Does urban shrinkage require urban policy? The case of a post-industrial region in Poland

Abstract

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.

Canvas model of the mining regions’ industrial ecosystem based on a circular economy

“…This amount can be used to assess adequacy of annual cash flow generally generated by proposed circular economy of ecosystem. The amount is relatively small when compared, for example, with budgets of poor Polish towns [14].…”

Mapping spatio-temporal variations of shrinkage in Finland

“…While growth cannot be by any means considered as a constant state of development, it might be very difficult for decision makers to accept shrinkage (Silverman et al 2015). In fact, the implied shift in the planning paradigm from pursuing growth to adapting to smaller populations is commonly considered almost as a 'taboo' (Runge et al 2020). Quite often shrinkage is considered only as a temporary downturn in the normal course of growth that will (hopefully) stabilise in the near future (Silverman et al 2015).…”

Strefy wpływu miast a migracje ludności w regionie policentrycznym

“…W ostatniej dekadzie strefy wpływu miast rozpatrywano w ujęciu dostępności czasowej i transportowej (Garbacz, Komornicki, Kowalczyk, 2020;Komornicki, Śleszyński, Rosik, Pomianowski, 2010), jak i powiązań funkcjonalno-przestrzennych między największymi obszarami metropolitalnymi w Polsce (Jałowiecki, 2005;Kaczmarek, 2010;Korcelli, 2011;Korcelli--Olejniczak, 2012;Kuć-Czajkowska, 2010;Liszewski, 2010;Markowski, Marszał, 2006;Smętkowski, 2001;Smętkowski, Jałowiecki, Gorzelak, 2009;Szymańska, 2018;Szymańska, Chodkowska-Miszczuk, Biegańska, 2013;Śleszyński, 2011;Zuzańska-Żyśko, 2016 badania wybrano osiem gmin, położonych w różnych powiatach w strefie bezpośredniego ciążenia miast na prawach powiatu, które tworzą wieloośrodkowy rdzeń złożony z 13 ośrodków. W GZM zachodzą znaczne procesy depopulacji w największych miastach (Runge, 2011(Runge, , 2018Runge, Runge, Kantor-Pietraga, Krzysztofik, 2020). Charakterystyczne dla tego regionu są też silne migracje wewnętrzne.…”

“…Województwo śląskie należy do czołówki regionów depopulacyjnych w Polsce (Runge, 2003(Runge, , 2011Runge, 2017;Runge, Runge, Kantor-Pietraga, Krzysztofik, 2020), w którym mają znaczenie nie tylko znaczące wielkości ubytku zaludnienia, ale także silne wewnątrzregionalne różnice w kształtowaniu się procesów ludnościowych w warunkach historycznych i zależności między gospodarką a kierunkami zmian demograficznych. Do lat 80.…”