For over a decade, the term studentification has been used to denote the process of urban changes linked with the presence of student populations in urban centres. This text broadens the geographic scope of research into studentification using two Polish metropolitan areas as case studies, analysing and comparing research results to existing findings referring to Western European and Anglo-Saxon settings. Using the example of Cracow and the Tri-City (Trójmiasto), two significant centres of higher education in Poland, the paper presents empirical evidence indicating that while some aspects of students’ impact on Polish cities are similar to trends observed in Western Europe and non-European Anglo-Saxon countries, the colonisation of Polish cities by students nonetheless displays some unique features strongly influenced by the post-socialist context in which such cities and their student populations function.

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Od niemal dwudziestu lat w Polsce trwa intensywny polityczny i naukowy dyskurs metropolitalny, związany z problematyką rozwoju wielkomiejskimi struktur osadniczych i ich zarządzania. Kwestie te stały się także przedmiotem badań przedstawicieli geografii społeczno-ekonomicznej. Celem opracowania jest wykazanie dorobku polskich geografów na temat obszarów metropolitalnych (miejskich obszarów funkcjonalnych). Przyjęto dwie zasadnicze metody badawcze: przegląd prac geograficznych opublikowanych w latach 2000–2017 oraz ankietę na temat aktywności eksperckiej geografów działających w 11 głównych ośrodkach geograficznych w Polsce. Wykazano znaczący dorobek geografów, dotyczący zagadnień rozwoju miejskich obszarów funkcjonalnych i metropolitalnych. W podsumowaniu przedstawiono rekomendacje w zakresie dalszych badań metropolitalnych w polskiej geografii społeczno-ekonomicznej.

The end of Cold War in the late 1980s of the 20 th century and the accession to EU in 2004 brought spectacular changes in Polish migrations during the last 20 years. The opening of borders in 1989 and labour markets for Poles in 2004 caused fundamental changes in the scale, intensity and directions of Polish migrations. This paper is an attempt to analyze the Polish wave of migration to Ireland, which is one of the three states that opened labour market for workers from the 'new EU' in 2004 without any restrictions. The special attention is paid to Dublin, where the presence of Polish immigrants is very visible both at the statistical level and within social and urban space.

Generally the research on the entrepreneurship concerns its economic dimension. There aremany projects and analyses of economic conditions in small and medium enterprises (SME)where factors and barriers of competitiveness have been described. The aim of this paper ismainly social and psychological aspects of entrepreneurship. According to the authors theseaspects are essential for the decisions to start up the business and make it possible to prosperand to be continued with satisfaction out of it. This paper is an attempt to identify features ofproper entrepreneurial attitudes among not only business owners in Gdynia, but also amongGdynia citizens who are not owners. The basis for the analysis of opinions, enterprisingbehaviour and predisposition to run a business, was questionnaire survey conducted in 2007.The results answered the key question: Has the local society a potential that can be used todevelop urban entrepreneurship?