Knowledge-intensive services in post-socialist cities from the perspective of 20 years of a free market economy : the Polish experience

Środa-Murawska, S., 2013, Knowledge-intensive services in post-socialist cities from the perspective of 20 years of a free market economy: the Polish experience, [in:] Geografia mirovogo hozajstva: regionalizm v usloviach globalizacji: materialy IV Mezdunarodnoj naucno-prakticeskoj konferencji, C. 3, red. V.N. Holina; Moskva, p.140-149.It was not until after 1989 that Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe started their post-Fordian restructuring that increased the importance of services, including knowledge-based services, in their economies. The purpose of this study was to analyse and assess the level of development of knowledge-intensive services (KIS) in the largest cities in Poland 20 years from the collapse of the communist system. To this end, the location quotient and the establishment rate were calculated for 273,441 KIS firms that in 2010 operated in cities with populations in excess of 200,000. It has been found that 13 out of 17 cities considered in the study have relatively higher concentrations of the firms than the rest of the country. Most KIS firms in the largest cities provide high-tech knowledge intensive services and also show the strongest correlation with the level of economic development, individual entrepreneurship and the indicators of human capital quality in the cities. The structure of the Polish KIS sector changes following main trends in the world economy – the providers of the services seek to locate in the largest citie

Large German cities in context of the ageing process at the turn of the 20th century

The agieng process is one of many issues the modern world is facing nowadays. This process of societes becoming older and older can be observed everywhere around the globe; however, it is most prominent in the highly developed countries. This article attempts at describing the current state and probable tendencies in the ageing process among citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany. The analysis presented is based on the change of the age structure in German population between 1990 and 2002

Selected aspects of changes in trade network in the period 1995-2003 from the perspective of Polish small towns

In the following article the author attempts to analyze changes in the domestic trade, and more precisely, the qualitative and quantitative fluctuations in reference to retail shops found in Polish towns in 1995 and in 2003. The towns taken into consideration remained below 20,000 dwellers. Throughout the analysis the author was searching for regularities in the changes of the numbers of retailers as well as for the reasons of those fluctuations in individual towns and in groups of towns classified according to their size. Another aspect taken into consideration was the spatial positioning of the analyzed differences. Accessibility of shops, both in time and space, for town dwellers was also examined in detail. Finally the author offers a prediction of the future development of the domestic trade, a significant elements of the national economy

Usługi kulturalne w małych miastach

This paper describes the use of cultural services in small Polish towns against other towns and cities taking into account the cultural sector represented by museums, cultural centers, cinemas and libraries. The study was based on CSO data urban centers with less than 20 thousand inhabitants. It was found that some changes in the availability and use of facilities providing cultural services in small towns are consistent to those seen in larger cities

The servicisation process based on the structure of employment in large German cities in 1996-2002

The paper concentrates on the changes in the service sector as they are visible in the studies of the structure of employment in larger German towns (above 100 thousand inhabitants; exchangeably called cities later in the text) in the period 1996-2002. The population of German towns with such high number of dwellers amounts to 24 million people, who constitute 30% of the population of the country, and at the same time 40% of the employed in Germany. The analyses presented in the paper point out a few significant changes in the economy and in the social sphere of German cities. On one hand, these changes may be seen in continuous deindustrialisation; and on the other hand in a permanent growth of the service sector (characteristic of the 70s and onwards especially in East Germany). Moreover, the paper notices some additional major changes in the structure of the subsectors and movements in the structure of the employment in services in Germany

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE IN THE LIGHT OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF LUXURY STORES – SOME PROBLEMS

This study analyses the characteristics and structure of luxury goods stores in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Studies dealing with the spatial distribution of services created for the super-rich people are relatively few. The authors of this article show luxury goods stores in CEE countries with respect to their locations (urban/rural), location factors, numbers, structure, and the differences between countries and regions. They also consider whether Central and Eastern Europe has space for luxury store networks to expand. The status and structure of luxury goods stores in CEE countries are analysed and evaluated based on secondary data on the authorised retailers of luxury goods. Using the k-mean method as one of its tools, the study shows that luxury goods are mainly offered in large cities (populated by more than 200,000 people). Moscow has been found to have the most extensive network of luxury stores, which gives her a special position among CEE cities. Sankt Petersburg, Prague, Kiev and other European cities with significantly smaller numbers of luxury stores rank lower

The concentration of the creative sector firms as a potential basis for the formation of creative clusters in Poland

DOI:10.2478/bog-2013-0013The study aims to present the structure and analyse the distribution of economic activities comprising the creative sector (covering 10 sections of PKD 2007 – the Polish Classification of Activities based on NACE rev. 2 – the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community) of the Polish economy in the context of the potential basis for the formation of creative clusters in Poland. The study concentrates on the numbers of creative firms based in all 3,076 Polish gminas (306 urban gminas, 1,576 rural gminas and 597 urban-rural gminas; in the latter, 597 urban areas and 597 rural areas are considered separately). As found, most of the firms are involved in architectural and engineering activities; technical testing and analysis (M 71) and other professional, scientific and technical activities (M 74). It has also been established that some local incubators of the potential clusters of creative industries form eight distinct centres, the most prominent of which is the Warszawa centre. The identification of areas with higher concentrations of creative firms has demonstrated that in Poland, like in western countries, creative firms tend to locate in large cities (Warszawa, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław and Tri-City) and in the regions around them

Przestrzenne zróżnicowanie poziomu rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczego Niemiec

PreprintOn 3 October 1990, two German states, the socialist German Democratic Republic and the capitalist Federal Republic of Germany, unified after almost 50 years of separation. In the Länder re-established in the former GDR a market economy started to be implemented and the government of the new German state launched initiatives to eliminate the huge gaps between the levels of socio-economic development in eastern and western Germany. This article analyzes and evaluates the Federal Republic of Germany with respect to spatial variations in its socio-economic development that still persisted in 2010, i.e. 20 years after official unification. The conclusion arising from the research is that the German-German border still divides the territory of the unified state and that basically the whole of the former GDR is at a lower level of socio-economic development. The highlighted differences between the best and the least developed administrative units in the country can be interpreted as an expression of polarization in its development. At the same time, though, the period of 20 years is too short to expect the differences to be small

Przestrzenny zasięg oddziaływania instytucji artystycznej nieposiadającej swojej siedziby

In the strategies of the development of cities and regions, the significance of cultural sector for the sustainable and optimal socio-economic development is emphasized more and more often. The same refers to Poland where in last years the increasing interest in the broadly understood cultural sector in the context of searching new impulses for development from the state and local governments is observed. However, in the strategies of the development of culture besides main actors disseminating a culture, i.e. state and local cultural institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) acting in the field of culture play more and more important role. This study aims at analyzing the spatial impact of NGOs in the field of culture reflects a research direction concerning the changes in cultural services in Poland. This research has been conducted on the example of Toruń Foundation Wszyscy Tworzymy Sztukę (WTS, Everybody Creates Art). Its creators noticing "a great need to bridge a gap between music and visual arts education in the group of children and youth attending comprehensive schools and education in the schools of arts" [www.fundacjawts.pl] have focused their efforts and actions on persons who wish to develop actively their talents but they do not aspire to start education in arts schools. This study have demonstrated that the actions undertaken by single, relatively small NGO in the field of cultural sector may involve not only a city but also neighboring communes. In some small degree the activity of NGO may contribute to strengthen the range of the impact of a city. Functioning this type of organization in the field of cultural sector should be considered not only in the relation to a local community. What is more, considering active presence of NGO in the Internet it should be noted that there can be potentially unlimited range of the dissemination of effects in the context of the activity of the WTS Foundation.Celem niniejszego opracowania jest analiza przestrzennego oddziaływania organizacji pozarządowej prowadzącej działalność z zakresu kultury, która nie posiada swojej siedziby, a swoją aktywność prowadzi w przestrzeni wirtualnej oraz fizycznej. Badanie przeprowadzono na przykładzie toruńskiej Fundacji Wszyscy Tworzymy Sztukę, która koncentruje swoją działalność na wsparciu rozwoju artystycznego osób, które pragną odkrywać swoje talenty artystyczne na różnych polach kultury, a nie podejmują edukacji w szkolnictwie artystycznym. Przestrzenny zasięg oddziaływania Fundacji Wszyscy Tworzymy Sztukę oceniono m.in. na podstawie miejsc wydarzeń artystycznych prowadzonych przez Fundację oraz miejsc zamieszkania jej beneficjentów. Wykazano, że działalność pojedynczej, stosunkowo niewielkiej organizacji pozarządowej w sektorze kultury obejmować może nie tylko samo miasto, ale i okoliczne gminy. W związku z tym oddziaływanie tego typu organizacji pozarządowej należy rozpatrywać nie tylko w odniesieniu do lokalnej społeczności

The Impact of Cultural Events on City Development: the (Great?) Expectations of a Small City

In the globalized world, large and small cities compete with each other in attracting new investments, capital and inhabitants. In the search for successful paths by cities, the cultural sector has been seen as a chance by western countries since the 1970s. In the post-socialist countries, a growing interest in the cultural sector in the context of the socio-economic development of cities and regions has been also observed in recent years. The studies on the impact of culture on economic development focus mainly on largest cities, while smaller cities more and more often attempt to implement patterns based on the cultural sector to their own strategies. They take such actions because the cultural sector is generally considered to have a positive impact on socio-economic development through, among others, the creation of new jobs, the improvement of city image, the attraction of new investments, the increase in the residents’ quality of life, etc. The main aim of this study is the analysis of the expectations and the potential impact a cultural event may have on the development of a small city from the perspective of local business. For the purposes of the study we have chosen a small city located in Central Poland, named Gniewkowo, with population number amounting to 7.5 thousand inhabitants. In the small city the festival of progressive rock has been organized cyclically since 2007. It should be emphasized that progressive rock, which was created in the 1960s and originated from psychedelic rock, is addressed to a relatively small group of people. Despite the above-mentioned fact, the Tomasz Beksiński Festival of Progressive Rock in Gniewkowo annually attracts many fans not only from Poland but also from abroad. This cultural event is a classic example of a local grass-root initiative because the inhabitants of Gniewkowo are the initiators and the organizers of the festival. They have also created a non-governmental organization based only on their fascination with this kind of music and their own intellectual capital. In order to realize the aim of the study we have conducted interviews with representatives of local governments supporting the event. In the interviews we asked questions about the expected economic benefits for the city. We have also carried out a questionnaire survey among the owners of selected firms active in the field of hotel, catering and trade services in Gniewkowo in 2014. The survey refers to the assessment of the impact of the analyzed festival on the financial condition of these firms. The collected data will enable us to confront the expectations of local governments with the real impact of the festival on the development of local firms. The study reflects a research trend describing the cultural sector in the economic development of cities and regions (culture-led development). The results of the study will contribute to recognizing the role of culture and the significance of non-governmental organizations for the sustainable development of the smallest cities