Around the Bloc: Poland Gives Go-Ahead To Controversial Logging Program
The plans to allow large-scale logging in the Bialowieza forest are likely to put the country on a collision course with environmentalists and the European Union.
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The plans to allow large-scale logging in the Bialowieza forest are likely to put the country on a collision course with environmentalists and the European Union.
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Officials say the operation aims to prevent “forest degradation,” while activists counter with charges of violating EU law for ulterior motives.
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This paper is dedicated to the legend of seven maidens connected to Yedi Kızlar Türbesi (the Tomb of the Seven Maidens) in Manisa, the Republic of Turkey. Two versions of the legend are discerned: one (pseudo)historical and one ritual-mythical. The author shows that the former version is not actually based on historical facts. The second version is compared to legends which were recorded among the Turks of the Eastern Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria. In this way, the paper outlines similarities in how the Seven Maidens are depicted in both regions. A comparison with a legend from Ossetia confirms the hypothesis that the Seven Maidens were originally a personification of the Pleiades star cluster. Owing to its peripheral position in relation to central religious issues, this cult was preserved during the Christian (Byzantine) and Muslim (Ottoman) periods, thus providing an opportunity for a manifestation of religiosity among women.
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One of the problems of Polish towns for years awaiting a sensible solution is large-scale urban renewal. This is an urgent problem, because the material texture of Polish towns has been undergoing steady degradation. On a broad understanding of this process, urban renewal is also the reconstruction of towns after war-induced damage, which means that Polish towns have a tradition of steps taken in this field, although the conception of revitalisation /urban renewal itself has only been used for some 20 years. This paper will discuss the notion of urban renewal, its basic aspects and problems, and the character of revitalisation processes conducted in Poland from the postwar rebuilding of towns until the present (in the new systemic conditions). It will also examine the hopes, fears and problems connected with the future of urban renewal, especially with reference to the economic situation of towns and the assumptions of the Revitalisation Act. Reflections will concern the Polish socio-economic reality, embracing also the new financial perspective of the European Union (until 2020).
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The revitalization of urban areas in different European regions has been held for over 30 years, while in Poland it is carried out with varying intensity in the regions for over 15 years. Following research questions were formulated: How is it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the revitalization process carried out in a specific location? What determines the success of the method of the implementation of revitalization programs? Is it possible to prepare the set of universal parameters which constitute the monitoring system of the process? Based on the overview of revitalization projects realized in cities world wide the identification and analysis of the evaluation methods used for the process has been carried out. In conclusion, the new approach to the revitalization evaluation has been proposed which allows to identify its effectiveness, called revitalization evaluation formula
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Article is about the legal and economic issues, the process of revitalization of cities in Poland. The purpose of this article is to present the role of the European funds and other sources of financing in the process of revitalizing urban areas at regional and local level. The scope of research article refers to the regional level of the local. At the regional level tested and the National Strategic Reference Framework 2007–2013 and 16 Regional Operational Programmes 2007–2013. Research at the local level based on Local Area Revitalization Program the city of Olsztyn for 2007–2015 and the regeneration of urban areas in Rzeszów for the period 2007–2015. In addition, the article gives an overview of environmental projects. The research demonstrates that European funds are the basis for the financing of investments in revitalization.
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This article attempts to show the possibilities of applying multicriteria methods in assisting the decision-making process in the projects of urban space revitalization. The use of multi-criteria analysis improves the level of conscious perception of the complexity and competitiveness of goals and consequences of revitalization, through its socialization, democratization and discursiveness. The evaluation of potential changes in part of Poznan city showed in the paper is an illustration of the use of proposed methods. Multi-criteria analysis can be an interesting tool for researching the socially satisfactory solution, among the available variants of action.
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The paper presents the transformation of functional and spatial structure of 18 voivodship cities in Poland. The study is based on the data on the land records for the years 2010 and 2014, collected in the city survey departments of the selected cities. The paper consists of two parts. The first part presents the structure and dynamics of the land according to the forms of land use that have been divided into agricultural land, forests, green areas and built-up and urbanized land. The detailed analysis of urban areas of 18 cities is provided for the main groups of residential areas, industrial areas, other built-up areas, urban areas, recreational areas, communication areas. The second part of the article presents a comparative analysis of the structure of land in the cities based on the forms of the ownership. It also contains the sources of the budget revenue from all forms of the land management within the case cities. In summary, the paper presents the conclusions of the conducted study.
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As a result of Turkey’s geopolitical position and its related requirements, energy is one of the fields where innovation is to be speeded up. However, as a natural consequence of unplanned and incorrect energy policies, Turkey’s rate of dependency on energy has reached 72%. Since the need for energy is increasingly growing,especially as a result of the manufacturing industry in Turkey, and a large part of the consumed energy is imported, dependency seems to continue to increase. Toward this end, this article focuses on studies related to reducing external dependency on energy,while also reviewing and discussing literature survey methodology and making policy recommendations concerning energy supply security. Renewable energy has been attached great importance worldwide as well as nationwide because of providing a reliable energy source that meets economic and environmental requirements. In order to meet the increasing electricity needs of Turkey as a developing country the number on renewable energy facilities has been growing. Domestic production of equipment for renewable energy, and producing and integrating those into the conventional system are of high importance because energy supply is a security factor, sustaining reserves is a major need and reducing foreign dependency is a policy priority.
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The aim of the paper is to define and evaluate the level of local socio-economic development of largest cities in Poland, as well as the differences and disproportions which appeared between them in the years 2010-2012. The subject of the research were 30 cities in Poland whose population exceeded 120 thousand. These cities fulfil key roles in the country. A literature review and an empirical analysis were used as the base for this work. The data from the Local Data Bank (by CSO) were analyzed with the use of one of the taxonomic methods – the Hellwig development pattern method. Originally, 67 diagnostic variables were examined which, after verification, were cut down to 42 variables. Five groups of variables were distinguished: demographic figures, quality and availability of cultural and educational services, labour and social security conditions, housing conditions, and economic potential. Statistical description of the cities was prepared for all the groups of variables. The differences and disproportions between the cities were revealed. After reduction, 21 variables were used. Four groups of cities representing different levels of local development were distinguished. The results of the research allow for a comparative assessment of each city with reference to its characteristics. The research results showed substantial differences and disproportions in the level of local socio-economic development of the surveyed cities. The used method proved to be an adequate tool for local development analysis. The synthetic measures and indexes proved to be a useful tool of city management.
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Talks to continue on possible Iranian purchase of Russian-made equipment for a defunct Bulgarian nuclear plant.
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Doctor Krokowski from The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann as well as other examples from inter-war European literature demonstrate that the psychoanalyst in the group consciousness of the period was a Polish Jew. The distinct connection between psychoanalysis and Polishness was the outcome of a considerable representation of persons of Polish origin among the pioneers of the movement: Poles were among the closest collaborators of Freud and in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society they comprised the second largest group after the Austrians. They also included numerous courageous women who frequently combined psychoanalytical practice with radical socialism and decidedly feminist views. The author of the article outlined a sui generis group biography of this generation of cosmopolitan intellectuals, lay Jews born in Galicia, Poles educated and working in Vienna or Berlin, believing in the cultural and political force of the Freudian project and dramatically aware of the need to change the world or at the very least its sexual and social codes. In this fashion the author showed the way in which the outbreak of the Second Word War affected the fate of the protagonists of the text, condemning them, at the height of their careers, to emigration and starting life anew in entirely different conditions; he also proved that the year 1939 denoted the end of the emancipatory dimension of classical psychoanalysis, which from a Central European cultural project turned into an American theory. The personal successes of the Europeans in their new homeland and the ostensible triumph of psychoanalysis in America conceal its actual end: psychoanalysis assumed medical dimensions and became deprived of feminist and radical features. The resignation by the emigrants of the core of Freudism – a condition for finding employment in the United States – also obliterated its Central European roots. The presented attempt at geo-psychoanalysis entails predominantly following the trajectory of the Polish members of this movement, who at the onset of the twentieth century arrived from the provinces of the Empire to its Viennese capital, and who as a result of World War II once again found themselves on the sidelines, in a psychoanalytical “Wild West”, which in the course of the following decades turned, with their cooperation, into a new centre of the world, thus relegating the former one to the role of a periphery.
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Large informative potential of archive maps makes them a valuable source of spatial and attribute data for historians, geographers, archaeologists and planners. Since their proper application in GIS (Geographic Information System) often requires a proper database elaboration, there have been proposed several concepts of historical spatial databases. However, they do not include the full range of topographic maps’ content, and they were primarily based on secondary data sources (e.g. atlases, dictionaries). The aim of the paper is to propose the concept of topographic objects’ modelling in historical databases which will be based on archived maps in various scales developed over 150 years (eighteenth/nineteenth century – half of the twentieth century). Relating the data with current maps will be available through the connection between planned repository and contemporary spatial databases, e.g. Polish national Database of Topographic Objects (BDOT). In the project materials including Poland in modern borders will be analysed. Due to the variety of source materials, the main objective of text is to present the initial concept of historical topographic objects’ database structure on the example of the integration of topographic data geometry. The problem of how geometry should be stored for each features acquired from the map should be solved. Firstly, each of them can have a separate entry position (Time-slice snapshots) in the database. Secondly, socalled “metaobject” grid with fixed geometry, but variable attributes can be used (Space- -time composite). Since archive maps are characterized by a largely low mathematical precision, therefore its content vectorization without considering the topological relationships between features seems to be incorrect. Maps’ elements belonging to the cultural landscape (e.g. settlements, communication network) should rather be stored with fixed geometry and variable attributes. In the contrast, the natural landscape (e.g. hydrography, afforestation), due to the different and difficult to capture changes especially on inaccurate maps (e.g. course of the river) should be stored with individual geometry for each feature depicted on each map.
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In Bosnia and Herzegovina changed both by the 1992–1995 war and the Dayton peace which was imposed from outside and which officialised the nationality- -based division of the country, the contrasts that exploded during the conflict are still unsolved. The political forces still base their electoral consent upon nationalistic themes, while the population has lost faith when it comes to a prospective of an economically better future. A good example of this situation is the town of Srebrenica and its surroundings, where Europe’s biggest genocide since WW2 took place. There rest thousands of Muslims killed in July 1995 under the eyes of the UN military forces. The cemetery, a tangible symbol of the horrors which happened at the end of the XX century – not so different from the Nazi concentration camps that were left standing for the whole world to see and for the generations to come to keep as a warning – should inspire absolute respect in anyone. But it does not. This area is inhabited mainly by a Serbian population, and is exposed to insults and abuse from people driving by. Twenty years from the genocide – which is considered as such by Muslims only and not by Serbs – true peace is still far away, and the nationalities – ex enemies but still rivals – think that only their own dead are to be remembered, while those others are only result of media publicity. Yet if all that can happen in the Third millennia Europe, it means that there is still something wrong in the continent.
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For the residents of Cieszyn Silesia, especially Czech, the establishment of national boundaries along the course of the Olza River in 1920, meant that they had to form a new picture of the world and determine their own place in the community, which also had to be redefined. For Zaolzie residents, the process of constructing their own identity depends on mechanisms of competition, negotiation and power (media, education and administration). It also is a consequence of the recognition of the boundary as something natural and “ever” existent. The clash of different self-identifications is seen on the symbolic level, especially linguistic.
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There is a lacuna in literature from Western Africa on how issue ofparticipation influence socio-economic impacts at ecotourism destinations. Thispaper investigates the socio-economic impacts of ecotourism based on BoabengFiemaMonkey Sanctuary in Ghana. The paper is based on primary data generatedfrom Boabeng and Fiema communities. Seventy mainly opened-ended questionnaireswere administered face-to-face to purposively selected residents from thetwo communities, alongside, in-depth interviews with the management of theSanctuary and focus group with purposively selected individuals from Boabengand Fiema. The study reveals that the residents of the communities face burgeoningchallenges such as shrinking livelihood options, inadequate involvement ofcommunity in the ecotourism, poor state of the visitor centre, inadequate governmentsupport and poor roads.
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In ensuring growth and development collaborative State-Business relations(SBRs) matters, and with economic growth comes increasing levels of employment,options for poverty reduction and hence more equitable development.Whereas it is known that SBR matters at a macro-economic level, the concept ofSBR has also been employed in a more or less all-encompassing way in the literature.Accordingly, while it is clear that SBRs work, there is lack knowledge aboutwhich dimensions of SBRs are the most important. Due to the continued importanceof agriculture in many developing countries, processing of the food producedin the sector is a key manufacturing activity of high economic importanceto many economies. Ensuring collaborative SBRs in the food processing industryis therefore of interest to growth and development, particularly as it is a sectorabout which little is known about the role of SBRs. The paper attempts toexamine how and why SBRs matter to and influence the growth and performanceof local owned firms in the food processing sub-sector in Zambia. In particular,the paper analyses the roles and influence of government regulations andpolicies compared to those of business associations for the performance of thefood processing sector in Zambia. The paper draws on primary data from a surveyof firms in the food processing sector which was conducted between 2013and 2014. It is shown that while the majority of the Zambian food processingfirms experienced growth over the last five years, with increased employment andin a number of cases growing earnings, this seems to have happened in spite ofa business environment which is not particularly supportive. The firms’ experienceis that the SBRs mainly constitute institutional barriers to the performanceof firms and highlight that formal government institutions and polices are incapableof assisting the firms and in most cases government institutions formulateand enact insufficient support schemes.
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Business incubation is a relatively new phenomenon in scholarship andpolicy development for small enterprise development. Business incubators offertargeted business support and technical support services to accelerate the growthof emerging and small start-up business enterprises into financially and operationallyindependent enterprises. South Africa has adopted business incubationas one vehicle for upgrading the SMME economy. This article examines the evolutionof policy towards business incubation, current progress, institutional issuesand emerging geographies of business incubators as part of the unfoldingand dynamic SMME policy landscape in South Africa. Considerable differencesare observed between the activities of the network of state-supported incubatorsas opposed to private sector operated incubators.
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The aim of the present study is to examine the migration of urban upper and middle classes to rural small settlements, i.e. rural gentrification, using the 2001 and 2011 census data of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), and to determine the role of tourism in rural gentrification and the different types of tourism. The authors found 126 settlements with less than 2,000 inhabitants where there is evidence of rural gentrification, taking into account the number of moves between 2001 and 2011. Of these, 16 were located in the agglomeration zone of a large city, and while in 60 of them gentrification was linked to tourism, in 50 there was no significant tourism activity. The role of gentrification in maintaining population and increasing incomes can be explained mainly by waterfront tourism and, above all, by the proximity of Lake Balaton, while in many other cases the influx of urban upper and middle classes does not contribute significantly to the socio-economic survival of the settlements. However, to answer further questions about the settlements affected to different degrees by rural gentrification require small-scale qualitative field research.
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The study aims to compare the political systems of three former Soviet republics, based on the parliamentary election systems, the role of political parties and the use of presidential power. The transformation of these three countries – Russia, Ukraine and Belarus – lasting to this day occurred in the relatively same period, and although the roots were the same for all three states (the Soviet Union), they developed in different directions. In order to measure the efficiency and cohesion of the state organization, the study compares the electoral systems of the three examined states on the basis of the Hartshorne model; with the help of the electoral maps it tries to show the fault lines and connections for the given state. By means of the participation rates, the Loosemore–Hanby (LH) index and the effective number of parties, it clarifies whether the state structure under analysis has been strengthened or weakened. Based on the comparative analysis of the three states, the study is also looking for answers regarding the political system of the three countries: in what extent are these similar or different nowadays.
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