategies. Proposed changes in particular should decisively introduce market mechanism into heredity management. Otherwise those rich assets shall remain troublesome and costly souvenir of the past.
The main focus of the text is the city tourism viewed as a form of city promotion on which the city development depends to a great extent. At the beginning of the industrial age, tourism concentrated around the sea resorts and spas. The first changes in tourism resulted from the decline of the paradigm of the industrial progress in western countries. The decaying cities previously bound up with industry started then to change the image in order to improve their economic situation. The new image pointed out culture in the first place, because culture started being perceived as the tourist attraction. The article presents the different ways of city promotion. The particular stress is placed here upon public space investments – such as revitalization phenomena, theme space and commercialization of urban landscape and constructing the museums and other public use buildings by the outstanding architects. The development of the urban tourism is also closely tied up with the changes in tourists’ behaviour and preferences. The phenomena presented in this article explain the increasing interest in the city as the tourist attraction and emphasise the indispensability of the promotion efforts.
The aim of this article is the description of growth tendencies and growth factors in subregions (NUTS 3) of Central and Eastern Europe in 1998–2006. Wide range of complementary research methods has been used in order to triangulate results – starting with classical beta and sigma convergence analysis, through kernel density estimation, transition matrices to spatial autocorrelation and multidimensional comparisons. Rarely exposed aspect of influence of capital regions on growth processes was taken into account. Additional analysis of the data in relation to country average allowed to obtain conclusions independent of the country context. As a result, it appeared to be possible to answer the following questions: do the analyzed countries face regional convergence or divergence/polarization process?; what factors determine the dynamics of regional growth?; what are the main dimensions of spatial disparities in Central and Eastern Europe.
The article is based on the statistics of intercommunal data matrix concerning employees who commuted to work in 2006, compiled on the basis of the taxpayers’ tax deductions provided by the Central Statistical Office of Poland (Urban Statistics Centre in Poznan). The author identifies directions, intensity and catchment areas of commuting flows to Warsaw and calculates other basic characteristics, providing a basis for further studies into occupational mobility in relation to the development of the labour market. It has been demonstrated that Warsaw plays a significant role in the spatial structure of the voivodeship in terms of the number of workers who commute to the city. It is the result of its function as the capital and of the development of the labour market in the transition period.
European regional support has grown in parallel with European integration. The funds targeted at achieving greater economic and social cohesion and reducing disparities within the EU have more than doubled in relative terms since the end of the 1980. making development policies the second most important policy area in the EU. The majority of the development funds have been earmarked for Objective 1 regions, i.e. regions where GDP per capita is below the 75% of the EU average. However, the European development policies have come under increasing criticism based on two facts: the lack of upward mobility of assisted regions and the absence of regional convergence. This paper assesses, using cross-sectional and panel data analyses, the failure so far of European development policies to fulfil their objective of delivering greater economic and social cohesion by examining how European Structural Fund support is allocated among different development axes in Objective 1 regions. We find that, despite the concentration of development funds on infrastructure and, in less extent on business support, the returns to commitments of these axes are not significant. Support to agriculture has short term positive effects on growth, but these wane quickly, and only investment in education and human capital which only represents about one-eight of the total commitments has medium-term positive and significant returns.
The purpose of this article is to establish whether regional convergence is present in Poland in terms of GDP per capita. An analysis was conducted for the years 1995–2005 at the voivodeship (NUTS2), sub-regional (NUTS3 classification) and intra-voivodeship levels. Convergence means a reduction of income disparities between regions. The opposite phenomenon is called divergence. The author of the paper used a method – proposed by Quah (1993, 1996a, 1996b) – that enables an analysis of the full distribution dynamics of relative per capita income. It consists in the estimation of transition matrices derived from Markov’s processes and in the use of nonparametric kernel estimators of the relative density function for relative GDP distribution per capita in subsequent years. The method facilitates verification of the club convergence hypothesis, which is impossible using the classic methodology (Barro and Sala-i-Martin 2003). It is clear that income distribution is stable and that there is no unconditional convergence both between voivodeships and between sub-regions. In general, voivodeships as well as sub-regions were impoverished as a result of a faster-than-normal growth of the richest voivodeships (mazowieckie voivodeship) and sub-regions (large cities, mainly Warsaw and Poznan). The diversification of relative GDP per capita grows in time both in the case of voivodeships and sub-regions. The convergence model that can be seen both at NUTS2 and NUTS3 levels is club convergence (polarisation): relatively the poorest and – separately – the richest regions are becoming similar and converge at different income levels. The analysis also includes the occurrence of sub-region convergence within voivodeships, with the only observable convergence model being club convergence.
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 present paper focuses on creative clusters in Poland. Its main goal is to determine the factors behind the establishment of creative clusters and the factors limiting their activity. The study is based on data provided by cluster facilitators, and the CATI and CAWI methods are used for analysis. The study shows that the most important factors contributing to the creation of clusters are internal: the willingness to cooperate, especially between knowledgeable entities, and to strengthen market position and the range of influence. The barriers are: reluctance to share knowledge, the advantage of rivalry over cooperation, poorly perceived flow of employees in clusters (internal factors), as well as dependence on external financing and lack of interest on the part of local government units (external factors).
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 aim of the article is to present the local government in Georgia. Among post-Soviet, non-EU states, Georgia may be praised for the greatest progress in reforming local and regional authorities. It does not mean, however, that the decentralisation process is over. It has been blocked mainly by the lack of own incomes of local governments and limitations of a political nature. In order to assess the state of development of local government in Georgia, the author has made a review of legislation and an analysis of press releases, statistical data and reports of experts. He also used a case study of the former mayor of Tbilisi, Gigi Ugulava.
The purpose of this study is to identify the determinants of innovation of enterprises in the Regional Innovation System context. We analyse factors that determine regional innovation in a less developed region, taking the Podkarpackie region in Poland as our empirical counterpart. We examine how the EU economic policy instruments influence the innovation of enterprises within the context of the Regional Innovation Systems. We propose a model for the implementation of innovations and test our hypotheses based on the data drawn from the period of 2011–2014. The paper provides insights on a rather successful story from Poland. We posit that enterprises use only specific public policy instruments and that companies’ demand for innovation-supporting instruments changes, reacting to the business cycle phase and to financial incentives.
The right to the city is being able to co-decide about the city by its inhabitants. It can be implemented by means of urban participation that consists of two elements – a formal framework created by municipal authorities that enables city residents to join decision-making processes as well as readiness and willingness of the inhabitants to engage in such processes. In recent years, we have witnessed a “participation boom” that manifests itself through an increasing number of public consultations. In this context, the aim of the article is to describe the category of urban participation and offer a critical analysis of participatory processes and their determinants. At the same time, it should be emphasised that the article is theoretical in nature, and the analysed factors determining participation should be treated as a set of the author’s hypotheses that require empirical verification.
The article discusses political leadership in local government. Change from traditional local government to local governance requires also institutional changes and new roles played by local leaders. The notion of political leader is limited to persons having democratic legitimacy for their role played in local politics. It excludes people, who might be influential but remain outside formal democratic institutions of local government. The article distinguishes between type (which depends on formal institutional settings) and style (more dependent on personal characteristics) of leadership. The article discusses selected theoretical concepts of type and style of leadership and tries to refer them to Polish local governments. Recent Polish reforms have brought a change from the type which was close to a collective model to one closer to a strong mayor form. Analysis of four initiative in 2 Polish cities (Poznan and Ostrow Wielkopolski) allows to formulate some conclusions on citizens’ perception of actual styles of local political leadership. The largest proportion of citizens in analysed cities prefers a style which is close to consensus facilitator. But in a real behaviour of leaders, citizens see more of city boss style, which might be characterized by the implementation of an own vision with internal resources existing within local government structures. Comparison of citizens’ preferences with the perception of actual behaviour of leaders allows to compute an Expectation Gap Index. The gap is usually quite narrow in initiatives focused on the construction of broad development programmes, but it becomes wider if we turn to more concretely focused projects.
The aim of the study was to analyse the change in the level of sustainable development of Silesian Province districts. The choice of the unit was determined by the high degree of urbanization of this area. The study was based on 72 statistical indicators describing sustainability of districts in 2011–2014. The data was collected using the Central Statistical Office application Sustainable Development Indicators. To determine diagnostic features the parametric method was used. The Hellwig’s development measure, which is a linear ordering method, was used for the analysis. The results showed that the units were highly differentiated in terms of their characteristics. Therefore, regional authorities should take multidirectional actions and monitor the level of sustainable development of districts on the on-going basis.
The paper presents the state of development and the identity of the city of Biała Podlaska using the analysis of literature and official documents of the municipal authorities. The opinions of 316 PSW students about the city’s image and identity were also presented. The research revealed that the city’s image is strongly determined by its location near the state border and the presence of academic centres in the region. The functioning of universities affects not only the city, the surrounding towns of the municipality, but also the entire region and other places of residence and employment of graduates. The research corroborated the hypothesis that the way in which students perceive the city is important for the further development of the city.
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.
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.
The paper aims to identify the scope and propose a systematisation of the contemporary redefinition of regional development factors, influenced by global conditions. The research process comprised three stages: (1) a brief review of the theoretical foundations and changes in the understanding of regional development factors; (2) presentation of the findings relating to the directions and impact of contemporary socio-economic megatrends on changes of regional development factors, and (3) the main body of the analysis, which identifies and describes the nature of changes in the perception of regional development factors as a consequence of contemporary global conditions.
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 article discusses the involvement of the US federal government in the policy of urban development in the years 1965-2012. The implementation paradox, understood as a limited ability to achieve national policy objectives as a result of the empowerment of potential adversaries, and the changing views of the successive presidents on federalism were considered crucial in explaining the discussed issue. The following categories have been used: federalism, orientation and instruments of development, and financial outlays for development. Orientation and instruments of development have been presented on the basis of selected federal programmes addressed to cities, and outlays – based on federal budgets. Three generations of public policy implementation theories constitute the theoretical framework of the study. In conclusion, the author points to the withdrawal of the federal government and the growing importance of state authorities in urban development policy.
The paper’s main objective is to present the importance of the quality of life in the context of one’s emotional attachment to one’s city. The paper offers an in-depth discussion of some aspects of quality of life and place attachment. The relationships between the phenomena are also discussed. The analyses were conducted based on empirical data from the research project: Social and human capital as factors of the development of the region of Łódź. The project was funded by the European Union. The survey research was conducted on a representative sample of inhabitants of the Łódź voivodeship aged 16–65. The total number of conducted interviews was 2005. However, in the paper, the authors focused exclusively on the inhabitants of Łódź (N = 560). This post-industrial city was chosen on purpose. Firstly, this former centre of Polish textile industry lost much of its industrial function as a result of globalization and transformation. Secondly, the city authorities are planning to conduct a comprehensive process of city revitalization. The aim of the revitalization is to improve the quality of life. This is why the quality of life and place attachment in this post-industrial city were considered very interesting from a scientific point of view.
The paper describes the creation of the Greater Paris metropolitan area (Métropole du Grand Paris, MGP), with special emphasis on the changes and challenges related to the implementation of the housing policy at the metropolitan level. MGP is an inter-municipal cooperation structure with its own budget and special status. It embraces Paris, 123 municipalities located in the neighbouring departments, and fie external municipalities. MGP will take the responsibilities in the field of: management of resources to support social housing, renovation of housing, elimination of low-quality buildings. The implementation of the housing policy at the metropolitan level is associated with a number of challenges mainly in terms of consolidation of activities undertaken by the institutions of social housing, reservation of land for social housing investments, increase in the amount of new housing, including attempts for their more even distribution at the metropolitan scale. In addition, a set of new challenges appeared due to the changing socio-demographic structure of households, which in turn require innovative architectural solutions.
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 paper discusses the subject of intersectoral cooperation in sustainable development projects in order to identify social value created by the cooperating partners. There were several questions posed to find out what kind of social value is created in sustainable development projects undertaken by stakeholders from different sectors, and what is the role of such intersectoral cooperation in the process of creating social value. The empirical part of the work presents case studies from selected projects. As the results demonstrate, the use of mutual potentials allows for a more effective creation and use of value by a wider circle of stakeholders. A higher quality of services is achieved and, what is more, a wider range of social value is created. Social value in the local cooperation model is universal in terms of implementation, creation and use for various crosssectoral sustainable development projects.
Information Society technologies are aimed at raising productivity while reducing time and costs of materials and energy for the economy. Specialists have also observed that ICTs, which have become significantly cheaper, are in huge demand for individual (household) use. Individual applications of ICT in Poland’s economy lead to a growth in different human activities. They impact the economies of Poland in a similar way to the well-known take-back (rebound) effect, which increases the efficiency of resource use and electrical energy consumption in households.
The paper focuses on the assessment of the role of tourism in the development of towns and cities of the Warmian-Masurian voivodeship. The respondents, representatives of town halls, claim that tourism is important and has an impact on economic development of towns and cities. However, nature and wildlife of the Warmia and Masuria regions are not the key tourist attraction of the regions’ towns and cities. The respondents say that each town and city should build its own unique brand rather than relying on the region’s or a dominating city’s brand. It is however useful for the towns and cities of the regions to cooperate in order to promote the tourist product.
The paper describes the effects of the policy of Polish cities concerning climate change. The study uses a questionnaire carried out in all Polish municipalities, and four case studies. The analysis is based on the concept of local knowledge orders. In Polish local government policy, instead of talking of climate change, the officials prefer referring to efficiency in obtaining external funds, savings, or actions meant to raise the quality of life. The term climate change policy is rarely used.
Integrated forms of planning and managing local development are seen today as essential for implementing a successful development policy. This is emphasized by the high priority of these forms in EU local development approaches. In his analysis, the author contrasts the Polish and the German planning system in order to evaluate the compatibility of the Polish spatial planning system with the requirements of integrated local development planning and management. The analysis concerns the areas defined as having key importance for integrated form of local development, i.e. the organization of planning and participation processes, the role given to planning documents in spatial management, and the availability of operational planning tools. The identified major differences between the two systems lead to the assumption that the Polish planning system hardly sustains integrated forms of planning and managing local development, as it is solely oriented towards regulating spatial development schemes.
The main question of the paper concerns the way the eurozone crisis has affected cohesion policy. In particular, the author intends to answer the questions related to the phenomena observed in the crisis in the eurozone (2010–2015), but in relation to the field of cohesion policy. Did intergovernmental management and the informal role of the largest and richest Member States become more visible in this policy? Did the European Commission’s powers grow, but without increasing its autonomy in relation to the EU intergovernmental institutions? Did the crisis lead to the emergence of a “two-speed Europe” (one segmented into the eurozone and the rest of the EU) in cohesion policy? Or maybe is there another dividing line in this policy?
The rising costs of educational tasks due to the decreasing number of students force municipal authorities to take cost-saving measures, including the most radical form, that is closing down schools. Such decisions are not popular with the local residents and in all the examined municipalities have caused conflicts between the stakeholders of local educational policy. The aim of the article is to present actions taken by municipal authorities to reduce the negative effects of conflicts arising in connection with the liquidation of schools. The authors focus on the activities of municipal authorities to curb the negative consequences of the conflict, but turn out to be financially ineffective. The article was based on the analysis of the subject literature, as well as the results of empirical research conducted by the authors. The theoretical framework draws on selected concepts of conflict management and the polarity management model.
The last decades have brought intensive development of urban areas. In many Polish cities, including Warsaw, such development takes place without obligatory local plans. Thus, administrative permission decisions concerning any investment are prepared on the basis of so-called studies of conditions and directions of spatial planning. The aim of the present paper is to discuss how general plans of spatial development in Warsaw can influence some features of its climate which are important for the quality of life of Warsaw citizens. Special attention is paid to Urban Heat Island.
The paper is devoted to a meta-analysis of the Cohesion policy influence on the development in Poland in the last decade. The meta-analysis is based on statistical data and analyses in the context of the Cohesion policy development objectives. The author hypothesizes that in the period, Cohesion policy contributed mostly to the improvement of the quality of life. The reasons of that should be sought in the mechanism of so-called objective replacement, an informal compromise between the expectations of the main beneficiaries, and loosened requirements set by those managing the Cohesion policy. On the basis of the data and reports available, the author confirms the hypothesis.
The article seeks to identify socio-economic conditions that affect the demand of individual consumers for cars and to analyze spatial differences in these conditions. To achieve this objective, econometric modelling is conducted. The analysis was conducted in all poviats in Poland and covered the years 2010-2015. The findings show that the demand for new cars is stimulated by incomes of potential consumers and by a net in-migration, while the level of unemployment together with prices of complementary goods (especially petrol prices) negatively affect the demand for cars. Moreover, geographically weighted regression shows that the identified conditions differ across the country, which may explain the noticeable differences in the level of motorization between poviats.
Uptade from 2.03.2021: Parts of this article were subsequently used in the following publication: Pawel Swianiewicz & Anna Kurniewicz (2018): Coming out of the shadow? Studies of local governments in Central and Eastern Europe in European academic research, Local Government Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03003930.2018.1548352
The article is an analysis of the changing role and position of research on local governments in Central and Eastern Europe in the mainstream European studies. The article refers to dependency theory (Wallerstein, Prebish) applied to scientific research. It classifies Central and Eastern Europe as a half-periphery of academic research. Empirical analysis consists of two parts. The first – qualitative – is a review of the most important comparative studies of European local governments and includes discussion of the role of local governments and researchers from the Eastern part of the continent in those studies. The second – quantitative – is based on an analysis of articles published in the best international journals and citations of those articles in the Scopus database. The authors of articles on local governments in Central and Eastern Europe are divided into two groups: “locals” and “colonisers” – i.e. academics from Western universities conducting their research in Eastern Europe. The analysis covers 14 countries of Central and Eastern Europe (all the New Member States that have joined the EU since 2004 plus the Balkan countries – Albania, Macedonia and Serbia).
Tri-City, with the suburban area, like other Polish urban centres with metropolitan aspirations, has real chances for becoming metropolitan area of European importance. According to some European concepts, Tri-City is recognized as a member of the group of European metropolises and regarded as a link in the zone of high dynamic development in the Baltic Sea Region. The main problem for the functional efficiency of Tri-City agglomeration is cooperation and competition between cities and municipalities. The lack of common activities can be the reason of efforts and effects to squander in the field of spatial planning, programming of regional development and functioning of the whole settlement system of the metropolitan area. Pursuing the integration of Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot and thus creating an integrated metropolitan space of the highest ability to compete in the global economy, is a real challenge for the Tri-City.
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). These changes use programmed connections, contacts, passages, links, connecting areas and other relations that invest new sociological and cultural meanings into public spaces. The integration process gives positive results in numerous cities of Western Europe. One of them, perhaps the most essential, is development of more attractive and deeper relationships of inhabitants with their urban environment. Although the task fails to be easy (integrating tendencies compete with inclinations for disintegration), it is an important step towards the enhancement of urban life quality. The evidence can be numerous discussions and conferences on the issue of public space.
The aim of the paper is to define and evaluate the level of local socio-economic development of largest cities in Poland, as well as the differences and disproportions which appeared between them in the years 2010-2012. The subject of the research were 30 cities in Poland whose population exceeded 120 thousand. These cities fulfil key roles in the country. A literature review and an empirical analysis were used as the base for this work. The data from the Local Data Bank (by CSO) were analyzed with the use of one of the taxonomic methods – the Hellwig development pattern method. Originally, 67 diagnostic variables were examined which, after verification, were cut down to 42 variables. Five groups of variables were distinguished: demographic figures, quality and availability of cultural and educational services, labour and social security conditions, housing conditions, and economic potential. Statistical description of the cities was prepared for all the groups of variables. The differences and disproportions between the cities were revealed. After reduction, 21 variables were used. Four groups of cities representing different levels of local development were distinguished. The results of the research allow for a comparative assessment of each city with reference to its characteristics. The research results showed substantial differences and disproportions in the level of local socio-economic development of the surveyed cities. The used method proved to be an adequate tool for local development analysis. The synthetic measures and indexes proved to be a useful tool of city management.
The article presents innovation issues in public administration in the Podkarpacie region. In the situation of progressing territorial development, widely understood innovation is the ability to create, put into practice and disseminate it. This ability is the condition to raise competitiveness of the regional economy, while increasing the opportunity to achieve success in the escalating competition between the regions. Taking into account that local and regional authorities play the major role in the modernizational and developmental processes, the analyses and characteristics included in the article are concentrated on the diagnosis of the competence of public administration employers. The range of the above mentioned competence is the management of the local and regional development and the economy development based on the knowledge. Identification and description of the restrictions and barriers of innovation in the council and government administration were considered as well. The study is based on the results of the empirical research which aim was to recognize attitudes and actions of public administration in the Podkarpacie region, realized within the confines of the purposeful project of the Science and Informatics Ministry: "The Regional Strategy of Innovation of the Podkarpacie Province".
Branches of international corporations are a significant element of the economic structure of towns and regions, and depending on the degree of their integration with (‘embeddedness’ in) the regional and local economic milieux, they can play an important role in their development. The location of a branch of an international corporation has a multitude of effects in a variety of spheres: economic, social, spatial, and environmental. The effects in the social sphere include the formation of attitudes of the residents towards the investor, which takes place on the basis of the knowledge about the investor and his/her image, and then gives rise to some forms of behaviour towards him. This paper compares the attitudes towards foreign investors of the residents of a big city and a small rural commune. The analysis is based on a survey research carried out among the inhabitants of Poznan city and the commune of Zbaszynek. The attitudes examined in the first case were those towards a branch of the international corporation EXIDE Technologies, which has been operating in the city since 1995, and in the other case, the attitudes towards a branch of the Swedwood corporation, present in the commune since 1999.
Transport policy requires greater territorial differentiation; at the local level, it should be closely integrated with education, health and social policies. This approach to transport policy contributed to the research and determined its area – the research was carried out among school students, and its aim (and that of this article) was to determine the accessibility of secondary schools in the Wągrowiec district via public transport. Many inhabitants of villages and small towns are forced to have a car or else face a whole host of difficulties. The most common difficulties include access to education, health care or better paid work.
The article provides the analysis of main factors, trends and patterns of regional development in the Czech Republic during the transformation and pre-accession period. The paper is structured in the following way. It starts with a brief elaboration of basic trends in regional development since the collapse of communism, then proceeds to the identification of the main factors of regional development. In the final part, the author outlines the possible future patterns of regional development in the Czech Republic.
The article is demonstrates the differentiation of the intensity and characteristics of entrepreneurial activities in Belarus. With respect to many features, Belarus seems to be divided into the western and eastern part, that is, between the territory belonging before World War II to Poland and USSR. The eastern part is more urbanized (76% of urban population comparing to 60% in the west), includes largest cities and has better education indicators that the western part. As the entrepreneurship is highly correlated with education level and the degree of urbanization, it is not surprising that small business is most intense in Minsk and eastern Belarus. However, of the areas characterized by similar urbanization and education level, but located at different sides of the pre-war border, the entrepreneurship is decidedly more developed in the west. The research was conducted in the two regions: Grodziensk (western Belarus) and Witebsk (eastern Bealrus). It showed that the entrepreneurs from the western part of the republic are more free market oriented. While they main request from the central government was simply: less regulations, their counterparts in the east demanded rather more direct support from the state. This difference is the legacy of historical divisions and closer links of the western Belarus with the market economies of Poland and Lithuania.
The purpose of this paper is to perform a cross-sectional ex-post evaluation of the impact of interventions carried out in the framework of EU Cohesion Policy on social cohesion of Polish cities. Social cohesion has been understood as the ability of modern society to ensure long-term prosperity for all its members, including the provision of equal access to resources, respect for human dignity and diversity, personal and collective autonomy and responsible participation. The study shows a concentration of resources in large system projects, and the greatest progress is seen in the case of education, labour market access for women and availability of medical services. A relatively slower improvement can be observed in programmes concerning social exclusion, supporting disabled people, and culture.
The development of Lithuania was deeply affected by the recent world economic crisis, which had a negative impact on most countries in Europe. However, the degree of impact was quite differentiated spatially, and various localities suffered from the crisis unevenly. The economic sectors that suffered the most in Lithuania, were concentrated in metropolitan areas, so the crisis damaged urban economy most seriously. How the economy of the capital city was affected at this time is a central question for researchers. Different areas and sectors of the urban economy were affected differently, so the impact on urban space was fragmented. Our analysis is mainly seeking to understand changes in the construction sector and housing market. The paper also tries to reveal the main features of the development of the whole Vilnius urban region, which occupies much wider territories than the city municipality. The capability to withstand economic threats depends both on urban economy and on the situation in the surrounding region or hinterland of the city. The process of the transformation of rural areas into urban regions is constantly taking place and in the case of metropolitan regions, it depends on the situation in the urban, country, and global economies. The rise of discussion about possible paths of prospective development of the Vilnius city region is also among the tasks of this paper.
The paper discusses selected tools within Cohesion Policy that stimulate cooperation between cities. Subject to analysis are two programmes from 2004?2006: INTERRREG and URBACT. In the case of INTERREG programmes, the analysis pertains to the largest Polish cities (31 most populous cities and the Silesian and Tri-City conurbations), while in the case of URBACT, all the cities that were beneficiaries of the programme were taken into account. The results of the projects are usually of the soft type and involve transfer of good practices, building institutional capacity, and human capital. In this respect, the results of the analyzed projects should be considered at least satisfactory, although the number and scale of the completed projects does not allow for clear and measurable effects to be perceptible in a country-wide perspective.
Parishes possess a wide selection of instruments for stimulating the development of entrepreneurship, unfortunately the instruments are rarely used as part of a complex, well thought-out strategy that brings about multi-level results. The instruments for entrepreneurship stimulation belong to two major categories: financial and non-financial. One of the primary reasons for investors to select a particular parish can be the existence of a planned and long-term fiscal policy, connected to a stable system of tax preferences in taxes and local fees, and an active strategy for parish investment expenditures. Creating positive conditions for the emergence of new enterprises is the best source of social-economical activation of the local population.
Regional and local authorities today face a twofold challenge of delivering locally responsive policies in accordance with EU development goals. For this reason they need to align their development strategies with European guidelines. This paper determines the drivers and hindering factors behind the effective involvement of local and regional authorities in drafting and implementing EU policies with territorial impact. It evaluates several examples of multi-level governance operating in the institutional context of the EU and identifies its most important weaknesses such as lack of regional administrative capacities; insufficient Europeanization of subnational elites
and inadequate communication between EU, national and regional levels.
Warmia-Mazury region, one of the poorest in Poland, faces the deepest (as compared to all regions of the EU) labour market crisis. The mixture of social and economic problems represents a huge challenge for regional authorities. The chances for fast improvement are limited by several factors, such as low quality of transport infrastructure, low innovation potential and productivity, large share of unskilled labour force, etc. One necessary condition of the improvement is the reform of public finances at country level. Nonetheless, regional authorities should undertake the activity in order to increase the potential of human capital in the region, e.g. by improving the quality of schools. While directly fighting unemployment more effort should be put on stimulating the demand side of the labour market and co-operation with NGOs.
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.
Due to a dynamic increase of the number of tourists, to demand and supply changes, or – in short – to changes of paradigm, tourism has been recently considered as an important factor of regional development. Countries and regions attempt to encourage tourism development with modern planning. An overview of selected planning documents, mostly regional, leads to the conclusion that in spite of a declarative adoption of the new paradigm on the strategic level, the operational level is still dominated by the old approach, based on a number of myths. These myths should be considered main obstacles in tourism development in Poland.
The article discusses the extent to which the national (Polish) cluster-based policy reflects scientifically-based industrial cluster identification methods as well as policy selection criteria. The framework of the current Polish cluster-based policy is discussed, followed by the presentation of eight well-grounded cluster identification methods. A four-level qualitative scale was used to determine the degree of compliance of 17 selection criteria with the identification methods. Only insignificant links were found in such criteria as “critical mass” (the number of the cluster members and the cluster structure), “concentration” (the number of the entities acting within some distance from their coordinator) and “economic cluster’s potential” (employment rate and sales values).
The aim of this work is to analyze urban development of Mexico City in its broader, macro-regional context which also describes the term megalopolis, and in its narrower, metropolitan sense. Without attempting to reach premature conclusions, we can say that a metropolis like Mexico City is exposed to processes typical of such cities: more and more extensive land use, changes in economic, social and demographic structures, etc. What is more, like other emerging or accelerating processes, also globalization had an important impact on cities, resulting in both positive and negative changes. This work is an attempt to identify and, if possible, to analyze some of these changes in Mexico City.
Territorial entitles and thus has influenced relations between them. In particular, these changes influenced the relations between the metropolis and its hinterland. Contemporary metropolis became a concentration of innovative activities that led to development of flows within world cities network. As a result its ties with regional surrounding, that offers mainly "simple" resources, has became relatively weaker. The article demonstrates these new processes by the empirical research of three Polish metropolises: Warsaw, Poznan and so called Triple-city (Gdansk-Gdynia-Sopot).
This paper provides a review of structure and contents of Local Economic Development (LED) programmes. It also offers a list of data and information necessary to develop and implement such programmes. The author emphasises the difference in approach to LED by the researchers (theorists) and the practitioners, dealing with LED on every day basis. This gap, according to the author is in part a legacy centrally managed economy and is typical for the countries in transition period.
The majority of major local actors of the city of Mielec have united in the idea of creating the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the 1st half of 90s. The informal coalition of representatives of various bodies and institutions quickly started to have access to institutional resources, that enabled them to control the decision-making and took over the social leadership. The young coalition managed also to gain the support from the government. Such informal deal was characterised by the most typical features for urban regime of symbolic type and develop to all actors a great mobilisation for finding new progress tendencies of the city. The strength of the coalition and the success of the regime may be measured by the first SEZ in Poland that has been created in 1995 in Mielec. The legal regulations for functioning of SEZs in Poland were developed mainly by participants of this regime having a visible stigma of local city problems.
The present article aims to determine which factors contributed most to a differentiation of productivity levels of Polish voivodeships in the years 1998-2008. The author applied a non-parametric DEA method (Data Envelopment Analysis) and the Malmquist productivity index. The use of the latter allowed the author to distinguish three components of changes in productivity: changes in relative efficiency, technological progress and accumulation of real capital. As a result, sources of changes of productivity in the studied time period were found and recommendations for regional policies were formulated.
The article presents 4 capital model as an evaluation method of the region development strategy implementation as well as strategy document analysis. The introduction provides definition of these types of capitals that might be adapted to analysis of sustainable development. Than the authors describes a result of exercise conducted together with representatives of self-government authorities consists of impact assessment of the strategy implementation in the context of selected forms of capital. The results were confronted with opinions of local self-governments authorities as well as small and medium size enterprises. These breakdown enabled authors to indicate weakness of the strategy and potentials trade-offs between different types of capital. As the final result recommendations regarding the updating processes of the strategy were formulated.
The marketing oriented approach to planning of local development proofs its high economic efficiency, nevertheless its one-sidedness undermines the conceptual basis of sustainable development. One can put forward two competitive hypotheses. (a) The success of many marketing strategies is due to social and cultural capital, but the marketing games basically are not suitable means to reproduce the social sources of their own prosperity. (b) Under
experimentally controlled conditions (such as economic, organizational etc.) organizations and communities learning by solving their current problems are able to reproduce the social capital they have used up or to contribute to an emergence of new kinds of this capital, that reciprocally foster their marketing orientated strategies of development.
Convergence is one of the key issues of cohesion policy. The European Union applies different instruments of regional development to reduce disparities between regions and countries. Due to the discussion on the effectiveness of this policy, a research in this area seems to be required. The purpose of this article is to assess the diversity of wealth in the regions using the methods of measurement of sigma convergence. The main parameter used in the calculations is GDP per capita in 2000–2007 at the sub-regional level (NUTS-3). The research shows that income inequalities among some groups of Polish regions have increased after the accession to the EU. Convergence patterns vary in cities, rich sub-regions and poor sub-regions. In some cases, convergence is correlated with the dynamics of GDP, whereas in other there is no significant relationship between convergence and the economic situation.
A measure of economic development for regions is proposed in the form of a multicomponent index. This measure is composed of the following aspects: technology, infrastructure, human capital and social capital and defied by an array of indicators. Such a measure has significant advantages over the most commonly used indicator of GDP per capita. The statistical data based on which it is built are freely available and with a much shorter time lag than GDP at the regional level. This indicator makes it possible to depict economic factors behind long-run economic growth as well as to include less measurable factors such as social change, environmental degradation, etc. On the one hand, the proposed indicator comprises symptoms of the quality of life, and on the other hand, it includes factors which are essential for long-run economic growth and productivity. The authors show usefulness of such an indicator for policy formulation, which is rarely pointed out in the case of other indexes and is especially important at a time when long-run economic growth, and also development, in high-developed countries is endangered. The authors also discuss some general aspects of constructing indexes of economic development for regions, e.g., the often omitted problem of inclusion of cyclical indicators in the indexes of development. Empirical analysis of the proposed indicator is made for the NUTS-2 regions of Poland for the years 2009–2011.
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.
One of the challenges for the contemporary Polish village is the transformation of its economic structure. It is necessary not only to create new jobs in the non-agricultural sector, but also to increase the competitiveness of enterprises. In their activities, entrepreneurs may use local resources in an innovative way. The author of the present article focuses on the following question: “What is the potential of entrepreneurs as far as the innovation based on local resources is concerned?”. Innovation is defined as a way of using local resources which emphasizes the specificity of an area. In her research (undertook in 2012), the author analyzed the local resources of the Pilica River Valley and the applications for support (from Rural Development Programme 2007–2013) submitted by the entrepreneurs to the local action group. The entrepreneurs (in their activity) do not use the resources which have been identified in the local development strategy. The additional funding allowed them to increase the competitiveness of their companies, but was not used to make their activities more innovative.
The article describes EU policy towards its outermost regions. The regions are an example of integration of various streams of EU policies on the territorial level, as well as a playing field for EU pilot measures and innovative modes of governance. The European approach provides special privileges for peripheral regions in EU policies and the meaning of these regions in European public debates is increasing. The author examines the development of EU policy towards its outermost regions since 2004 in relation to two basic contemporary European debates: about territorial cohesion and the future of EU cohesion policy after 2013. At the end of the article, some conclusions are given for Polish decision-makers.
In general, political marketing is a collection of activities, techniques, methods and means that at least facilitate and at most make possible electoral success on the part of political entities. At present political marketing represents an indispensable part of politics, since only with its help do candidates have a chance of gaining and then holding on to power. After every election we can observe yet-greater competition. Political entities apply different and more elaborate methods and techniques which are aimed at increasing chances of electoral success. During the last ten years in Poland (since the new voivodships were established), it has been possible to observe the professionalization of marketing operations, particularly at municipal elections and especially at those on the regional level. In this article distinctions are therefore drawn between regional political marketing operations and those at either nationwide or local levels. The findings are based on investigations conducted by means of questionnaires distributed among the councillors serving on the voivodship regional assemblies (sejmiki) for the 2006–2010 term of office.
The subject of this article is historical urban development, localization-specific and cultural urban heritage of the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi. All the urban development periods, from the very beginning until today, are described in a chronological order. Also, the author discusses general legal principles of urban space development applicable in this country. In all the cases, the author seeks to clarify the legislation problems and to discuss some examples of urban management of the twenty-hundred-years-old urban space. The text is based on the: (1) urban rehabilitation and revitalization documentation of Tbilisi, prepared in 2000 within an international project financed by the European Council and The Georgian Cultural Heritage Foundation, published in Strasburg in Georgian, French and English languages (Tumaniszwili 2001), (2) empirical documentation prepared in 2003–2006 within the international Project AIA and (3) historical documentation gathered in Georgian and foreign libraries in 1998–2008.
The article discusses the results of empirical research on the competitiveness of municipalities covered by the Natura 2000 network. Authors conducted a correlation analysis of the share of the Natura 2000 sites in the general area of a municipality and the indicators characterizing dimensions of competitiveness and development. Questionnaire surveys were conducted among local governments in Poland. On this basis conclusions on the socio-economic situation of municipalities with a large share of Natura 2000 areas and the impact of this form of conservation for local development were formulated. The article is also an attempt to answer the question whether Natura 2000 actually delivers sustainable development, or simply forces environmental protection without taking into account social and economic needs of local communities.
Polish farmers are hardly definable social group. It is a diversified population dominated (in numbers) by “quasi-farmers” – running small farms for own consumption, not selling their products at the market. This category has many negative, economic, social and psychological features. Their political choices are often to support the populist, agricultural parties. The author, referring to the concepts of “blocking development” and “moderating the changes”, describes the political mechanisms of slowing down the reforms applied by the (broadly considered) Polish farmers.
Knowledge based economy, new economy. In context of changes we can observe that in last years in world economy these ideas are starting to have completely new meaning. Nowadays, it is the knowledge as the fourth factor of production, that is the most important source of creating the economic development in the highly developed states. Researches done in this paper proved that the Polish expenditures on research and development in years 1994-2003 were on the much lower level, than in many other European countries. Furthermore, their structure is not adequate to the needs of modern economy based on knowledge.
In this paper I try to outline 3 theses: 1) In the experiences of the XX century the model of socially minded regional policy was the dominating phenomenon. 2) In the experiences of XXI century the model of globally minded regional policy will be the dominating phenomenon. 3) The transformation from the old to the new model is taking place in the great Sturm und Drang Periode of the years 1980–2020. The shift from the old to the new model of regional policy is firmly linked to the parallel transformation of the cohesion policies designed and implemented by the European Union. This is the shift from mechanically to organically minded cohesion policies.
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 paper focuses on the institutional solutions adopted in different Polish urban regions as a response to the requirement to create the so-called ITI instrument in the framework of 2014–2020 EU financial perspective. This phenomenon is analyzed in the light of the mechanism of launching and functioning of metropolitan cooperation structures and the concept of Europeanization. The authors assume that former – more or less successful – attempts to institutionalize such cooperation in Polish urban functional areas influence the process of creation and functioning of ITI cooperation.
The notion of replacement migration is frequently used in the recent literature on migration policy and demographic forecasts. Such migration streams could theoretically compensate for the natural decrease and population ageing, as observed in most of developed countries today. In the long run, however, international migration can only slow down, rather than reverse these processes. The situation of Poland in this respect is specific, as its migration balance will most likely remain negative until around the year 2020. Nevertheless, the population outflow abroad could to some extent be matched by the population inflow. This would require, among other conditions, a reformulation of Poland`s migration policy an increase of provisions for legal, selective immigration.
The aim of the article is to measure the sustainable development of rural areas of the Wielkopolska region and define the role of the Rural Development Programme for 2007-2013 in reinforcing developmental changes. The conducted research measured sustainable development for the year 2015 (in three dimensions: economic, social and environmental), and shows the spatial variations of the analysed phenomenon. As the next step, the awarded funds were measured and their impact on sustainable development was assessed. The measurements were carried out with the use of a synthetic measure, while the relationship between the level of development and the level of the awarded funds was assessed using analysis of variance. The research comprised rural and rural urban municipalities in the region. The findings demonstrate significant variations in the level of sustainable rural development in the Wielkopolska region.
Financial self-sufficiency of the local government units, which means an ability to design their own financial policy in accordance with the applicable law, is one of the preconditions for sustainable local development. Metropolises – the largest towns with county (poviat) rights – because of their high demographic and economic potential are characterised by a high average level of financial self-sufficiency. Various processes and phenomena, including the economic crisis and the phenomenon of suburbanisation, affect the level of financial self-sufficiency of the largest cities. The main aim of the article is to assess the level of financial self-sufficiency of the metropolises in Poland in 2007-2015. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the analysis was based on the development of the basic indicators of financial self-sufficiency of the metropolises, while in the second stage of the research, a summary assessment of the financial self-sufficiency of the metropolises was conducted using the TOPSIS method. The empirical basis of the study was provided by the data from the Central Statistical Office database (Local Data Bank).
The paper attempts to evaluate the impact that the projects co-financed by European funds within the Cohesion Policy in the programming period 2004?2006 had on the competitiveness of large Polish cities. In the first part of the paper, we define competitiveness of cities and regions and operationalize it with indicators used in further analysis. Our evaluation is based on different quantitative methods of measuring correlations between competitiveness of cities and Cohesion Policy expenditures, which enables us to triangulate the results. The outcome is a set of hypothetical cause-effects relationships between public intervention and competitive position of cities. For their verification we employ qualitative case studies (See Report EUROREG 2010 and the articles by Marek Kozak and Andrzej Miszczuk in this issue).
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether it is feasible to ensure neo-endogenous sustainable development of valuable natural areas of the Lublin voivodship. In order to do that, the author analyzed the literature and documents on local development strategies, and the results of research carried out in 2013 in the Lublin voivodship, in 30 communes with the greatest natural value. As part of the study, she conducted a survey among 383 councillors – 86% of the total. The author shows that due to accumulation of many serious problems of sustainable development, such as deficiencies in environmental infrastructure, or underutilized (economic) potential of protected areas, it is difficult to implement neo-endogenous development – only 13% of the councillors said opportunities for development depended on a favourable arrangement of external and internal conditions.
The aim of this paper is to discuss urban renewal policy implemented in France over the 20th and the 21st century. Referring to selected examples from the agglomeration of Paris, special attention is paid to the social dimension of urban renewal. The diversified tools in the field of urbanism and contract policy led to vertical and horizontal cooperation between different entities. The key element was the differentiation of housing supply, especially in the case of apartments for rent. In the areas with better potential and likely to become more multi-dimensionally attractive, the effects of renewal were more spectacular, whereas urban renovation carried out in deprived areas still brings mixed outcomes.
The aim of the following article is a comprehensive review of the cluster theory. Article starts with the discussion on the new approach towards regional and local development. In the first part author presents and discusses spectrum of concepts related to clusters such as: Marshallian industrial district, Italian industrial districts, new industrial spaces, mezo-systems, local innovative milieu, learning regions, and regional innovation systems. The core of the article is the analysis of the cluster approach: its theoretical inspiration and background, definitions, its specificity, effects of clusters described in literature, strength and weaknesses of this approach. The last part of the article is devoted to the practical issues – examples of cluster-based policies. This short review covers the initiatives undertaken in the countries of European Union.
The paper begins with an analysis of policymaking principles and responsibilities of local authorities in Poland. Next, outputs of local policies at the level of the gmina are presented in a case study of the suburban area of the Gdansk agglomeration. Chosen features of local policies are pointed out as a basis for comparison of the local districts. The decisions taken by local governments allow to classify types o local policy. For instance, while some of the local districts prefer investments in social infrastructure, other are more inclined to invest in technical infrastructure. Only two out of seven local governments create and implement policies which can be identified as sustainable.
Endogenous growth theories presume knowledge plays the key role in economic growth (1). Yet, new economic geography along with empirical findings suggest the possibility of divergence occurring in development processes (2). Combining (1) and (2) indicates the importance of studying knowledge factors’ distribution. To obtain the fully fledged picture of a given economy one shall go beyond simply analyzing knowledge factors but include also their spatial location. The article touches upon this issue. It is devoted to Germany and examines three territorial and administrative levels: one referring to former country division (DDR & BRD), the second relating to NUTS 1 (16 Bundesländer) and third represented by 41 Regierungsbezirke (NUTS 2). Results are obtained by investigating 5 factors (e.g. expenditure on R&D, human resources in S&T, patent applications) and applying 4 measures (Gini, Rosenbluth, Ellison–Glaeser and Herfindahl–Hirschman Coefficients). This paper is meant to supplement earlier studies as well as a good starting point for further research devoted to country’s knowledge landscape.
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.
Neoclassical economists usually think of “microfoundations” before they come to macroeconomics. We claim exactly the opposite: every microeconomic theory should be grounded in a credible macroeconomic model. Such a model may be the classical paradigm and Kaleckian economics, which are fundamentally different from the neoclassical paradigm. Thus, we will prove the following thesis: political economy is better than the neoclassical theory at describing and explaining contemporary regional development processes. State policy has a fundamental role to play in shaping regional development, while local authorities may perform an auxiliary function.
The aim of the article is to answer the question about the effects of Poland’s accession to the European Union from the point of view of regional inequalities in Poland. We present a neoclassical model of exogenous growth with the balance of European Union’s resources allocated to the cohesion and convergence policy implementation. The model is a generalization of the standard growth model of Solow and Swan. in the paper, we describe the methods of establishing the values of the model variables in a steady state. We perform a retrospective analysis of regional inequalities in Poland for the period 2004–2006 and a prospective analysis based on the models of growth of the Polish economy and the regional economies of voivodships. We draw conclusions about the first effects of the cohesion and convergence programme in Poland and the postulates for the principles of construction of new regional growth models as instruments of description and analysis of convergence and regional inequalities.
The paper gives an appraisal of Polish cities in the context of processes and problems observed in cities of highly developed European countries. These last cities, in particular those situated in the hard core of EU, enter a new development stadium. Interconnected by networks of multifarious links, they create an integrated urbanised space of the highest ability to compete in the global economy but lose at the same time the character of relatively closed and spatially distinguished socio-economic systems. The paper, pointing at the processes that lead to this phenomenon, stresses that they are already visible in Poland but not advanced. Poland is a country of a delayed urbanisation and cities the economic base of which is not competitive in Europe. These cities possess a not bad human but rather weak social capital and the urban space is of a low quality. The paper outlines the main challenges Polish cities are facing in the era of European integration and presents also the most frequently discussed visions of XXI century European city described through development goals and strategies.
The article presents the regional differentiation of several phenomena economic, social, political of the Polish space. It is striking to notice that the patterns of these differentiations are very similar, which proves a well-known thesis of mutual interrelationships that exist between several dimensions of development. The historical underpinnings of these differentiations prove once again that they are the product of "long duration". Both these characteristics the similarity of differentiations and their historical roots lead to a conclusion that the regional policy should assume a modest attitude, since it can change the objective reality only gradually and to some extent. The article ends with some extent. The article ends with some suggestions for this policy.
The local government plays a huge role in supporting local development. In this paper, the authors present the results of conducted research concerning the impact of selected aspects of financial policy of the local government units on their development on the example of cities affiliated with the Union of Polish Metropolises. Therefore, firstly, they construct a synthetic indicator of local development and use it to assess the relative development of the analyzed cities. Then, they measure the relationship between the level of the cities’ relative development in the years 2007?2012 and the values of major categories of the units’ financial management in those years (per capita), in particular the amount of their debt, total and investment expenses, and expenditures on individual groups of local government tasks.
The main aim of the article is to test Richard Butler’s model of tourist destination lifecycle in relation to Benidorm – one of the most important Spanish seaside resorts. Benidorm is an example of extreme changes in the landscape caused by a large number of skyscrapers. The analysis of Benidorm’s history from 14th to 16th century and its photographs allowed us to identify phases of this resort’s cycle. Supply and demanded features, infrastructure, the degree of landscape change and management priorities were also taken into consideration. Particular attention was paid to the reorientation stage. Using statistical data, the authors verified how effective the reorientation of Benidorm’s tourism economy was. Moreover, in order to show a wide background of the issues discussed, the main characteristics of development stages of mass tourism were presented (based on ten examples of second generation seaside resorts).
The effectiveness of the measures implemented under the EU cohesion policy has become a significant issue. The relevance of the topic is undeniable, given the ongoing discussion of the results of public interventions conducted at the EU level, and the resulting concept of an integrated approach used to study the effects of actions undertaken within the cohesion policy. Based on various studies conducted to date, the authors argue that the effectiveness of the funds allocated in Polish regions could be greater if we focused more on complementarity of the undertaken actions. The paper concentrates on issues related to complementarity between programmes and projects implemented under the EU Cohesion Policy in Polish regions. A case study of a Polish region – namely, Łódzkie – shows that the adopted methods and tools, intended to ensure complementarity, do not work in a proper way. The results suggest the existence of severe restrictions of assessing the actual scope of complementarity and the resulting synergy effects. As both analyses of documentation and in-depth participant interviews indicate that the concept of complementarity in the projects is misunderstood or deliberately distorted (so that the highest score during the application stage can be obtained), it can be stated that the scale of complementarity is far from satisfactory. Based on their research, the authors make conclusions and recommendations regarding the solutions that should be taken into account in order to improve the implementation of the complementarity concept in the next financial perspective for the years 2014–2020.
The aim of the paper is to analyze the level of economic development and its dynamics in the cities and towns in the eastern region between 1995 and 2015. The objects of the study were 54 cities and towns of the region. The source of the data for the analysis was the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office. Taxonomic analysis, no-pattern method was used for the study. Ten variables were analyzed during the studied period. They were divided into those referring to budgets of municipalities/communes, national economy entities, and the labor market. As a result of the analysis, it was discovered that 50 cities and towns showed signs of development in the period. It was observed that the diversification of the level of economic development of cities and towns of the eastern region in the spatial layout did not decrease. It was also stated that the accession of Poland to the European Union had an impact on the growth of dynamics indexes of changes for the towns and cities.
The paper analyzes statistical relationships between the inflow of EU financial resources to Polish territorial units (voivodeships, NUTS3 and poviats) and the pace of their economic growth. Correlation analysis reveals that the less developed units which enjoyed relatively more massive inflows per capita grew more slowly than the better developed ones – the correlation coefficients are negative (for the voivodeships) or close to zero (for NUTS3 and poviats). This suggests that until now, the EU funds have led to a stronger demand effect than the supply effect in the Polish economy. It may therefore be claimed that in the next programming period 2014–2020, more funds received from the EU should be devoted to the support of economic development than to the improvement of living conditions.
In transition economies, the size and ownership structure of enterprises determine their economic behaviour as well as their attitudes towards innovations. Many studies show that one of the key factors accelerating economic performance of the companies is technological transfer from abroad, and that successful implementation of the new know-how is mainly undertaken by medium and large enterprises. The domestic micro and small enterprises located in Polish regions proved to be rather risk-averse and therefore not very innovative. However, their innovative activities accelerate over time, and eventually they catch up with foreign and large enterprises.
The aim of the paper is to analyse the allocation of resources from the Cohesion Policy provided to individual regional programmes in the European Union’s 2021–2027 financial scheme. In addition to the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund Plus funds, funds from the Just Transition Fund distributed under the European Funds for Just Transition programme, as well as funds from the European Funds for the Eastern Poland programme were also analysed. The analysis covers the proposition of allocation of funds to regions in the context of the experience gained so far in Poland in the implementation of regional programmes. The carried out analysis confirmed the decrease in the importance of regional programmes in shaping the Regional Development Policy in the 2021–2027 perspective due to the reduction in allocation.
This paper analyses the shifts in the system of governance of Kyiv in 2008–2014 as a crucial element of the resilience capacity of the region. The consequences of the economic crisis and the ongoing security crisis demand new approaches and solutions from the city’s leadership and community. For years Kyiv suffered from poor municipal leadership and unprecedented control by the central government, which undermined the resilience of its socio-economic system in the aftermath of the global economic crisis. However, new forms of community initiatives that bring together private and non-governmental actors are becoming widespread, and are becoming critical knowledge networks that are essential for successful long-term development. Changing institutional frameworks, and the firm commitment to decentralisation proclaimed by the country’s current leadership, open new avenues for harnessing the city’s potential. The challenge is in finding ways for constructive collaboration between formal and informal leaders of the city while building a new base for sustainable and competitive economic growth.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze cities’ promotion and information policy regarding the development of economic activity. The study was carried out in the form of electronic audit and evaluation of the official websites of 306 cities in Poland. On this basis, promotion and information policy was assessed and its spatial diversity analyzed. The analysis revealed significant diversity of actual involvement of local self-governments in enhancing investment attractiveness of cities. It seems that in most cases such policy either does not exist at all, or is hardly implemented. The study also shows a lack of cohesion as well as temporariness of marketing activities undertaken.
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.
The main aim of the paper is an attempt to assess whether academic cooperation is an important component of a region’s innovation potential. First, a preliminary operationalization of the most important components of innovation potential is presented based on a literature review. The components are then verified using factor analysis which makes it possible to identify the main dimensions of a region’s innovation potential. The results suggest that academic cooperation is a significant component of the potential, given that the indicators that illustrate it are part of the potential’s „academic” dimension (betweenness centrality) and of its „core” dimension nternationalization). However, the paper shows that cooperation is not linked with the “technological” dimension that, at the time of the study, played the central role in shaping European regions’ growth dynamic. The ”core” dimension, on the other hand, comprising e.g. internationalization of academic cooperation, proved to be significant in explaining the growth dynamics of three out of nine subtypes of regions, the “academic-technological” among others. It may mean that foreign academic cooperation is important for the development of the regions that are key for European innovation potential.
The article attempts to assess the development policy of the self-government authorities of Pomorskie region. Since the third level of territorial self-government has been established upon the state reform of territorial administration, one may ask how the intra-regional policy develops in Poland. The self-government of the region has been bound by the law to draw up a document specifying the trends of the region development a strategy of the region. The strategy provisions constitute a good point of reference for the assessment of the undertakings within the development policy taken on by the regional authorities. The assessment of the development policy in the years 1999-2004 corresponds to the first term of office and a half of the term of office of the regional authorities elected during an election. The article covers many aspects and concentrates on the description of the selected undertakings with the aim to create a regional innovation system, to support medium and small business, to create regional capital market, to develop farming and operation of the special economic zones. The author makes an attempt to show that the regional self-government, giving as an example the Pomorskie region self-government, tries to create its own development policy in compliance with the strategy in the circumstances of stiff standards imposed by the central authorities.
The article presents an overview of opinions on climate change and the ways of adapting to it held by representatives of Polish local authorities (political leaders and local administration representatives) in a recently conducted survey. The author briefly describes the institutional context in which the new field of local policy has emerged and local adaptation strategies are established. The empirical analyses, based on survey data, demonstrate that local authorities in many municipalities remain relatively sceptical about the human impact on climate change: 32% feel convinced by the existing evidence. The analyses also demonstrate that there is a relationship between attitudes of local authorities towards climate change and the population size of the municipalities, as well as its previous exposure to extreme weather events. The results suggest that local adaptation policies have more chance of being developed in municipalities with specialized environmental administration.
The article introduces the concept of ESPON (European Spatial Planning Observation Network) programme, dealing with a research on spatial development of enlarging European Union. The role of Polish research units in the programme is described. The article demonstrates also the benefits and constrains related to the participation in ESPON, based on the experience of the Centre for European Regional and Local Studies. Several suggestions on how to increase Polish participation in the ESPON programme are formulated.
The global economic crisis that hit all the national economies in the EU area stimulated the need for new approaches in the planning and implementation of regional development policy. This paper investigates the debates about the role of the city of Riga and its development potential as the biggest city in Latvia, whilst also looking at the challenges and opportunities created by the need to respond to global changes. The article discusses the relevance of certain factors and demonstrates the actions taken by national authorities to promote the more balanced development of Latvia, as well as the opportunities to apply a place-based approach in promoting the development of Riga as the capital city of Latvia.
The tourism sector plays an important role in regional economies. Its growth could become a driver of socio-economic development of different areas in Poland. The increasing number of visiting tourists has a positive impact on the labour market, and it stimulates entrepreneurship in other regions’ service sectors. Even though some Polish regions have great potential, there persist some substantial barriers to development of tourism: poor state of technical infrastructure, especially transport, significant dispersion of the sector, lack of tourism products, and poor promotion. As no separate policy dedicated to tourism is provided at the European Union level, the development of this sector can be financed from cohesion policy funds. The paper focuses on the use of EU funds for the development of tourism in the Warmia-Mazury region. The results of the analysis show a positive – albeit limited – impact of implemented projects on tourist attractiveness and on competitiveness of tourism sector firms. The effectiveness of the projects is limited due to low interest in cooperation in creating tourism products and to over-investment effects in some projects.
The article is discusses the new concept of harmony limit as an instrument for strategic management of tourism development in tourism destinations. In the author’s opinion, that concept can be used as a basic instrument in creating tourism development strategies, which would help to start or continue the process of developing sustainable tourism. Furthermore, the concept is based on three interdependent elements: pillars of sustainability, multi-stakeholder responsibility and the sphere of needs. The author draws attention to the problems associated with the new concept and offers certain solutions, thereby demonstrating its application value.
This paper is a comparative study of main social theories of urban development in the last fifty tears. The author presents various approaches and social theories from across the world. He divides the after-war period into three phases according to the profound social changes. the first one covers the years of ending the post-war reconstruction of economy, infrastructure and cities damaged by the war. the second phase includes "the golden years" between approximately 1955 and 1975, when the formation of different types of welfare state, but mainly the urban population growth, suburbanization and metropolization processes and improvement of living conditions and urbanities took place. the third phase, covering the years between 1975 and 2000, is marked by the first signs of the decline of the welfare state accompanied by deepening social inequalities increasing urban poverty, marginalization of some groups of the population, political radicalization and urban conflicts as well as by urban and regional polarization.
The author of the paper describes the process and conceptions of regional development which have been used in the past 40 years of the economic transformation in the Ruhr Region in Germany. The article describes the socio-economic situation and explains the need for transformation in the region. It also presents a wide range of possible solutions for restructured mining regions and discusses the effects of implementation of the development methods used in the Ruhr Region. Finally, it describes the main points of the current strategy of development for the Ruhr Region. The data presented in the paper have been collected and developed thanks to a scholarship at the University of Duisburg-Essen, financed by The Foundation of Polish-German Cooperation.
Tourism can cause changes in various areas of life of receptive societies. Each of them can be of functional or dysfunctional character. A lot depends on the type of tourism and the visited society itself. Tourism is seen as a vital development factor in the Podhale region. It is therefore crucial to know what the local people think about tourism. Their negative attitude to this particular sector of the economy can hinder or limit its development.
