ABSTRACT. This paper attempts to determine and describe suburbanization stages (especially in the context of political-economic transformations and population changes) and also, to verify classical models of urbanization stages as a system of concentric zones, basing on historical process of development of complex settlement systems of Katowice voivodship (according to the former administrative division), i.e., Katowice conurbation, Rybnik agglomeration, Bielsko-Biała agglomeration, and Częstochowa agglomeration. The analysis includes the population number and the balance of migration between 1975 and 2008, as well as the number of entities of national economy between 1995 and 2008. Every settlement system was divided into its core, such as the main city or a group of cities, and its surrounding area, comprising urban and rural municipalities directly neighbouring the core. The calculations included absolute single-base increments and chain increments.The analysis showed that the historical processes of urbanization of the Śląskie voivodship reveal significant variations in the way they were shaped in comparison with model-based approaches included in the literature of the subject matter. The agglomeration of Częstochowa is the closest to the concentric model, consisting of urbanization, suburbanization and deurbanization, whereas the remaining settlement systems reveal bigger or smaller differences. Variations between analyzed settlement systems reveal themselves also in contemporary times. The rate of population growth and migration balances divide the systems into different stages of maturity of suburbanization. The earliest were discovered in the Katowice conurbation. As much as the rate of population changes and migration balances significantly differentiated the core areas in comparison with their surroundings, the differences were less obvious in the aspect of business growth rate. This results from the fact that the core areas still retain the majority of workplaces. An increase of business activity around the surrounding areas remains selective, both as to the kind and space, revealing somehow higher rate as far as the agglomeration of Bielsko-Biała is concerned.

Many towns and cities in the world experience the process of urban shrinkage. This may be observed in localities of different types and of all sizes, including a large group of post-industrial towns and cities of Central and Eastern Europe. One of the districts affected by the urban shrinkage process is the Katowice conurbation in Poland, which may serve as a good example to consider the potential for introducing the idea of sustainable development. In this perspective, sustainability is considered as a specific challenge within the progress of regional transformation, but also a target concept for a large urban region to be followed throughout the evolution and at particular stages of the change. In the discussed region it is all the more important because it is followed by phenomena related to post(industrialism), relatively high pollution levels compared with the European average and a polycentric system of settlement. This paper states that the current urban policy implemented in the Katowice conurbation does not seem to have any palpable effect reversing the trend of depopulation in the region, which seems to stem from the fact that numerous initiatives undertaken in the area are ‘illusory’ and often unnecessary and unjustified. This also applies to activities embracing and fostering the idea of sustainability. With regard to the latter issue, the main concern refers to overinvestment and wasting the measures to reduce low emissions and to make savings in the heat supply system for residential buildings. The Authors proposed a new vision for the transformation of the region. It will respond to the current and expected needs of the residents, while making allowances for multidimensional sustainable development, particularly in terms of housing policy and spatial development. This concept primarily focuses on a new balance between the areas covered by low-rise and high-rise buildings and the reorganisation of the structure of the local economy.

ABSTRACT. The subject of the Author's interest are traditional social-economic regions of Central Europe, i.e. the Katowice and Rybnik conurbations in Poland, and the Ostrava-Karvina agglomeration in the Czech Republic. Despite their similar originconnected mainly with the exploitation of mineral resources, coal in particular -the directions of transformations in these regions have hitherto run differently in different time periods. The aim of this paper is an attempt to show differences in spatial development of population, mainly in relation: centre of a settlement system and its surroundings. The use of archival statistical materials made it possible to study these transformations from the beginning of the 19 th century until now.

The problem of depopulation in towns is present in most European countries. In Central and Eastern Europe it emerged primarily after the political transformation at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. Despite the often-significant demographic decline, the problem did not immediately become part of agenda-setting in towns' local strategies. This paper discusses the above topics, focusing on the principal reasons for trivialization of depopulation in local policies of towns in the Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. In the discussion an emphasis is placed on the fact that in this region the issue of depopulation and urban shrinkage 'vied' with another consequence of transformation: unemployment. Because the Silesian Voivodeship is one of the largest regional labour markets in Europe, the confrontation of the two phenomena in local and regional policy took an original course characterized by phenomena such as policy taboo, trivialization, informal agenda-setting and mismatch strategies. The paper shows that while all the mentioned attributes of urban policy with respect to depopulation may be regarded as negative, considering the gigantic scale of the unemployment and depopulation phenomena and lack of experience in urban governance, they were a 'natural' reaction of the local authorities to the accumulated problems. It also indicates that in the studied region issues such as strongly marked morphological polycentricity and its (post)mining and (post)industrial nature were also not without significance.

Celem artykułu jest próba oceny poziomu metodologicznego polskich prac awansowych młodego pokolenia geografów społeczno-ekonomicznych w kontekście utrzymania tożsamości dyscypliny, w sytuacji starzenia się oraz odchodzenia seniorów – liderów dotychczasowych przemian geografii. Na pokoleniu doktoryzujących się i habilitujących się osób ciąży wymóg nie tylko utrzymania dotychczasowego poziomu teoretyczno-metodologicznego dyscypliny, ale również jej rozwoju.Poczucie własnej tożsamości środowiska geografów jest nie tylko istotnym elementem identyfikacyjnym dyscypliny, ale stanowi jedną z ważnych składowych poziomu rozwoju metodologicznego. Metodologia determinuje nie tylko poprawność formalną prowadzonych badań naukowych, ale poprzez stały rozwój kadrowy pozwala rozwijać warsztat metodyczny i konceptualizację dotychczasowego stanu wiedzy. Dlatego tak ważna jest odpowiednia jakość metodologiczna prac awansowych. Przegląd reprezentacyjnego zbioru prac habilitacyjnych z geografii społeczno-ekonomicznej ostatniego dziesięciolecia pozwala zauważyć szereg mankamentów, niedoskonałości powstałych zarówno z winy autorów, jak i zmieniających się zewnętrznych uwarunkowań funkcjonowania nauki. Wyraźny spadek zainteresowania metodologią wśród geografów wynika nie tylko z odchodzenia najstarszej grupy badaczy mających szersze spojrzenie na kwestię integralności wiedzy geograficznej, zdających sobie także sprawę z konsekwencji nadmiernej specjalizacji. Widoczny jest niedostatek odwoływania się do pojęć kluczowych warunkujących powiązania między geografią fizyczną a społeczno-ekonomiczną. Wielu badaczy wskazuje tutaj na częsty brak integrującego pojęcia regionu geograficznego i środowiska geograficznego. Niepokój budzi też coraz szersze mówienie o produkcji badań naukowych, podkreślanie liczby opublikowanych prac i uzyskanych z nich punktów, w mniejszym stopniu skupianie się na jakości badań.