Tomasz Spórna

University of Silesia in Katowice · Institute of Social and Economic Geography and Spatial Management

Today, as a result of fast-paced societal transformations, many small towns face severe developmental challenges and an uncertain future. Departing from the broader theory of developmental disequilibrium, we launch the concept of urban hibernation to explain the process of periodic small-town regress. The concept—along with its key stages and turni...

The problem of using the concept of post-industrialism to define regions with traditional industries is addressed in this article. It focuses on the diversity of industrial development in the Katowice conurbation (Poland) and the difficulties of situating the region in the widely-used taxonomy by Phelps and Ozawa, which assumes a one-way transition...

The growing role of logistics in the economic space of large metropolises is visible in an increasing number of objects of this kind as well as in their high spatial concentration. Taking into account these circumstances, a phenomenon known as ‘logistics sprawl’ is considered in the article. This is one of two problems concerning the development of...

The article discusses the issue of ‘inner’ suburbanisation – a unique spatial and social phenomenon. The process of ‘inner’ suburbanisation involves the development of low-rise housing estates (characteristic of ‘classical’ suburban architecture) within highly urbanised areas. This phenomenon, with its anti-sprawl effect, develops in polycentric sy...

Decision-making on the directions of spatial development are particularly visible in post-mining areas in large cities. This issue is one of the key themes in a discourse that focuses on how to reconcile strategic urban planning and urban policy in post-mining towns, and is based on the concepts of brownfield regeneration and just transition. This...

In the original publication [...]

As an anthropogenic element of urban landscapes, coal heaps undergo changes due to both natural and anthropogenic factors. The aim of this study was to determine the common development of soil under the influence of vegetation succession against a background of environmental conditions. Vegetation changes and soil properties were analysed along a t...

World War II's military activities and the postwar devastation period destroyed many European cities and towns. One of the areas that was struck the most was former East Prussia, currently located in Poland and the Kaliningrad Region (the Russian Federation). In addition to the destruction of cities, which are strategically and economically importa...

The successive phases of the global COVID-19 pandemic show some differences from the first wave in 2020. The most important of these is some experience in responding to its spread and in applying vaccines. However, new, more aggressive variants of COVID-19 mean that the pandemic is often taking on the nature of the one experienced by societies a ye...

Dear Colleagues, We would like to invite you to publish an article in this Special Issue. The thematic scope of this series is based on important issues of socioeconomic and spatial development, and how it relates to urban sustainability. The purpose of this Special Issue is to try to bridge the gap between planning theory and space management pr...

The aim of the article is to explain the dependence on key factors and development path in the expansion process of the largest Central European logistics complex situated on postmining brown-field. Here, a highly original example is the city of Sosnowiec in the Katowice conurbation (Poland). In the article, the development of this complex and its...

The COVID-19 epidemic appeared in Poland in early March 2020. Since then, the epidemic has impacted strongly on the socioeconomic nature of the country. Since April 2020, the region with the most confirmed cases is the province of Silesia (Śląskie). This paper has two main aims. First, the authors focus on explanations for the causes of the large n...

W artykule przedstawiono zmiany przestrzenne i demograficzne w strefie zewnętrznej konurbacji katowickiej na przykładzie małego miasta Sławków. W szczególności zostały scharakteryzowane zmiany zachodzące na terenie miasta po 1990 r. w zakresie indywidualnego budownictwa mieszkaniowego. Nowe strefy zabudowy domów jednorodzinnych zostały zdefiniowane...

In this study we focus on the evolution of the identity of those urban neighbourhoods which have formerly been separate towns. This problem is discussed using the example of the polycentric conurbation of Katowice in southern Poland, which came into being because of its mining and industrial functions. The administrative integration of this multi-l...

The Katowice conurbation is an example of a typical old industrial region in Central and Eastern Europe, whose socio-economic transformation, initiated after 1990, has led to spatial and functional changes. The aim of this article is to present the suburbanisation process in the Katowice conurbation based on demographic changes and an analysis of m...

This paper deals with the ways of categorising landscapes as ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ using a physicalist approach, where these terms have special meaning. The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the question whether such a division is still meaningful with regard to anthropogenic landscapes, not least in spatial planning. The concerns raised in this p...

Koncepcja hibernacji miast zaproponowana została w 2016 r. na łamach czasopisma European Planning Studies przez R. Krzysztofika, M. Dymitrowa, I. Kantor-Pietragę i T. Spórnę. Koncepcja wyjaśnia model ewolucji miejscowości o miejskiej genezie, która w dłuższej perspektywie historycznej przechodzi przez etap ruralizacji i ponownej urbanizacji. Autorz...

Suburbanisation represents one of the most important contemporary problems facing large urban agglomerations. An analysis of the development of urban agglomerations in Central-Eastern Europe, and especially Poland, leads to the observation that this problem is not particularly advanced in any of them. The aim of this article has thus been to examin...

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview on trajectories of urban shrinkage in the Katowice conurbation (after 1990), which is an example of a traditional old industrial region in Central and Eastern Europe.The process of urban shrinkage and its effects, due to the restructuring of the economy of the region since 1989, has been presented in...

Degraded towns are per definition a testimony of past relations. Hence, in order to understand the very foundation of degraded towns as a subject of study we need to dig into the past for clues of context, prevailing regimes and social relations. A little-known problem related to the research on degraded towns is the phenomenon of ‘degraded urban a...

The large number of degraded (828) and restituted (240) towns in Poland formed the basis for crafting a chapter on the spatial and temporal distribution of these special settlement forms. By focusing on these two aspects has helped, for one, uncover historical regularities, and, for another, reveal geographical patterns of national urbanization pro...

The large number of degraded (828) and restituted (240) towns in Poland formed the basis for crafting a chapter on the spatial and temporal distribution of these special settlement forms. By focusing on these two aspects has helped, for one, uncover historical regularities, and, for another, reveal geographical patterns of national urbanization pro...

The article discusses the phenomenon of urban abandonment as a result of environmental hazards. Seen as an outcome of environmental drivers, the underlying assumption is that a characteristic of environmental hazards is their spatial and temporal constancy of impact, whereby processes and phenomena having taken place in the past have their analogie...

One important element in the interaction between the natural and the human environment is the negative impact of the first on the latter when seen through the prism of urban destabilization. Within this scope, the issue of urban abandonment and disappearance holds an important place, the indirect cause of which are the specifics of local and region...

This scientific note aims to briefly introduce the concept of urban hibernation, published recently (September 2015) in an article with the same name in European Planning Studies (Routledge). By outlining some general characteristics, the purpose of this note is merely to put the reader’s attention to this concept, whom we remit to the original art...

The modern society is often perceived robust enough to withhold the calamities of adverse natural forces, while the phenomenon of complete settlement abandonment might seem as a thing of the past. However, due to an increased rate of environmental change, the issue of human vulnerability becomes all the more pertinent. In this presentation, we focu...

Problems of Urban Shrinkage Presented on the Example of the City of Bytom. The aim of the article is to define urban policies towards the problem of urban shrinkage presented on the example of the city of Bytom. This centre is a model example of multiple-criteria urban shrinkage, both in terms of conditionings of the phenomenon as well as its conse...

The increasing number of wastelands in East-central European countries is primarily a consequence of functional transformations and movements in the structure of employment. Taking into account such a challenge in this article, the authors propose an approach in which the basic category is a typological proposal with reference to areas with derelic...

The Rybnik conurbation is an example of a traditional industrial area, where, due to economic restructuring, social and economic transformations are taking place. It is located in the Silesian voivodeship (southern Poland) and its development is mostly based on intensive coal mining after the Second World War. The article presents selected aspects...

Celem artykułu jest porównanie wykluczenia społecznego zachodzącego na osiedlach robotniczych, które reprezentowane są przez katowicką dzielnicę Załęże i kolonię Emma w Radlinie. Wykluczenie rozumiane jest jako wynik różnych upośledzeń społecznych, w efekcie których jednostka lub grupa nie może w pełni uczestniczyć w życiu gospodarczym, społecznym,...

W opracowaniu przedstawiono istotne, wybrane cechy specyficzne umiastowienia na obszarze województwa śląskiego. Autorzy zwrócili uwagę albo na zjawiska i struktury rzadkie w krajowym systemie osadniczym, albo zachodzące wyłącznie w obrębie tytułowego regionu administracyjnego. Omówiono m.in. ewolucję zaglomerowanych form osadniczych, stanowiących z...

Celem autorów niniejszego opracowania jest analiza zróżnicowania przestrzeni publicznej miast województwa śląskiego na przykładzie Bytomia, Dąbrowy Górniczej, Rudy Śląskiej oraz Tychów. Zakres czasowy badań to 2011 r.