Socio-economic transformation of Poland’s largest cities over the years 1998–2008: A multivariate approach

This article seeks to show changes in the socio-economic structure of the thirty largest Polish cities, in topological relations, and in the type of socio-economic differences among them. The research was carried out at three analytical levels: of the unitary variables chosen, principal components, and in a synthetic approach (cluster analysis). To assess structural changes, use was made of comparative statics involving an analysis of the 1998 and 2008 situations. The period analysed was one of dynamic changes in the determinants of the socio-economic development of Polish cities, with four reforms of key significance being introduced, not all of them crowned with success, but also a period marking the start of a decline in demographic dynamics and of suburbanisation processes. It is also treated as a time of transition from a quantitative to a qualitative type of urban development, as indicated by improving services in the sphere of municipal infrastructure. Those processes are connected with the restructuring of the economy, in particular with its distinctly post-industrial orientation, which is especially readily visible in the case of the Upper Silesian Industrial District (a mining and heavy-industry region). The research corroborated the highly specific type of development of the towns of this region as well as the unique position of the Polish capital city. It also showed that the changes which determined the tendencies of transformation of the Polish cities were mainly those in demography, housing situation, level of health care, and level of entrepreneurship

Safety of Poznań residents after 1989 (selected aspects)

Safety is one of the fundamental human needs which greatly affects the quality of people’s lives. It is also a collective need the satisfaction of which is a task of public authority. That is why this authority takes many measures intended to protect society and individuals as well as their property against threats posed by violent acts of people and violent natural forces. According to the Polish legal regulations, ensuring safety and public order is a task of a commune, also an urban one. To this end towns set up such services as the police, the fire brigade, emergency medical teams, city guards, etc., intended to serve their inhabitants. Their feeling of safety and a low crime rate are indicative of a town’s high level of civilisational and cultural development, but also make the town attractive as a place of residence for both, current and future inhabitants as well as to potential investors. The aim of this paper is to examine selected aspects of the safety of Poznań residents and changes that have taken place in this respect since 1989, the year when the systemic transformation started in Poland. A detailed analysis will be made of interventions by the Poznań police, fire service and ambulance service as factors that contribute the most to the safety of the city residents and their property

Growth and competitiveness in a crisis differently affecting the European territories

The ‘Europe 2020 Strategy’ was issued in 2010 by the European Commission. This document constitutes a growth scheme for the decade 2010-2020 that aims to help the European Union to emerge from the current crisis through the so-called smart, sustainable and inclusive dimensions of growth. In this context, the basic aim of the SIESTA (“Spatial Indicators for a ‘Europe 2020 Strategy’ Territorial Analysis”) Project has been to illustrate the territorial dimension of the ‘Europe 2020 Strategy’. In other words, to show how this document acts territorially, particularly at the regional scale, but, when possible, also at the urban level. The SIESTA Project has been funded by ESPON (“European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion”), a European Commission Programme whose mission is to support policy development in relation to the aim of territorial cohesion and a harmonious development of the European territory. This book includes most of the main findings and conclusions obtained through research of the SIESTA Project. The contents were presented and discussed as keynote addresses or communications at the SIESTA Final Conference held in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, on 4-5 April 2013

Public space of the suburban zone: An example of Poznań

Przestrzeń publiczna w Polsce w ostatnich latach podlega postępującej prywatyzacji i fragmentaryzacji. Jest to zjawisko bardzo niekorzystne ze względu na funkcje, jakie przestrzeń ta pełni w strukturze przestrzennej miast i wsi, decydując o możliwości zaspokojenia różnego rodzaju potrzeb, w tym przede wszystkim społecznych, mieszkańców, i wpływając tym samym na jakość ich życia. Nasilaniu się tych niekorzystnych procesów sprzyja z pewnością odreagowanie polskiego społeczeństwa na realny socjalizm w nowo ukształtowanych warunkach neoliberalizmu i gospodarki rynkowej, ale także polskie prawodawstwo w zakresie planowania przestrzennego ułatwiające komercjalizację przestrzeni miast i wsi oraz zawłaszczanie przestrzeni publicznej w różnej formie. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie różnych sposobów pojmowania i znaczenia przestrzeni publicznych, mechanizmu kształtowania takich przestrzeni w Polsce, a także miejsca, jakie przestrzeń publiczna zajmuje na nowo budowanych osiedlach w strefie podmiejskiej Poznania.Public space in Poland has seen advancing privatisation and fragmentation in the recent years. This is a highly undesirable development because of the functions that this space performs in the spatial structure of towns and villages, offering their residents a possibility to fulfil a variety of needs, primarily social, and thus affecting their quality of life. What favours those harmful processes is certainly Polish society’s wish to get over feasible socialism in the new conditions of neo-liberalism and a market economy, but also Polish physical planning legislation, which makes it easy to commercialise urban and rural space and to appropriate public space in a variety of manners. The article presents various ways of understanding public spaces, the mechanism shaping such spaces in Poland, and the place that public space is given on newly built housing estates in the Poznań suburban zone

Evolution of the regional and local settlement network in Poland in the light of the idea of sustainable development

Zrównoważony rozwój jest w Polsce zasadą konstytucyjną, stąd przyjmowany być powinien za podstawę wszelkich działań. Z tego między innymi powodu należałoby oczekiwać, że znajdzie swoje odbicie w regulacjach prawnych, dotyczących polityk rozwojowych na różnych szczeblach organizacji terytorialnej, w tym w polityce przestrzennej. O możliwości realizacji zrównoważonego rozwoju w różnych skalach przestrzennych decyduje między innymi sposób rozmieszczenia ludności na danym obszarze, znajdujący swoje odbicie w sieci osadniczej. Celem artykułu jest określenie tego, jaka sieć osadnicza w skali regionalnej i lokalnej sprzyjać będzie realizacji założeń rozwoju zrównoważonego, a następnie analiza tego, czy w obowiązujących w Polsce regulacjach prawnych w zakresie polityki przestrzennej oraz zadań samorządów terytorialnych znajdują się odniesienia co do kształtowania takiej, zgodnej z zrównoważonym rozwojem, sieci. Z przeprowadzonej analizy wynika, że osiąganiu celów takiego właśnie rozwoju sprzyjać będzie przede wszystkim policentryczna struktura osadnicza, i to zarówno w skali regionalnej, jak i lokalnej. W obowiązującej w Polsce ustawie o planowaniu i zagospodarowaniu przestrzennym brakuje odniesień do zasad kształtowania sieci osadniczej, co może być jedną z przyczyn formowania nieefektywnych, niezrównoważonych struktur przestrzennych, a polaryzacyjno-dyfuzyjny model rozwoju przyjęty w Koncepcji Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania Kraju 2030 nie w pełni służy realizacji celów zrównoważonego rozwoju.Sustainable development in Poland is a constitutional principle and therefore should underlie all actions. For this reason it should be expected that this principle be present in legal regulations concerning development policies at various levels of the territorial organisation, including the spatial policy. The possibility of the implementation of sustainable development in different spatial scales is determined, among other things, by the manner in which population is distributed in a given area. The aim of the article is to define which settlement network, regionally and locally scale, will support the implementation of sustainable development. Next, the paper also aims to analyse whether there are references in Polish legal regulations to the development of a network that will be compatible with sustainable  development. The analysis shows that it is predominantly a polycentric settlement structure that will help to achieve the objectives of such development, both on the regional and local scale. The Act on Planning and Spatial Development currently in force in Poland makes no references to the policy or regulations governing development of settlement networks, which may be one of the reasons for numerous inefficient, unsustainable spatial structures that can frequently be observed, as well as for the fact that the polarisation-diffusion model of development adopted in the Concept of the Spatial Development of the Country 2030 does not fully serve to achieve the objectives of sustainable development

Motoryzacja w zrównoważonym rozwoju miasta

Motoryzacja jest bardzo różnie rozumiana i oceniana w literaturze przedmiotu. Z jednej strony postrzegana jest jako lokomotywa rozwoju gospodarczego, z drugiej jako źródło wielu problemów, uciążliwości i niekorzyści. Celem artykułu jest analiza pozytywnych i negatywnych skutków rozwoju motoryzacji w miastach w kontekście realizacji celów zrównoważonego rozwoju. Skutki te uporządkowane zostały według aspektów ekonomicznych, społecznych, ekologicznych i przestrzennych. Z przeprowadzonych na podstawie literatury analiz wynika, że z punktu widzenia zrównoważonego rozwoju motoryzacja w mieście generuje więcej skutków negatywnych niż pozytywnych. Te ostatnie trudno zidentyfikować przede wszystkim w odniesieniu do sfery przyrodniczej. Pozytywne konsekwencje rozwoju motoryzacji notowane są głównie w sferze gospodarczej i społecznej. Ponieważ rozwoju motoryzacji raczej nie da się zatrzymać, kwestią pozostaje to, jak utrzymując korzyści, eliminować lub minimalizować niekorzyści z niej wynikające, by uczynić rozwój miast bardziej zrównoważonym

Urban structures and substructures

In urban geography, a traditional but always important research problem has been the spatial-functional structure of towns and changes that occur in this field. Two approaches can be distinguished here: the sociological and the geographical. The former follows in the steps of the so-called Chicago school, i.e. Park, Burgess and Hoyt, and the other of Ullman and Harris. It seems, however, that those two approaches do not exhaust the range of spatial-structural studies which may be conducted in modern towns since there are areas within them endowed with specific properties that can be called their substructures. This paper will present the general characteristics of such substructures and identify factors responsible for their appearance and development. It will also propose an empirical research pattern. The term 'substructures' is taken to denote relatively autonomous, highly uniform wholes standing out in the spatial-functional structure of a town, distinguished on the basis of spatial relations generated by people. While structural elements of towns in the approach of the Chicago school or that of Harris and Ullman can be identified with structural regions, urban substructures show a similarity to functional regions in their organisation, structure and operation. Thus, towns with identified substructures have a polycentric spatial-functional structure, favourable in terms of both the level of service of their inhabitants and their sustainable development .

System for logistics customer service

The main principle of CRM is a customer oriented, consider the desires and expectations. It is necessary to in-depth analysis of the needs to improve the level of customer satisfaction. In this day where the consumeris better educated, it becomes more and more demanding – expect high quality customer service, accurate information and quick access to them. Knowing the customer perfectly there is a chance to meet his expectations and even exceed them, and thanks to this gain his trust and loyalty. We can provide them with exactly the product, which is expected, since we know his preferences, we are also able to provide him with good service and support. We save the budget because the firm keep focus on the customers who give the opportunity of cooperation and effort is not wasted on those who never takes advantage of our offer. The article aims to show what elements should appear in the customer management systems to store level, to provide better customer service, and to reduce the cost of its maintenance thanks to better warehouse management

Appropriation of public urban space as an effect of privatisation and globalisation

The changes taking place in the public space of many cities of the world have been assessed as harmful. They are seen as resulting from modern processes shaping their spatial-functional structure. Among them are advancing privatisation, which leads to various forms of public space appropriation, and globalisation, which transforms the world from a world of cities and places into one of networks (especially the Internet and motorways). In Polish cities, however, the deterioration in the quality and accessibility of public spaces is due not only to the social awareness developing in the conditions of neoliberalism and a market economy, which puts private property above public to get over the experience of feasible socialism, but to some extent also to Polish legislation. The aim of this article is to present forms and ways of appropriation of public urban space in the conditions of privatisation and globalisation, as well as reasons why this development seems to intensify in the Polish conditions