Geographia Polonica (2022) vol. 95, iss. 4

Abstract

This paper claims that entrepreneurial actorness, which is one of the main thematic scopes of entrepreneurship research, can be (re-)framed from a value-theoretical perspective. The various individual features addressed as entrepreneurial personality traits (one’s ideas, perceptions, understandings, mindsets, routines,etc.) can thus be linked to certain value contents and specific value sets. For the purposes of this novel theoretical perspective, this paper first applies Shalom H. Schwartz’s framework of Basic Human Values, before presenting a comparative analysis of European entrepreneurs’ value preferences. The results show that there are four separate entrepreneur groups with significantly different value hierarchies whose distribution varies across Europe.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial actorness, Basic Human Values, Shalom H. Schwartz, comparative analysis, European Social Survey

Zoltán Grünhut [grunhut@rkk.hu], Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Tóth Kálmán str. 4., 1097 Budapest: Hungary
Ákos Ákos Bodor [bodor@rkk.hu], Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Tóth Kálmán str. 4., 1097 Budapest: Hungary

Abstract

Small towns’ functions are exposed to pressure stemming from globalization and metropolitan development. In North-East Poland, the study area, they are at the same time affected by the restructuring of rural economy. As in other peripheral regions in Europe, they are subject to de-population trends. The analysis of socioeconomic functions performed by small towns reveals functional polarization – a division line between local service centers and those towns additionally performing specialized functions. Whereas some towns succeed in sustaining, or attracting, often niche type industrial and service activities, others remain to rely upon the provision of private and public services for the surrounding rural places. By referring to R. Camagni’s conceptualization of territorial competitiveness, the role of selected territorial capital components – local entrepreneurship, social capital and local leadership is identified in the observed development of socio-economic functions of supra-local market range. The findings reveal the focusing, by the successful local firms upon the specificity of market offer, its linking with local tradition, skills, and natural resources. On the conceptual side, at a town level, they indicate the importance of mutual interlocking of individual endogenous factors in the development and the sustenance of competitive functions.

Keywords: small towns, specialized functions, territorial competitiveness, peripheral region, North-East Poland

Ewa Korcelli-Olejniczak [eko@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Filip Piotrowski [piotrowskif@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Maryana Melnyk [mar.melnyk@gmail.com]

Abstract

Medium-sized cities are an important component of the settlement system and are often described as a joining link between urban and rural areas. However, in recent decades they have been impacted by growing competition from large cities which have tremendous appeal for the post-Fordist economy and for various segments of the population. This paper analyses the demographic trajectories of 99 medium-sized cities in Italy with provincial capital status, from the beginning of the twenty-first century to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a twenty-year period marked by many difficulties for the Italian economy in an international context, what has the demographic performance of these cities been? The research addresses two areas. On the one hand, it analyses the demographic vitality of the provincial capitals compared to the metropolitan centres; on the other, it follows the redistribution of populations in the provincial capitals’ urban areas, which coincide with the employment areas (Sistemi locali del lavoro). Significant behavioural discontinuities emerge between the decade of 2000-2010 and the following decade, which was characterised by a gradual recovery after the shock of the Great Recession. The picture was changed further by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, persistent differences between the medium-sized cities of Northern and Southern Italy stand out, but so do new internal divisions within the country, reframing this historical dualism.Key

Keywords: medium-sized cities, provincial capitals, demographic dynamics, employment areas, Great Recession, COVID-19, Italy

Maria Antonietta Clerici [maria.clerici@polimi.it], Department of Architecture and Urban Studies Polytechnic University of Milan Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan: Italy

Abstract

The variation of water velocity in an artificial dam reservoir is influenced not only by the inflow discharge, but also by the bathymetry of the reservoir and the water level at the dam. The depiction of spatially complex variations in flow velocity through a reservoir would not be possible without the use of hydrodynamic models. A reliable hydrodynamic model of the reservoir is an effective tool for predicting and analyzing changes in the reservoir geoecosystem in an age of changing climate and risk of water stress. A depth-averaged two-dimensional AdH model was used to visualize the hydrodynamics of the Włocławek Reservoir. Running the model for eight different hydrological conditions delivered consistent results and allowed to calibrate themodel parameters. Additionally, it provided a way to verify the data regarding the rating curve of the Vistula River upstream the reservoir.

Keywords: 2D hydrodynamic modelling, dam reservoir, model calibration, velocity map, AdH model, Vistula River, Włocławek Reservoir

Magdalena Tutro [mtutro@pk.edu.pl], Faculty of Environmental and Power Engineering Cracow University of Technology Warszawska 24, 31-155 Kraków: Poland
Paweł S. Hachaj [pawel.hachaj@pk.edu.pl], Faculty of Environmental and Power Engineering Cracow University of Technology Warszawska 24, 31-155 Kraków: Poland
Monika Szlapa [monika.szlapa@pk.edu.pl], Faculty of Environmental and Power Engineering Cracow University of Technology Warszawska 24, 31-155 Kraków: Poland
Piotr Gierszewski [piotr.gierszewski@geopan.torun.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Kopernika 19, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Michał Habel [hydro.habel@ukw.edu.pl], Institute of Geography Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz Kościeleckich Square 8, 85-033 Bydgoszcz: Poland
Włodzimierz Juśkiewicz [w.juskiewicz@geopan.torun.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Development Polish Academy of Sciences Kopernika 19, 87-100 Toruń: Poland
Natalia Mączka [natalkamaczka@gmail.com], student at Faculty of Environmental and Power Engineering Cracow University of Technology Warszawska 24, 31-155 Kraków: Poland