Jerzy Bański

• Professor
• Professor (Full) at Polish Academy of Sciences

Este estudo descreve as implicações eleitorais da polarização espacial na Polônia, na República Tcheca e no leste da Alemanha. Empiricamente,o estudo destaca o comportamento eleitoral dos residentes de determinados territórios como exemplos de regiões desfavorecidas nesses três países,além das condições que moldam esse comportamento. Exploramos se...

This study describes the electoral implications of spatial polarization in Poland, the Czech Republic and eastern Germany. Empirically, it highlights the voting behavior of residents from selected territories as examples of disadvantaged regions in these three countries, and the conditions that shape such behavior. We explore whether these implicat...

Recently, the notion of left-behind places and regions has gained ground in academic debates on regional inequality and changing electoral landscapes. This paper proposes an approach to conceptualising and measuring regional "left-behindness" in three Central Eastern European countries that goes beyond a dichotomous division of regions into "left-b...

Podstawowym celem opracowania jest diagnoza oraz ocena transferu wiedzy i informacji pomiędzy miastem a wsią. Badania ankietowe i komplementarne wywiady pogłębione wśród przybyszów z miast oraz stałych mieszkańców wsi wykonano w 18 wsiach z różnych regionów Polski. Poszukiwano odpowiedzi na trzy pytania badawcze. 1) Jakie rodzaje wiedzy transferowa...

The aim of this paper is to assess the influence of selected geographical factors on the diversity of the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe’s regions, and on its dynamics across the continent. The work took into account 250 of NUTS-2 regions. The datasets included the course of the COVID-19 pandemic (two dependent variables), interveni...

Celem opracowania jest przedstawienie trzech podejść do klasyfikacji małych miast w Polsce i wstępna interpretacja uzyskanych wyników tych klasyfikacji. Badane są jednostki osadnicze posiadające prawa miejskie i liczące mniej niż 20 tys. mieszkańców. W 2019 r. w Polsce było 722 małych miast. Klasyfikację morfologiczną oparto na Bazie Danych Obiektó...

Knowledge and its use are inseparable elements of human life. Regardless of the place of residence, type of economic activity or economic system, man benefits from the knowledge accumulated over time and uses it to achieve the desired goals. Knowledge is an attribute of the inhabitants of a given region and is identified with the overall informatio...

Konsekwencje nierówności przestrzennych stanowią zagrożenie dla spójności społecznej oraz niesprawiedliwości i marginalizacji, mogąc przyczyniać się do rozłamów politycznych. Odzwierciedleniem niezadowolenia społecznego jest wzrost znaczenia partii populistycznych i kontestatorskich, skierowanych przeciwko establishmentowi. Artykuł dotyczy problema...

Local and regional development in geographic research focuses primarily on diagnosing the spatial, social and economic structure of specific territories, as well as planning policy issues. In doing so, the scale of research varies from single settlement units to entire regions. The purpose of this paper is to discuss contemporary issues and researc...

The work detailed here seeks to recognise features by which areas that can be deemed peri-urban differ from both city and countryside, to the extent that a separate specific identity for them can be discerned. The recognised features made it possible to identify the extent of the peri-urban area. The wealth of relevant literature is first considere...

The purpose of the present paper is to identify the changes in relations between the natural increase and the migration balance in the small towns of Poland at the beginning of the twenty-first century and to assess their influence on the contemporary processes of population ageing. The study reportedly encompassed 670 towns, having up to 20 000 in...

Regional development is very much conditioned by the quality and quantity of internal resources, as well as the level of use that is or can be made of these. Local resources are often features, factors and phenomena in a defined territory that are unique in some way, of social or economic utility, and in a position to help steer development opportu...

Classifications and typologies of small towns are a popular subject for research and debate among geographers, planners and sociologists. The basic aim of this paper being to discuss and assess different classifications and research approaches to small towns that take their social and economic functions into account, as well as relations with surro...

In Poland, small towns constitute the largest group within the overall structure of the urban settlement network. They are distributed evenly across the country and serve numerous essential social and economic functions. These centres thus represent an important link in the system of connections between the countryside and the cities of regional an...

The main cognitive goal of this study is to diagnose and identify trends for agricultural land-use structure in the CEECs. Particular attention has been paid to the spatial differentiation characterising that structure, and to the significance that diverse kinds of conditioning have had in shaping it. Analysis has extended to the main structural el...

Local resources play an important role in weakly developed regions. The activation of those resources represents one aspect of conditioning socioeconomic development, which exerts a favourable influence on the lives of inhabitants and facilitates the effective use of funds invested inwardly from outside the region. Local resources represent unique—...

The future represents more and more popular subject matter for research, first and foremost in the face of widespread fear or concern as regards trends for climate change. However, other key issues of a more sociological, cultural and economic nature related to the ageing society and issues with handovers between the generations. Rural studies tend...

The share the region comprising the CEECs took within the value of agricultural production in the EU as a whole increased from 15% in 2005 to 17% in 2019. However, the role in this played by the different constituent countries is seen to vary markedly, first and foremost in line with the degree to which the farming pursued in the given state is via...

In recent decades, rural areas in the CEECs have experienced significant changes in population that have been varied in both nature and direction. Thus, Poland and Slovakia have for example experienced an increase in the number of rural inhabitants. In Poland, this increase is “statistical” only, i.e. is very much an artefact. For the direction of...

The changes of ownership taking place after 1989 in formerly-communist countries assumed various forms and dynamics. However, they depended first and foremost on the earlier degree of development of the sector subject to a kind of nationalisation often referred to as “socialisation”; as well as the particular nature of the system adopted decades la...

Agriculture represents an important element of land-use structure in most European countries. Where those in the region under study are concerned, at the beginning of the period of transformation the largest shares of land taken by farming were those in Hungary (around 70%), followed by Romania (62%), Poland (60%) and the then Czechoslovakia (53%)....

From the time human civilisation first emerged, people made efforts to ensure their own work might be substituted for by that of animals, and later also by ever-more-sophisticated mechanical devices. The hoe gave way to the oxen-drawn ard or scratch plough, with this then being replaced by the multi-furrow plough moved by tractor. The sickle or scy...

The changes – transformations – in farming in the CEECs that have been discussed here in the earlier chapters point to both quantitative and qualitative impacts, even as the features involved prove to be linked together quite strongly. Irrespective of specific trends for farm production, it is possible to note a concentration on large, modern and c...

Europe’s farms grow more than 100 species of crop plant, and the diversity characterising the field cultivation structure in the CEECs results first and foremost from geographical (including also climatic and hydrological) conditions. Thus, wheat is most prevalent in the states in the northern and central parts of the region under study. These area...

Eurostat data show that, as of 2016, the CEECs considered here feature in excess of 5.9 million farms making use of agricultural land. However, marked spatial differentiation between one and another was easy enough to discern. By the standards of the EU overall, the Czech Republic and Slovakia can be said to have relatively few farms, while Hungary...

The socioeconomic change taking place in the CEECs post-1989 ensured the unfolding there of step-by-step if diametric change in the impact key factors have been exerting on the development of the farming sector. The social, economic and political conditioning was all transformed. In rural communities, there was a major rise in the level of interest...

The structure characterising agricultural output reflects the action of different factors that are large in number, if capable of being assigned to just two main groups: as shapers of production (and then assignable to either the natural or non-natural categories) or as influencers of the demand for what agriculture is able to produce and supply. T...

The period of the last 25 years has brought very major ownership change in the farming sectors of the CEECs – as a reflection of the privatisation of State Farms and Cooperatives, as well as the return of assets taken from their owners during communist times. The process brought change to all structural components within the farming sector, from si...

There are various ways to measure the efficiency of agricultural production. Land-related efficiency for examples sets the level or monetary value of production achieved against the area to give a per-unit-area figure. In turn, efficiency of labour compares the level or monetary value of production with the input of human labour, as for example exp...

The agricultural output that takes animal form is by definition a secondary one, given that it involves animals in the processing of products of plant origin. This is in some sense less efficient than direct human consumption of plants for nutrition, though animal products are of greater nutritional value, above all from the point of view of their...

The assessment of assets regarding their potential for tourism development is a well-recognised aspect of quantitative geographic research. This paper confines such matters to environmental and landscape-related attributes. The methodological objective is to propose a synthetic index for holistic measurement of a complex system of assets at the loc...

The COVID pandemic very quickly became the world's most serious social and economic problem. This paper's focus is on the spatial aspect of its spread, with the aims being to point to spatial conditioning underpinning development of the pandemic, and to identify and assess possible socio-economic features exerting an impact on that. Particular atte...

This book describes the transformation of the agricultural sector in East-Central European countries after the collapse of the socialist system at the beginning of the 20th century. Through considering their spatial diversity, it identifies diagnoses and evaluates the social and economic processes that have taken place in eleven countries which are...

Contemporary rural settlement in Poland is first and foremost modified by demographic processes, of which decisive ones are a migratory influx of new inhabitants into rural areas in the immediate vicinity of large cities, as well as population outflow from most rural areas that are located traditionally and above all peripherally. These two directi...

The work was to diagnose rural settlements that have been disappearing gradually since the end of World War II as a result of a marked process of depopulation. The authors focused on the disappearance phenomenon itself, seeking to identify and assess selected socioeconomic and spatial processes ongoing in the areas concerned. Through analysis of th...

Over the last three decades, agriculture in Central and Eastern Europe has undergone very profound change. This first and foremost reflected the collapse of the communist system, as well as accession to the European Union in the case of most of the CEECs. The work detailed here has thus had as its cognitive goal the identification of trends regardi...

The aim of this study is to diagnose and identify trends for agricultural land use structure in the Central and Eastern European countries. Particular attention has been paid to the spatial differentiation characterising that structure, and to the significance that diverse kinds of conditioning have had in shaping it. Analysis has extended to the b...

Rozwój regionalny jest w znacznym stopniu uwarunkowany jakością i ilością zasobów wewnętrznych w regionie oraz poziomem ich wykorzystania. Zasoby lokalne są niepowtarzalnymi i użytecznymi społecznie i gospodarczo cechami, czynnikami i zjawiskami na określonym terytorium, kształtującymi jego wewnętrzny potencjał do rozwoju. Wśród nich można wyróżnić...

The collapse of the communist system in East-Central Europe was followed by dynamic processes of change in rural areas. The result has been transformation in all sectors of the economy, and also in public and cultural life. While the first decade of that transformation brought intensifying spatial polarisation, that process grew weaker thanks to pr...

This book identifies, diagnoses and evaluates social and economic processes taking place in the rural areas of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) states in the last 25 years and affecting the immediate future, with a particular focus on their spatial diversity. It addresses questions related to the rationality of the current development policy and po...

The fall of the communist system in Central Europe was followed by dynamic social and economic change that also had its clear impact on the food sector. One of the key factors shaping the contemporary condition of the agricultural sector in region has been change of ownership, with the collapse of the nationalised sector and restitution of property...

This main aim of this study is the examination and discussion of a conceptual and theoretical model for Poland’s areas of strategic intervention. Following a review of the current strategic documents at national and regional levels, it is possible to propose two basic categories of areas of strategic intervention: 1) growth areas (territories with...

The paper aims to verify identified regional smart specialisations in the context of internal potentials of regions in Poland. Regional smart specialisations were examined and compared with development potentials. There are three general topics regarding specialisations: 1) their number, 2) their multidisciplinarity 3) criteria for identification....

The objective of the report is to attempt the identification of the most significant factors that will shape Polish countryside until the year 2050 and to outline the feasible scenarios of changes in rural areas. The study is based primarily on qualitative analysis and on the knowledge of experts specialising in rural subject matter in its differen...

One of the key factors shaping contemporary land use in Central and Eastern Europe has obviously been change of ownership, with the collapse of the nationalised sector and restitution of farmland to owners giving rise to such changes. The work presented here therefore considers the main directions to ongoing changes in land use in the above region,...

The local resources give rise to the competitive advantages of the area, on which they appear, since they are characterised by the rarity of occurrence. They can hardly be duplicated by the others or can hardly be replaced by other kinds of resources in other places. Further, such resources cannot be separated from the place of their appearance; th...

Celem opracowania jest ocena wybranych zmian w rolniczym użytkowaniu ziemi pod wpływem procesów prywatyzacyjnych w Czechach, Słowacji, Rumunii i na Węgrzech. Badanie dotyczy przede wszystkim zjawiska rozdrobnienia własności i użytkowania gruntów rolnych. Analizowane kraje przyjęły podobną koncepcję prywatyzacji i restytucji majątku ziemskiego, ale...

The study presents the delimitation of problem areas carried out at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of PAS on behalf of the Ministry of Development of Poland (2015-2016), first and foremost to meet the practical needs of the development policy being pursued at state, regional and local government levels. The study was elaborated...

In recent years, Polish geographers have become increasingly interested in publishing their research results in English-language journals under the ISI Master Journal List (also known as the “Philadelphia List” in Poland). On the one hand, such an interest has arisen out of the desire to disseminate the results of individual or team research; while...

The paper explores the role of small towns in the Mazovia region in Poland which is both characterized by rural areas and the suburban zone of Warsaw. The analysis of changes in the local labour markets reveals that microregions formed by small peripheral towns were more resistant to changes than those located in the suburban area of Warsaw. The la...

The subject matter of the report is the typology of rural areas, which may be used as an instrument of territorial policy. One objective of this report is to review and assess the cognitive and applied usefulness of the contemporary typologies and classifications of rural areas, with a special emphasis on Poland. The authors concentrate on the meth...

This paper centers on the smallest towns (with populations below 10 000 inhabitants) in Mazovia region, Poland. What is mainly involved in the paper is an indicating of differences or regularities characterising the functional structures of small towns, and the roles they play in respect of the surrounding areas - in relation to their geographical...

The objective of the work reported on here was to assess the potential of scientifi c staff and the role played in the contemporary development of Polish geography, extending also to the prospects for the next decade and more. The author’s attention is concentrated on scientifi c achievements and levels of research activity among professionally- ac...

Opracowanie poświęcone jest instytucjom otoczenia biznesu, a jego podstawowym celem jest ocena ich roli w rozwoju przedsiębiorczości na terenach wiejskich. Oceniona została przede wszystkim współpraca przedsiębiorstw wiejskich z instytucjami otoczenia biznesu oraz stopień przydatności oferowanych przez nie usług. Badanie wykonano w ramach projektu...

Celem opracowania jest diagnoza i ocena wybranych uwarunkowań rozwoju przedsiębiorczości na wsi. Podstawowym materiałem źródłowym były wyniki badań społecznych wykonanych w 2014 r. wśród 570 przedsiębiorców wiejskich. Przeprowadzone badania wykazały, że przedsiębiorcy działający na polskiej wsi mają słabo rozpoznany system instytucjonalnego wsparci...

Celem artykułu jest ocena potencjału rozwojowego województwa podkarpackiego na tle innych regionów w kraju ze wskazaniem głównych determinant i barier rozwojowych oraz identyfikacja kluczowych branż gospodarczych regionu. Podstawowe pytanie badawcze brzmi: „Które sektory gospodarki Podkarpacia mogą przyczyniać się do jego przewagi konkurencyjnej na...

Recent studies have demonstrated that many regions in Western Europe are experiencing a gradual transition from a monocentric model to one predicated on polycentrism, where a number of cities play the role of autonomous centres of development bound to one another by an intricate network of cooperation. In Poland, the polycentric model of settlement...

Podstawowym celem opracowania jest wskazanie perspektyw rozwoju polskiej wsi w perspektywie kilku dekad. Autor zidentyfikował najważniejsze tzw. megatrendy mające wpływ na przyszły obraz Polski. Należą do nich: globalizacja, rozwój nowych potęg gospodarczych, lokalizm, polaryzacja demograficzna, przemiany środowiska naturalnego, dywersyfikacja źród...

Population factors are the most important elements of the socio-economic development of regions. Contemporary structure of population in Eastern Poland is the result of post-war changes, mainly in the field of natural growth and migration. The goals of this article are to assess the present trends of population change in the regions of Eastern Pola...

For several decades, Poland’s eastern border was a spatial barrier hindering any development of near-border regions, which were thus afflicted by unfavourable demographic processes and growing peripheralization. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, more positive experiences of development associated with the opening of the border became apparent...

Many scholars question the purportedly international character of the most prestigious journals of geography, particularly those concerned with human geography. These, in their opinion, are dominated by British and American geography. The goal of this article is to assess the affiliation distribution of the authors of articles and the editorial boa...

The aim of this article is to evaluate the effect of contemporary transformations in the population of Central European countries on climate change, in addition to singling out the primary points of interaction between demographic processes and the climate. In analyzing the interactions between climate and demographics, we can formulate three basic...

Freedom to elect political representation was one of the clearest manifestations of the transformations taking place in the Eastern Bloc countries. The transformations alluded to favour a diversification of voting behaviour along the lines of profession, group in society and whether a person was a country-dweller or an inhabitant of an urban area....

The article concentrates on the changes of ownership ongoing in Polish agriculture in the period 1989-2004. Since Polish agriculture was above all private in nature throughout the period of communism, the changes in question were actually more limited than in other Central and East European Countries (CEEC). Those that have taken place have first a...

Banski J. Dilemmas for regional development in the concepts seeking to develop Poland's spatial structure, Regional Studies. Post-War Poland has seen work done on three spatial development concepts. The first - from the late 1940s - had as its task the decentralization of industry and the strengthening of regions whose development had been lagging...

The analysis presented here concerns the influence of housing construction on spatial systems and the physiognomy of rural settlements serving various economic functions. In addition, the study offers an assessment of the influence new construction is having on the living conditions experienced by country-dwellers and the appearance and aesthetics...