Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4
Articles
Spatial patterns of regional economic development in Central and Eastern European countries
Maciej Smętkowski
Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4, pp. 539-556 | 
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doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0033
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Abstract
The aim of the work described here has been to analyse the spatial patterns of regional economic development in the EU 10 New Member States located in Central and Eastern Europe. Its first hypothesis suggests that regional convergence observed at macroregional level should lead to a decrease in spatial dependency at the NUTS3 level, i.e. to overall diffusion of development across particular countries. However, a second hypothesis claims that diffusion processes from national growth centres to their regional surroundings would be still quite limited and negligible. The latter hypothesis relates to a different pattern of diffusion in selected economic secto rs that should largely explain the overall regional convergence process. To verify these hypotheses, the spatial autocorrelation method based on the Global Moran’s I Statistic and Local Indicators of Spatial Association (LISA) has been applied for the period 1995-2009/2010, with special emphasis put on particular sub-periods reflecting different stages of the transformation process, EU membership and the recent economic crisis. Furthermore, the analysis covers values of GDP per capita both absolute and relativised (to the national averages), as well as structural differences that allow for the presentation of the diverse dimensions to regional economic growth.
Keywords: regional convergence, spatial autocorrelation, economic development, Central and Eastern European countries
Maciej Smętkowski [msmetkowski@uw.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Warszawski, Centrum Europejskich Studiów Regionalnych i Lokalnych
Control functions within large cities and foreign direct investment in the transport sector: Empirical evidence from Poland
Zbigniew Taylor, Ariel Ciechański
Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4, pp. 557-573 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0035
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Abstract
On the basis of inventory research carried out by the authors on single transport FDI, a hierarchy of the ten largest Polish cities is created, and then related to the number of inhabitants. The paper focuses on the location of corporate headquarters (HQs) serving various control (decision-making) functions and simultaneously playing an urban-creative role. The analysis confirms in part only the idea that the more advanced the branch of the economy, the more the city in which a corporate HQ is located is likely to occupy a higher rank in the administrative hierarchy, with a simultaneous large number of affiliates. The findings arise out of in-depth research, albeit on the basis of a relatively small number of incidences of foreign investment in the Polish transport sector. Whether it is the criteria of absolute amount of capital invested, number of employees or number of controlled investments, it is consistently the city of Warsaw and its metropolitan area that tops the rankings. Alongside inter-urban differentiation in transport FDI, analysis also confirms substantial intra-urban variation.
Keywords: transport, FDI, control functions, corporate headquarters, large cities, Poland
Zbigniew Taylor [z.taylor@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Ariel Ciechański [ariel@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Structural changes in Polish industry after 1989
Tomasz Rachwał
Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4, pp. 575-606 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0036
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Abstract
It has been 25 years since the beginning of the economic transformation in Poland and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, associated with the change of the centrally controlled system over economy towards an economy based on market rules. Those changes, taking place in the conditions of globalisation of the world economy and European integration, and in recent years also the global recession, affect previously developed socio-economic structures, including the structures of industry. The aim of the article is to present changes in the role of industry in the economy of Poland, transformation of the ownership, branch and spatial structure of the industry of Poland and its diversification in regional and supra-regional systems as well as to attempt to answer the question of how the processes of industrial restructuring, undertaken during the years of economic transformation, contributed to its adaptation to the conditions of the market economy and improvement of its competitive position in global and European levels, including the possibility of integration into the global industrial networks.
Keywords: economic transformation, FDI, industrial change, privatisation, Polish industry, spatial structure
Tomasz Rachwał, Institute of Geography Pedagogical University of Kraków Podchor ąż ych 2, 30-084 Kraków: Poland
Monitoring of changes in road potential accessibility at municipality level in Poland, 1995-2015
Piotr Rosik, Marcin Stępniak
Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4, pp. 607-620 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0037
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Abstract
The main objective of this article is to show the effects of changes in road accessibility in Poland at municipality level over the long term of 20 years (1995-2015). The methodological basis is the potential accessibility indicator. A multi-criterion analysis of accessibility dimensions has been prepared and the international level has been included, with destinations located across the whole European continent. One of the main conclusions is that, during the years 1995-2015, regional disparities to the level of accessibility increased. Improvements in accessibility were found to be distributed across the country unevenly, with regions located in central and southern Poland identified as the greatest beneficiaries. The results can be seen to represent scientific background for transport policy priorities in Poland.
Keywords: potential accessibility, roads, evaluation, Poland
Piotr Rosik [rosik@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Marcin Stępniak [stepniak@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Transformations of large housing estates in Central and Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism
Ewa Szafrańska
Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4, pp. 621-648 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0038
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Abstract
The main purpose of this paper has been to identify ongoing changes in post-socialist large housing estates and to clarify the main factors underpinning them. The transformations in question were analysed in two dimensions: a social dimension encompassing structural socio-demographic and socio-economic changes among inhabitants, and a spatial dimension relating to socio-spatial, functional and physical (morphological and physiognomic) changes. The main question concerned the ways in which large housing estates built during the communist era have changed under the new socio-demographic, political and economic conditions emerging following the collapse of communism. The study was thus based on a review of the available literature.
Keywords: large housing estates, CEECs, post-socialist city, collapse of communism
Ewa Szafrańska, University of Łódź Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź: Poland
Twenty-five years of humanising post-socialist housing estates: From quantitative needs to qualitative requirements
Petr Šimáček, Zdeněk Szczyrba, Ivan Andráško, Josef Kunc
Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4, pp. 649-668 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0039
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Abstract
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, CEE cities (as well as other cities in the former Socialist Bloc) experienced dynamic development in many areas. The presented article deals with one of the key areas of the post-socialist transformation of the city, specifically the humanisation of mass housing in large housing estates. These housing estates from the central planning period still dominate the skyline of many CEE towns. At the beginning of the 1990s, housing estates suffered from a number of shortcomings that needed to be put right within the frame of their humanisation. The paper analyses a more than two decade-long process of housing estate humanisation which gradually led to the replacement of the monofunctional (strictly residential) model with a multifunctional model. This leads to improvement of civic amenities, implementation of new urban-architectural solutions and the creation of new job opportunities. As a result, these changes increase the quality of life in housing estates, both from an objective and subjective point of view. Changes in the spatial, social, economic and physical structure of housing estates after 1989 will be analysed using examples from hierarchically different locations in the Czech Republic. The synthesis of findings will be supplemented with the results of empirical studies that were carried out by geographers, sociologists and urban planners.
Keywords: humanisation processes, postsocialistic housing estates, postsocialistic transformation, Central and Eastern Europe
Petr Šimáček, Masaryk University Kotlá ř ská 2, 611 37 Brno: Czech Republic
Zdeněk Szczyrba, Department of Geography Palacký University Olomouc 17. listopadu 12, 771 46 Olomouc: Czech Republic
Ivan Andráško, Masaryk University Kotlá ř ská 2, 611 37 Brno: Czech Republic
Josef Kunc, Department of Regional Economics and Administration Masaryk University Lipová 507/41a, 602 00 Brno: Czech Republic
‘John-Paul-the-Second-isation’ of cultural landscape in Poland
Lucyna Przybylska, Izabela Sołjan
Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4, pp. 669-686 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0039
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Abstract
The aim of this paper is to identify, categorize, explain and interpret the process of ‘John-Paul-the-Second-isation’ which has been taking place for the last three decades in Poland. ‘John-Paul-the-Second-isation’ is perceived as a kind of landscape sacralisation, i.e. the process of filling the cultural landscape with objects and phenomena related to Pope John Paul II, his work and personality. The process is analysed on three basic levels: architectural, nominative and temporal. The growing cult of the ‘Polish Pope’ is a visible sign of social, cultural, religious and political factors influencing cultural landscape.
Keywords: cultural landscape, John Paul II, Poland, geography of religion, sacralisation
Izabela Sołjan, Jagiellonian University Institute of Geography and Spatial Management ul. Gronostajowa 7, 30–387 Krakow: Poland
Research notes
A vision for a future Europe according to a Russian map of 1914
Piotr Eberhardt
Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4, pp. 687-693 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0040
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Abstract
In this article, a map published and popularized in Moscow at the end of 1914 is presented and analyzed from a cartographic and factual perspective. Drawn up on the initiative of the highest Russian authorities, the map presents the post-World War One political system in Europe as envisaged by the author. He believed that, in the aftermath of a victorious war for Russia, the significant shifts of political boundaries in Europe which are shown on the map would take place. The cartographic document in question thus constitutes interesting historic evidence attesting to the expansionist ambitions of the Russian Empire of that time.
Keywords: Russia, World War One, political boundaries in Europe
Piotr Eberhardt [p.ebe@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Poland on maps
Economic control functions in Poland in 2013
Przemysław Śleszyński
Geographia Polonica (2015) vol. 88, iss. 4, pp. 701-708 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/GPol.0041
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Abstract
The map and the accompanying description present the variability of revenues and the spatial distribution of the corporate headquarters of the 2000 largest companies registered in Poland as of 2013, excluding banks. The study demonstrated a strong concentration of the decision-making and control functions in Warsaw. It found variability depending on the type of activity and ownership. The study also confirmed previous findings about economic management models and their links to the administrative and settlement hierarchy (Śleszyński 2002, 2007).
Keywords: geography of enterprise, corporate geography, control function, decision function, economic power, enterprise, Poland
Przemysław Śleszyński [psleszyn@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN
