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The predominantly methodological paper outlines the issues connected to the analysis of spatial diversification in the level of socio-economic development occurring in aggregation of relatively small territorial units under examination. On the one hand, they are related to the fact that the concept of socio-economic development is very complex and it is extremely difficult to operationalise it due to a single index – such a development can take various paths, according to diverse patterns. They depend on diversified natural and structural (economic and social) conditions occurring in the given examined units. However, different development models may lead to its similar levels. The proposal of a scale construction of the socio-economic development level used in the research of the Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Polish Academy of Sciences for municipality aggregation follows. Yet, the authors emphasise the specific constraints in using this scale: they are linked to its ordinal nature and the fact that it does not have the universal character. On the contrary, it is limited to the research field and general development process segment.
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Second homes are a social phenomenon that dynamically gains popularity, which exerts influence – both positive and negative – on a variety of regions‘ functioning aspects, including economy. Contrary to “traditional“ tourism, this form of leisure does not make products and services which are consumed on market. It is rather a mode of mobility and settlement which can be placed on a continuum between stable migrations and “traditional” tourism. Simultaneously, second homes owners’ and tenants’ demand for various goods and services can lead to the growth and diversification of income sources, employment, and development of certain region’s economy branches. The aim of this overview paper is to demonstrate second homes phenomenon in relation to its meaning to the region’s economy, linking it with local estate markets, products, services and labour. Additionally, it contains the author’s considerations on the issues that determine second homes phenomenon functioning in the field of economy, such as itinerancy, informal economy, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Between the years 1950–2020 abroad migrations in Europe underwent significant changes. One of the most characteristic features of this process was the act that migration balance changed from negative to positive. In this respect, up to the beginning of the 21st century Poland belonged to the minority of European countries: it experienced potent emigration, while immigration was scant. However, the migrant situation in Poland has changed: in the second decade of the 21st century, the outflow of populace has weakened and the migration balance has become positive. The paper analyses these phenomena from the theoretical perspective of migration passage, which became a common experience of the majority of countries in Western, Northern and Southern Europe in the second half of the 20th century. It attempts to answer the question whether the most recent migrant experiences justify the thesis of its existence in the Polish context as well.
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The paper mainly aims at analysing and evaluating demographic changes in the populace structure according to age, sex, education and activity in the labour market in the context of their impact on health condition, incidence and deaths between 1945 and 2030. It also expresses the need of mapping out the interim and long-term policy of health protection. The populace’s demographic structure exerts a significant influence on the illnesses’ structure according to age and deaths.
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The unfavorable changes in the number and structure of the population, which have been observed in Poland for over three decades, follow in a slightly different pattern in Silesia, due to the phenomenon of hysteresis. Its impact, even though weaker, still gets reflected in the varying strength of individual factors causing interregional and, above all, intraregional diversification of the course of demographic phenomena and processes, exemplified by the process of demographic ageing of the population of voivodeships belonging to Silesia. Since demographic ageing has become a megatrend, generating multidimensional effects, occurring with varying intensity on a global and local scale, it has prompted many initiatives and actions that aim at active ageing at all levels: global, international, domestic, regional and local. The tool that was developed to assess them is active ageing index.
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The paper examines chosen results of the project entitled “Registering employment of the citizens of Ukraine in Opole Voivodeship. The socioeconomic study”, which was conducted on Ukrainian students studying at the universities situated in Opole Voivodeship. The paper poses two questions: 1) Are Ukrainian students planning to settle down in Poland?; 2) Are Ukrainian students planning to settle down in Opole Voivodeship? The results state that over 46% answerers wish to stay in Poland, and this decision is more likely to be taken by women (c. 50%) than men (c. 40%). Over 52% students plan to settle down in Opole Voivodeship. It has been stated that there are substantial differences between women and men. Female respondents are more willing than men to stay in Opole Silesia. This is a significant fact in the context of rebuilding the regional demographic potential of Opole Voivodeship, which is one of the fastest depopulating regions in Europe.
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The region’s functioning in the contemporary socio-economic realities is marked by a large scale of uncertainty. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is the most important factor, the role of other agents, such as innovations, has not diminished. These changes directly determine the situation of the regions. Those regions that are characterised by the economy of multifunctional and modern structures are able to adapt better to the ensuing transformations and the emerging “new normality”.
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The paper demonstrates the methodologic aspect of the Polish sociologic research on the Silesian region in the interwar period. Referring to pre-sociologic and sociologic research, it depicts the methodologic foundations and intellectual perspectives that were conceptualised by Ludwik Krzywicki and constitute the cognitive basis for the construction of the knowledge about Silesia – they are defined as the object analysis current and the subject analysis current. The article illustrates the evolution of research methods – from the questionnaire technique, via the existing materials analysis, to Florian Znaniecki’s ID method and the monographic method used in field research. It touches upon the considerations on the unexploited current of sociologic research which was to provide the new category of sociologic materials, other than historic and ethnographic. Consequently, the paper attempts to answer the question which methods and methodologies had the decisive impact on structuring the then knowledge about Silesia.
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The evolution of regional development regulations and goals evokes academic and ideological dispute over the essence of a region in regional policy. It provides the context for the presented considerations whose goal is to determine the extent to which the perception of a region as a subject in the regional development policy changes. The paper demonstrates the stable and changeable elements of regions’ identification in relation to the current processes and determinants of regional development. The analysis of source literature and strategic documents on regional development leads to the conclusion that the concept of a region as a subject of regional development policy is constant and universal, and only new phenomena and processes taking place in the socio-economic and political space evoke a need of institutional changes that condition the efficient management of regions’ development.
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The paper examines the issue of creating regional strategic plans based on forecasting the trends of development. It focuses on the core and the need of systematised thinking about the future. On the example of the planning and prospectus enterprises undertaken in the years 2005–2020 in Opole Voivodeship, the results of the author’s research conducted using the method of a case study are presented. Additionally, various approaches to the identification of key factors of development are displayed. It is accompanied by the discussion on the evaluation of these activities’ integrity and durability.
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Establishing the Łódź geographic centre preceded the emergence of a similar institution in Opole for over a decade. Although Opole Silesia was a natural research area for the Wrocław centre, it was thanks to the founder of the Łódź school of socio-economic geography, prof. Ludwik Straszewicz, that the Łódź geographic centre started the research in Opole Silesia in the 1960s, which resulted in numerous publications. Research actively in this field was continued by prof. Straszewicz’ students, mostly by S. Liszewski. The Łódź geographic centre also attracted geographers from Opole: some came to Łódź for postgraduate studies, some – like prof. K. Heffner – continued their academic work at the University of Łódź. It resulted in subsequent geographic studies of Opole Silesia, as well as the collaboration between geographers from Łódź and Opole. The majority of the publications belong to the discipline of socio-economic geography, while those devoted to Opole Silesia that deal with the region’s physical geography were incidental. The paper examines and analyses the publishing and organisational results of the Łódź geographers interested in the territory of Opole Silesia.
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The paper attempts to present one of the most important events in the post-war history of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, i.e. the second “edition” of the Central Training Action (II CAS). The first, major part of the article deals with the training procedures in this youth organisation implemented on the territories newly incorporated to Poland, whereas the second part illustrates the activities performed by the communist Ministry of Public Security against the scouting organisation, which sooner or later had to run afoul with the Soviet-inspired state. The study undertakes the issue of the lack of scouting instructors directly after the World War II and it situates this problem in the history of Poland and Upper Silesia of this period. The course of the training action in Turawa illustrates the ideological idiosyncrasy and the organisation’s situation in the conditions of the communist state, the post-war reconstruction of Poland and the foundation of the totalitarian state, with the emphasis on the communist Ministry of Public Security.
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The aim of this paper is to analyse the pandemic state as well as its chosen social and economic consequences from the perspective of the two-year SARS-CoV-2 virus proliferation. These issues are presented in both the global and regional scale: the latter one on the example of Poland. During the early period of the virus proliferation, the pandemic triggered significant changes in the world’s socio-economic situation; they were connected to the shutdown of many economic branches due to pandemic reasons and social isolation. This situation resulted in the growing uncertainty and the worsening conditions in various fields: labour market, financial markets, one’s own health and life. Undoubtedly, the pandemic has become one of the major socio-economic problems in the global scale, and its consequences for economy and society – due to its multidimensional and complex nature – are severe. Additionally, some of these consequences may pass unnoticeable today but will reveal themselves only in the future.
More...Zur Verflechtungslandschaft Oberlausitz am Beispiel des Amateurfußballvereins FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf
This article uses the example of the Neugersdorf football club as part of a micro-ethnographic field study designed to investigate the state of amateur football in Upper Lusatia after 1990. The game and the club are seen as the place to negotiate the consequences of the transformation process, with which this border region and the industrial community of Neugersdorf, which has been a traditional part of it, finds itself confronted after German reunification. Against this difficult background, those responsible in the club have succeeded in putting the club into the position of being the most successful amateur football club in Upper Lusatia by occupying a place in the highest German amateur league for a number of seasons after 2010. Part of their successful strategy consisted in integrating experienced, well-trained footballers from neighbouring Northern Bohemia into the club. In the context of the field studies and four interviews within the club, the study pursues the question as to whether those involved in this process of internationalization began to revise their view of their club, of the border region and of their German-Czech surroundings, and also whether a new regional concept is starting to develop, which crosses frontiers. The findings of the investigation in this respect make clear that for the people involved sober cost-benefit calculations represent the most important element in confronting the challenges of being situated in this peripheral border area, and out-of-date perceptions of foreignness are only slowly being undermined by common everyday experiences. This observation leads in the conclusion of the study to questioning in this discussion the dominant metaphor of (Upper) Lusatia as “providing a bridge”. In its place, the concept of an interrelated region is considered more fruitful for a scientific analysis, and five theses are presented for further discussion within Sorbian studies on this German-Slav area of contact.
More...Zur Verflechtungslandschaft Oberlausitz am Beispiel des Amateurfußballvereins FC Oberlausitz Neugersdorf
This article uses the example of the Neugersdorf football club as part of a micro-ethnographic field study designed to investigate the state of amateur football in Upper Lusatia after 1990. The game and the club are seen as the place to negotiate the consequences of the transformation process, with which this border region and the industrial community of Neugersdorf, which has been a traditional part of it, finds itself confronted after German reunification. Against this difficult background, those responsible in the club have succeeded in putting the club into the position of being the most successful amateur football club in Upper Lusatia by occupying a place in the highest German amateur league for a number of seasons after 2010. Part of their successful strategy consisted in integrating experienced, well-trained footballers from neighbouring Northern Bohemia into the club. In the context of the field studies and four interviews within the club, the study pursues the question as to whether those involved in this process of internationalization began to revise their view of their club, of the border region and of their German-Czech surroundings, and also whether a new regional concept is starting to develop, which crosses frontiers. The findings of the investigation in this respect make clear that for the people involved sober cost-benefit calculations represent the most important element in confronting the challenges of being situated in this peripheral border area, and out-of-date perceptions of foreignness are only slowly being undermined by common everyday experiences. This observation leads in the conclusion of the study to questioning in this discussion the dominant metaphor of (Upper) Lusatia as “providing a bridge”. In its place, the concept of an interrelated region is considered more fruitful for a scientific analysis, and five theses are presented for further discussion within Sorbian studies on this German-Slav area of contact.
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This paper explores the motivations and opportunities of the Russian-speakers from Transnistria within the context of Transnistrian civil war, and their effects on the escalation of a violent rebellion. Using primarly the calitative methods of analysing, I document that the cultural discrimination was one of the most acute reasons for the russian-speaking ethnics from the left bank of the Dniester to fight. This motivation was catalysed due to making Romanian the only official language of the new Moldovan state, which was rapidly percepted by Slavs as a big threat to their freedom. Moreover, by analysing Transnistrian settlement patterns and the mechanism of opportunity, the paper proves the way spatial proximity among the concentrated majority of Russian-speakers from Transnistria favored the choice of violent rebellion to gain material benefits for them. The study also suggests that the severity of the opportunity mechanism was enhanced by the imposing military arsenal left by the 14th Soviet Army after the collapse of the U.S.S.R., which ensured an important instrument to win a secession alongside the direct support of Russia.
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Oenological tourism has grown in Romania in recent years, and during the pandemic of 2020 and 2021, it was the lifeline for some travel agencies operating outside the country. They reshaped themselves and followed this niche, causing the wineries to keep their gates open even in extremely restrictive conditions for mass tourism. The most active areas in the field of oenological tourism during pandemic were Muntenia and Oltenia regions. This paper presents an analysis of the situation of the wine heritage in the Oltenia region to see the offer of oenological tourism in this historic area and from the point of view of vineyards and quality wines, internationally recognized. Some of the most famous wineries from the 5 counties included in this region are analyzed, as they are reflected from the interface with potential tourists, represented by the website of each one. In a case study, the representatives of a winery presented the development projects on the tourist line in the field of wine and terroir that makes it known. Also, the representatives of a specialized travel agency perform an x-ray of a winery visited at random in order to discover its tourist potential. A survey conducted among students at the Faculty of Tourism Geography of the University of Bucharest reflects statistics on wine consumption among young people, culture in the field and preferences for wine tourism. One of the important conclusions of the paper is that although the potential of the Oltenia region is very high for tourism based on wineries and vineyards, this heritage is very little used. The attention of winery businessmen is directed towards massive wine sales, attracting tourists is not one of their priorities and investments in tourist infrastructure are very rare.
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The employment of ornaments in the traditional singing of Slovaks in the Stará Pazova locality (Vojvodina, Serbia) is a rare phenomenon, and not only in terms of traditional song culture from the territory of Slovakia. It is unusual also in comparison with other Slovak localities in Vojvodina, where it scarcely ever occurs at the present time. This article offers a survey of the history of documentation of embellished singing in Stará Pazova, as well as the representation and occurrence of ornaments in the particular musical style layers in this locality’s song repertoire. A basic typology of ornaments is proposed, and three styles of embellished singing are characterised, while attention is also drawn to the importance of the performance aspect. In conclusion, there is a summary account of the hypotheses offered hitherto on the origin of embellished singing in this locality, to which the author adds another based on her current research.
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Important personality of the Romanian cultural space from the interwar period, George G. Mateescu (1892-1929), the second director of the Romanian School in Rome and Vasile Pârvan’s disciple, who supervised him and his research, was also connected to the city of Cluj. From 1919 and until his premature death, he activated here as a professor at „Gh. Bariţiu” high school (1919-1926), and at the Pedagogical Seminary (in 1925), but also at the Faculty of Letters of Cluj University (from 1921 as an assistant professor and later, from 1926, as an Associate Professor). This was also the city where he loved and married Felicia Nicorescu, as well as where he published important handbooks for Gymnasium schools, which will be later translated into Hungarian and German. Conscious of this fact, we will present here the life and activity of the Romanian archaeologist in Cluj and we’ll try to show how the city stimulated his work and creativity.
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