COMMUTING IN THE WARSAW SUBURBAN AREA FROM A SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE - AN EXAMPLE OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

Commuting plays a significant role in forming metropolitan areas. It is one of the basic criteria for delineation of functional areas, including metropolitan regions. The objectives of this study included determining the Warsaw labour market and examining the influence of some spatial patterns on the intensity of commuting to Warsaw in the investigated communes. The research was conducted in a form of questionnaire interviews in 800 households from 30 communes of the Warsaw suburban zone, involving 2 215 adult participants. The analysis was based on a binary matrix B and weight matrix W standardised according to rows. A criterion of a common border was assumed as a neighbouring criterion. The weight matrix was built in the first step, then the global Moran’s statistic was calculated for each workplace localisation. Then local Moran’s statistics were calculated. The global Moran’s statistic was significant only for respondents commuting to another village. There were clusters of communes with a similar proportion of respondents commuting to another village, usually inhabitants of smaller villages commuting to the communal centre for work in public services or retail. As far as local Moran’s statistics are concerned, they allowed the pointing out of some examples of communes surrounded by similar or different commuting patterns. A spatial structure of commuting does not facilitate analysis. As a result, the relationships form radial patterns with Warsaw as the centre, rather than clusters

The role of Poland’s primary sector in the development of the country’s bioeconomy

The main objective is to assess the role of the primary sector in the Polish economy as a prerequisite for development of the bioeconomy. Based on the data on the main suppliers of biomass, it can be clearly noticed that agriculture with its share of 76% plays an important role in biomass supply of the entire country. The share of the primary sector in GVA was used for spatial analyses for the period 2004-2012. Analyses conducted with the use of the global Moran I and local Moran statistics show that biomass production in Poland differs considerably by subregion – there are clusters of subregions where the primary sector plays an important role, and others where it has only a marginal character. These clusters cross regional administrative boundaries, justifying an interregional approach in strategic and policy planning, facilitating development of the bioeconomy in Poland

Social media for interactions with customers within the short food supply chain: the case of the SKIN project

Consumers have great power in the marketing process and social media represents an opportunity for farmers/producers to promote and strengthen ties with consumers by building short supply chains. Current business trends involving the application of social media for communication with costumers can also be observed among farmers/producers. The paper studies the use of social media by farmers/companies – here, the EU SKIN project partners registered within the SKIN Good Practice Repository. A first step included investigation of company webpages (native language version), which usually provided a general background to the company’s activities and information about its products. A Facebook page was identified as the primary social media channel (used by 81% of the investigated group) as farmers/producers who did not have it also did not refer to any other social media. Research results indicate a relatively wide audience for the Facebook pages of farmers/producers (numbers of likes and followers) but interactions with consumers are limited (a low number of comments and sharings). The conclusion is implied that a number of farmers/producers use social media for providing information but they mostly interact with their costumers offline

Spatial patterns on the labour market on rural areas in Poland

Labour market in rural areas is diversified across Poland. Different processes have been influenced it during the last years. The study deals with spatial approach to sectoral structure of employment, including also characteristics for males and females. It was based on the data of the Central Statistical Office of Poland refereeing to the numbers of employees in three sectors: (a) agriculture, forestry and fishing like services; (b) industry and construction; (c) services. A new European Union typology of: predominantly rural, intermediate, and predominantly urban regions, based on a variation of the OECD methodology, was applied. Graphical presentation of the sectoral employment structures across NUTS 3 regions was used. Generally in Poland, very similar proportions of rural inhabitants work in agriculture, forestry and fishing like in the sector of services (third sector). In 2013, in predominantly rural regions, 37 % of inhabitants worked in agriculture, forestry and fishing (respectively 38 % of males, 37 % of females), 25 % of inhabitants worked in industry and construction (respectively 36 % of males, 15 % of females), and 37 % of inhabitants worked in services. Industry and construction is a sector important for employment of male rural inhabitants whereas services were typical for female employment. Agriculture, forestry and fishing is a very important sector of employment in the south-eastern part of Poland whereas the second and third sectors are more popular in the north-western part of Poland. Identification of these spatial patterns contributes to spatial characteristics of rural economies across Poland as well as it proves existence of a functional region, exceeding regional administrative boundaries, of high important of agriculture in the economy

Agriculture as a Sector of Professional Activity of Rural Inhabitants in the Mazowieckie Region

The study aims to identify the importance of agriculture as a sector of professional activity of the inhabitants of rural areas in the Mazowieckie Region. The statistical section uses data from Eurostat and data available from the Local Data Bank, including the Labour Force Survey. The empirical research used the CAWI method, with a questionnaire on the webankieta platform directed to rural inhabitants of the region during the second quarter of 2022. It can be concluded that in comparison to other areas in Poland, the Mazowieckie Region is characterised by the most favourable employment structure – with the highest percentage of employees in services (66%) and relatively average values for the rate of employees in the other two sectors (agriculture 9%, industry and services 24%). Results of empirical research among rural inhabitants of the region can lead to at least two significant conclusions – farm work is still important for the investigated group. However, most respondents were employed or self-employed. It can also be noticed that the public sector (e.g. administration, education) plays a significant role for the local labour markets

Employment in VS. Education for the bioeconomy

A number of employees is one of the basic indicators applied for identification of the economic relevance of an industry or an economic sector. Referring to nearly 18.6 million people employed in the 28 EU Member States within the bioeconomy in 2014, it can be stated that this a an economic sphere of significant importance in the European economy. The main aims of the study are to identify a scale of employment in the bioeconomy sector across EU Member States as well as to investigate tertiary education in bioeconomy based on the Polish experience in the Bioeconomy subject area group within the Euroleague for Life Sciences (ELLS). Data used included: (1) the data portal of agro-economics modelling – DataM of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, (2) CAWI research among students of WULS-SGGW on their attitudes to the bioeconomy, (3) feedback of participants of the first summer school in bioeconomy coordinated by WULS-SGGW. Research results display that the majority of Polish students did not meet the term of bioeconomy generally as well as at the university. There is also one very important students’ comment which can describe their attitude: students of economic disciplines are not very much interested as they think that bioeconomy focuses on life sciences (bio) so it is not appropriate for them; students of different fields of life sciences are not very keen to study bioeconomy as according to them it focuses on economy (as in the name itself)

ARE THERE RURAL AREAS IN THE WARSAW METROPOLITAN AREA? AN ATTEMPT TO ANSWER THE QUESTION BASE ON THE DEGREE OF URBANISATION (DEGURBA)

Significant transformation processes have been taking place on rural areas, especially those close to big cities. Some communes, which are still described as rural ones, can be a part of functional metropolitan regions. The aim of the study was to verify if such a situation takes place in the case of the Warsaw Metropolitan Area. The study showed that there are some rural communes, according to the DEGURBA methodology, included in the Warsaw Metropolitan Area; some of them also joined a mechanism of the Warsaw Integrated Territorial Investment. Participation in this mechanism will allow them to develop their potential in a way coherent with the development path of the whole Warsaw metropolitan region

ŹRÓDŁA UTRZYMANIA I LOKALIZACJA MIEJSC PRACY MIESZKAŃCÓW STREFY PODMIEJSKIEJ WARSZAWY

Suburban areas are connected to central cities by many complex social and economic relations. Labour market, especially commuting, is one of a such dimension. The aim of the paper is to determine sources of income and to identify relations between educational attainments as well as sex and workplace localization in the investigated group. Results confirm that there exists a wider functional area for those of a higher educational attainment. This functional area is also wider for male than for female. However this last relations was proven by a lower correlation coefficient and not in all distinguished subareas. Communes neighbouring Warsaw as well as towns near to Warsaw were identified also as important localizations of workplaces in the investigated group

Uwarunkowania aktywności zawodowej ludności wiejskiej z perspektywy teorii „swoich” i „obcych”

The paper presents results of own research as well as research of other researchers in the field of economic activity of rural inhabitants. Their elements which could be possibly interpreted from the perspective of the ‘insider-outsider’ theory were selected. This theory assumes that there are significant costs of ‘outsiders’ employment as compared to the costs of contemporary employees (‘insiders’). As a consequence there is a higher probability of an outflow of people of lower employment stability (for example younger people, women, and persons with lower qualifications) from the economic activity. A review of research results confirms that a position in a family, age as well as education level or some additional qualifications determine the economic activity of rural inhabitants, which can be associated with the assumptions of the ‘insider-outsider’ theory. / Synopsis. W opracowaniu zaprezentowano wyniki badań własnych i badań innych autorów nad aktywnością zawodową ludności wiejskiej. Wybrane zostały te ich elementy, które można interpretować w kontekście jednej ze współczesnych teorii rynku pracy, mianowicie teorii „swoich” i „obcych” (insider-outsider theory), zakładającej znaczne koszty wymiany zatrudnionych „swoich” na pretendujących do zatrudnienia „obcych”. Jednym z ważnych reperkusji takiego podejścia jest założenie o wyższym prawdopodobieństwie odpływu z zatrudnienia osób o mniejszej stabilności zatrudnienia (np. ludzi młodych, kobiet, osób o niskich kwalifikacjach), a co za tym idzie ich mniejsze szanse na odpływ z bierności zawodowej do zatrudnienia. Przegląd wyników badań potwierdza wpływ statusu w rodzinie oraz przekładającego się na niego wieku, a także wykształcenia czy dodatkowych kwalifikacji na prawdopodobieństwo aktywności zawodowej, co może być konsekwencją prawidłowości leżących u podstaw teorii „swoich i obcych”