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Urban Development in Poland,
from the Socialist City to the
Post-Socialist and Neoliberal City
Grzegorz Węcławowicz
The historical background to urbanisation
Urban development in Poland was endowed with its regional
specificity: Polish culture had a landowning and rural character
throughout the whole of the Middle Ages until almost the mid-
twentieth century. The network of cities shaped at that time
matched the needs of economy and rural settlements. In the
Renaissance period this network was modified with innovations
coming from the west that concerned social life, economic and
cultural functions, as well as legal solutions, which made it possi-
ble to isolate people living "in line with urban law" in the social
structure of a city. (Gieysztor; 1994) In Poland, the moderate
growth of cities from the mid-seventeenth century was accompa-
nied by a decline in their political and legal status imposed by
"gentry democracy". Gentry represented the cultural, political and
economic aspirations, while the bourgeoisie was often treated
with suspicion, as competitors to power and privilege. As a result
the cities were developing significantly more slowly than cities in
Western Europe due to institutional barriers and to the social and
geographical mobility of the peasantry which was restricted by
serfdom. In addition, the economic slump and military defeats in
The study has been realised within the confines of the research entitled "Social
Polarisation in the Hungarian and Eastern-Central European 'New Town'
Regions: Impacts of Transition and Globalisation" (K 106169), funded by the
National Research, Development and Innovation Office.
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND, FROM THE SOCIALIST CITY . 65
the 17th and 18,h centuries that in 1794 led to the loss of inde-
pendence and partition of Poland caused the "agrarisation" of
civilisation and urban decline. Historical research shows, however,
that in 1578 the urban population amounted to 28.8% of the
inhabitants of the Polish territory, and in the mid-nineteenth cen-
tury (1842) their proportion was only 20% (Herbst, 1954; Dumała,
1974).
This phenomenon occurred in spite of the adoption of the
modern Act on Cities in the May 3rdConstitution 1792 (the first
constitution in Europe), which could not be implemented due to
the lack of time and independence (since 1795 Poland had no
independence).
The beginnings of urbanisation concerted with western-style in-
dustrialisation were initiated on the Polish territory as late as the
second half of the nineteenth century. On the former Polish terri-
tory which was under Russian rule during the whole 19th century,
new industrial towns were created or industrialised and deve-
loped, such as: Łódź, Zgierz, Żyrardów, Sosnowiec, Dąbrowa
Górnicza, Królewska Huta. On the territory under Prussian rule all
the new industrial towns were located or industrialised in the
Upper Silesia region. One of the key factors of urbanisation and
urban development was the fact that in all partitioned areas serf-
dom had been abolished by the end of the nineteenth century and
partial enfranchisement of the peasantry was carried out, which
enabled masses of rural population to move into the cities.
However, the rural migrants from the Prussian partition migrat-
ed en masse to Westphalia and other western European cities,
while people from the Russian and Austrian partitions, especially
from the overpopulated rural areas, migrated to North American
cities, due to the limited capacity of local urban networks. In spite
of these constrains, at the beginning of the 20th century the indust-
rialisation level of the Polish areas was estimated at 26.6%, where-
as in England and Wales it amounted to 77%, in France to over 40%
and in Germany this proportion was 54.3%
(Dziewoński et al,
1977).
After World War I and regaining independence in 1918, the situ-
ation changed. The first National Population Census in Poland,
carried out after regaining independence in 1918, showed that in
1921 only 24.6% (i.e. 6.97 million) of the Polish population lived
in 632 cities. Within the period of almost twenty years of the
Second Polish Republic in August 1939 the share of urban popu-
lation increased to 28.4%
(Gawryszewski,
2005). A slight increase in
66 GRZEGORZ WĘCŁAWOWICZ
the level of urbanisation in the interwar period partially resulted
from the growing overpopulation of rural areas that in turn fol-
lowed from hampered foreign emigrations, the economic crisis
that started in the 1920s and the economic lagging of peripheral
areas forming the reborn Poland, which were left behind by the
superpowers that took part in the partition.
For example the western part of the country covered the more
industrialised and urbanised Silesia and Greater Poland regions
with a dense network of cities and urbanisation at the level of
above 30%, while the eastern part of the country covered agricul-
tural voivodships - e.g. Nowogródzkie, Wołyńskie, Poleskie - where
the urbanisation level was below 15%. In the period of 1918-1939
it was impossible for the Polish government to radically reduce this
regional differentiation formed through over a hundred years of
partition and lack of independence in such a short time period.
Urbanisation under centrally planned economy
Analyses of territorial changes (carried out by A. Gawryszewski in
2005) caused by World War II in Poland, showed a balance of
quantitative changes concerning the network of cities. As a result of
moving the Polish border to the West, Poland lost 164 cities, these
were mainly small cities with low wooden buildings, usually without
urban infrastructure, as well as two large cities Vilnius and Lviv. On
the other hand, Poland obtained 256 cities with compact brick
buildings and good urban infrastructure. However, the cities on
reclaimed territories - especially the largest ones: Wrocław,
Szczecin, Gdańsk, Kołobrzeg, Elbląg-were significantly destroyed.
The old territories were affected by even greater damages. Warsaw
and many other major cities were also largely devastated.
The post World War II Population Census of 1946 gives only a
rough picture of
the
regional differences, due to the fact that post-
war migrations related to resettlements and displacements were
not completed yet. This Census showed that in 1946 33.1% of the
country's population lived in Polish cities (within its new borders).
According to data from the National Population Census of 1950,
cities were inhabited by 39% of the country's population.
From 1950s onwards, urbanisation in Poland was determined,
mainly, by intensive industrialisation, which was driven first of all
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND, FROM THE SOCIALIST CITY . 67
by the needs of the communist ideology. It overlapped with the
formation of a vision of urban life style, which became a symbol
of social progress and modernisation of society.
The specific nature of this type of urbanisation under socialism
in Central and Eastern Europe, was called "controlled urbanisa-
tion" by a Czech sociologist (Musil, 1984), while the process of the
forced socialist type of industrialisation was named "imposed" or
"forced" by a Polish sociologist (Morawski, 1980). Both processes
changed Polish society from a rural to an urban one, at least in
numerical terms, and brought important modernisation conse-
quences.
The research carried out by K. Dziewoński (1977) showed that in
1950-1955 both the urbanisation processes and the industrialisa-
tion processes were the most intensive. Within this period indust-
rialisation was way ahead of urbanisation, while in 1956-1960,
because the pace of industrialisation was slowed down, the urbani-
sation process gained some advantage. In the next decade, in the
1960s, the industrialisation process is again predominating, due
to the imposition of selective registration restrictions which con-
strains migration inflow to urban areas by administrative means.
In spite of this, in 1966 the number of people living in cities
exceeded the number of people living in rural areas.
The migration pattern from rural to urban areas was to a signifi-
cant degree regional in nature, i.e. it involved migration to the
nearest major city. Interregional and intercity migration concerns
mostly the largest urban metropolitan areas of Warsaw, Upper
Silesia region and Tricity (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot), which attract-
ed the immigrants from all over the country.
In the next two decades (1970s and 1980s) the urbanisation
process became more important than the industrialisation process,
despite huge investments in industry. In the 1970s on average the
cities grew by 2.4% per annum, the growth rate of the number of
people in 22 cities exceeded 22% per annum
(Gawryszewski,
2005).
The decade of the 1970s was called the second stage of industrial-
isation, which was based on a scientific and technical revolution
and increase in the share of qualified labour force in the
production processes (Dziewoński, 1988). The State's policy also
aimed at increasing the living conditions and satisfying consump-
tion needs (including housing needs) to a greater extent than
before, especially in cities. The implementation of such objectives
68 GRZEGORZ WĘCŁAWOWICZ
was possible, partially, because the favourable international situa-
tion ensured easy access to cheap western loans and modern tech-
nology. The new industrial investments were mainly allocated out-
side the existing industrial regions (in the new industrialising cities),
which followed from the idea of equalising spatial differences (espe-
cially in 1971-1974). As a result, such a policy strengthened urbani-
sation processes in the regions with a relatively lower share of urban
population. It also led to significant quantitative investments and
consequently to the increase of new housing resources in the areas
of
the
existing urban agglomerations.
In the 1980s presented by the two National Population Censuses
(1978-1988) the increase in the number of cities dropped. From
the end of the 1980s onwards, further slowdown of the urbanisa-
tion process was observed. This was due to the introduction of
martial law, the economic slump of communism in Poland and
the start of economic restructuring as a result of the 1989 trans-
formation. The new, most visible problem was the emergence of
unemployment.
A more constant element of the slowdown of the urbanisation
process was accompanied by a slower increase in Polish population
since the 1980s (in general), due to a systematic decrease in the
number of births, which continued in the next decades. The slow-
ing down of the urbanisation process, however, is highly differenti-
ated on the regional scale. The pace of urbanisation remains rela-
tively higher in the eastern areas, where there is a further increase in
the share of urban population, whereas in western areas the size of
urban population undergoes stabilisation or regression.
Polish cities as socialist cities
The cities created in Poland under the conditions of the centrally
planned economy as socialist cities were different from the cities
formed under market economy, which was proved by different
sociologists and geographers
(Węcławowicz,
1979, 1988, 1992, 1993,
1996, 2007, 2013; Dangchat-Blasius, 1987). The series of numerous
investigations on individual different Polish cities support such a
statement in the case of: Poznań (Caczek, 1979), Wrocław
(Jagielski,
1996), Płock (Kaltenberg-Kwiatkowska, 1982), Toruń (Jaroszewska-
Brudmcka, 2004), Kraków (Zborowski, 2005), Tychy (Szczepański, 1991,
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND, FROM THE SOCIALIST CITY . 69
1993). It concerns the international perspectives written on Polish
cities as well (French-Hamilton, 1979; Enyedi, 1998; Regulska, 1987;
Hamilton-Dimitrovska-Andrews-Pilchner-Milanovic, 2005).
The communist ideology was imposed with different success on
the regionally differentiated urban areas which were formed in the
past by different civilisation traditions (Russian Empire pattern,
Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy pattern and German pattern). In
post World War II Poland, i.e. on the current Polish territory, we
can still identify the different urban structures formed in the 19,h
century (due to the partition of Poland). This regional structure
concerns four former parts: Tsarist Russian partition (1),
Austrian-Hungarian partition (2), Prussian partition (3), and re-
gained western territory (4 - after World War II).
The concept of socialist city in Poland is closely related to the con-
cept of industrial city. The communists in power treated the city
firstly as a centre of political support from the working class and,
only then, as a centre of industrial production. The new industrial
cities, as well as fully reconstructed old cities, were created as socia-
list cities. Older large and medium-sized cities were transformed at
a significantly slower pace. Warsaw and Wrocław are the special
cases, because of the extent of war devastation with the extermina-
tion of over 800 000 inhabitants in the case of Warsaw, and the
total exchange of the population in the case ofWrocław. Medium-
sized cities underwent radical transformations only after large
industrial establishments had been set up in them. New, huge
complexes of housing estates for workers of
the
new establishments
were introduced into the traditional structure of the city, which
often had such far reaching consequences that the old urban struc-
ture was broken down and absorbed by the new style of blocks of
flats. In spite of their historical heritage such cities as Bełchatów,
Głogów, Jastrzębie Zdrój, Legnica, Łęczna, Lubin, Płock, Polkowice,
Puławy, Konin, Tarnobrzeg, Tychy became in reality "new towns"
located both, in the old and the new industrial regions.
Larger cities, which were not destroyed during the war and
which had stronger cultural and historical traditions, such as
Kraków, rather absorbed their new "socialist city-districts" Nowa
Huta and did not allow for the predominance of the new form of
development. Similarly, in the case of Częstochowa, in spite of the
industrialisation "push", the city maintains its pilgrim and reli-
gious functions.
70 GRZEGORZ WĘCŁAWOWICZ
In 1988 in Polish and in 1992,1996 in English the concept of the
socialist city was presented concerning the Central European
region as well (Wçdawowia, 1988, 1992, 1996). The most signifi-
cant features of the socialist cities include:
1. The domination of employment by the industrial production
sector and a low percentage of middle-class residents (towns-
people) meant that the inhabitants of these towns mainly con-
sisted of the working class (proletariat).
2. The egalitarian principle and class homogeneity of socialist
ideology resulted in relatively low levels of economic differen-
tiation.
3. The central allocation of inhabitants to particular dwellings
often forced citizens to live in undesirable social surroundings,
reducing the chances of creating local communities.
4. The organisation of the social life of urban dwellers was
around the place of work.
5. The city was absolutely dependent on the central government
for its finances and was "organisationally divided". The cen-
tralised authoritarian system had split off different decisions
concerning the city, which came from different government
departments and, at the local scale, from the authorities of
the particular cities.
6. The mayor represented the interests of the state against the
citizens, rather than the interests of citizens against authority.
Even the elected city councils represented no local interests
but rather the central government and its policies. The muni-
cipal offices became units subordinated to the state administ-
ration.
7. Uniformity of architecture and urban landscape created a
higher proportion of waste land and led to the deterioration
of the old quarters of cities (except cultural heritage parts of
the old towns).
8 The builders were pressed to construct first of all only blocks
of apartments, and delayed the construction of shops, restau-
rants, schools and post offices. As a result, in the largest cities
huge homogeneous estates emerged, usually with no ade-
quate service facilities, and frequently inhabited by more than
100,000 people.
9- Environmental problems caused by industry and urban deve-
lopment were ignored. There were permanent attempts to
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND, FROM THE SOCIALIST CITY . 71
redistribute or eliminate visible presences of non-communist
symbols from the city space.
10. There was an attempt to control the inflow of people to the
city by administrative means.
Polish cities together with Czech and Slovak, and Hungarian
cities conformed to these generalizations to varying degrees, while
maintaining a national and European character to some degree
(Wçdawowicz, 1992, 1998).
In respect to social composition, these cities were characterised
by a predominance of the so-called producing professions in the
employment structure, especially employment in industry. The
share of other social categories was smaller, and urban society was
to a great extent homogeneous in respect to class and only slight-
ly differentiated in respect to economy.
It is important to mention that the egalitarian rules on class and
economic uniformity, which had been adopted at the beginning,
were relatively quickly and significantly reduced, and then totally
abandoned. The social and professional composition of
cities
was
determined by the control of registration (however, not so effec-
tive), which was transformed into a control tool to monitor the
inflow of people to cities in line with the contemporary political
interests and temporary economic needs.
In general, the evolution of
urban
areas in Poland could be charac-
terised by the following priorities: post war reconstruction, industri-
alisation, drift toward the formation of egalitarian cities, the forma-
tion of the elements of elite cities, and, by the end of the socialist
era, the gradual growth of social and spatial differentiations.
The transformation of Polish cities into
post-socialist cities
In Poland and in the other Central European countries the
socio-economic transition that started together with the aban-
donment of the communist system in 1989 and 1990 brought the
return of market economy and democracy. The changes in the
urbanisation and spatial character of the city were already visible
long before 1989, which was related to the crisis of the centrally
planned economy and discredit of the idea of social egalitaria-
72 GRZEGORZ WĘCŁAWOWICZ
nism. The economic and political crisis of the closing stage of the
real socialism resulted in reduced control over urban space and a
vivid development of such phenomena as illegal allotments, illegal
street trade, open and public presentation of patriotic, anti-com-
munist and religious symbols, as well as the establishment of elite
wealthy areas. All these factors eroded the image of the socialist
city. The process of liberating Polish cities from the features of the
socialist city was significantly accelerated when the political trans-
formation was initiated.
The most important political and economic processes, which
had a direct influence on eliminating the socialist city features
concerned the following elements (Wçdawowicz, 1993, 1994, 1996):
1. the return of the importance of land rent and the increased
number of actors competing for space,
2. the return of self-government, the shift in the absolute control
over space from central to local,
3. the increase of social and spatial differentiation and the
changing rules of the spatial allocation of people from politi-
cal to economic criteria,
4. the transformation of the employment structure from the
domination of industry to the domination of
the
service sector,
5. the substantial transformation of the urban landscape and
architecture,
6. the transformation ofvalues and symbols, mostly by replacing
many manifestations of politically symbolical space by other
functions and symbols.
The key element which was the most important in the process
of transformation was the return of the rent of land and other
market mechanisms, as well as changes in the ownership struc-
ture that were related to them. Reconstruction of the economy
brought radical changes in the employment structure in the
cities, which consisted primarily in decreasing employment in the
industrial sector in favour of employment in the service sector,
and as a result the formation of a new social and political struc-
ture of cities.
The control exercised over space was moved from central to
local authorities as a result of establishing actual territorial self-
governments to represent the interests of local communities,
there was also increase in the number of entities competing for
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND, FROM THE SOCIALIST CITY . 73
urban space and specific localisations, as well as change in the
spatial allocation criteria from political to economic ones.
Development of private entrepreneurship gained special signifi-
cance along with a quantitative increase of small and medium
sized enterprises, modernisation of urban organisation and ma-
nagement methods.
The reintroduction of real self-government in 1989 has had po-
sitive consequences for most urban areas. The democratic legisla-
tion encouraging the formation of new social connections and ties
reoriented the public attention from place of work to place of re-
sidence, provided opportunities for the formation of new social
groups and social interest categories. All these new groups and
categories gradually became aware of their interests in the struc-
ture of cities and learned how to express their own interests
through the democratic election of local representatives to local
governments. The shift of control over urban space from central
to local created many problems, firstly, due to the fact that the
new self-government had not been prepared to deal with the emer-
gence of several new actors competing for space. The learning
process, however, even after the decades of democratic transfor-
mation and under the impact of European integration has not
completely finished yet.
The political and economic phenomena listed above, above all,
increased the social and spatial differences as well as changed the
spatial behavior of city residents. The urban landscape and archi-
tecture also underwent changes, the intensity of land use
increased; many areas of the cities changed their functions, espe-
cially in their central parts. The symbolism of many places also
changed as they were given new significance or their old - natio-
nal, historical or religious values were restored.
Under the conditions of market economy the urbanisation
process consisting in migration from rural to urban areas, as well
as the adoption of urban lifestyle and urban professions by rural
residents may be classified in terms of winning and losing socio-
economic transformations. The changes in the social hierarchy
and structure had basic significance
(Węcławowicz,
2002). The best
example of the above is the disappearance of the social group of
rural smallholders employed in factories (peasant-workers, in
Polish: chłoporobotnik) who played a significant part in the
urbanisation of rural areas under the conditions of a centrally
74 GRZEGORZ WĘCŁAWOWICZ
planned economy. Emergence of unemployment in the 1990s
affected, first of
all,
this social group. Geographical location with-
in the areas affected by economic crisis or in mono-functional
industrial areas was an important element that had an adverse
impact on the development of many cities.
In the decades of 1988-1998 and 1998-2008 there was a signifi-
cant change of trends within the scope of population development
on a national scale in cities and villages. According to the data
provided by the Government Population Council (2008-2009) in
the first decade (i.e.: 1988-1998), the population figures in the
cities increased by 495.2 thousand persons, and in rural areas
these figures decreased by 102.9 thousand persons. In the next
decade (i.e.: 1998-2008), population figures in the cities dropped
by 393.8 thousand persons (partly as a result of a negative natu-
ral increase in cities), and in villages they increased by 252.7 thou-
sand persons. It should be, however, recalled that the population
figures dropped by 141.1 thousand persons in the whole country
due to a negative balance of international migration and a
decreasing level of natural increase. The contemporary urbanisa-
tion process takes place under the conditions of decreasing popu-
lation figures in Poland (while temporary moderate increase for
several past years will not change this general longer term trends).
As a result the spatial pattern in urban population trends became
evident (Map 7).
In general, urban areas increased around the largest agglomera-
tion in the suburban zone with strong urban shrinking of small
and medium sized cities and with the particularly large depopu-
lation of Łódź and Upper Silesian urban complexes.
Growing economic competition between the cities, as well as
differentiated levels of economic development were the basic ele-
ments that shaped urbanisation and the extent to which the cities
were attractive to their new residents. The competitiveness of cities
that depends to a great extent on the inherited resources but also
on the policy of local authorities determines the attractiveness for
'nvestments. The most competitive cities in respect of attracting
investments and people are the metropolitan areas of Warsaw,
Poznań, Wrocław, Kraków and Tricity (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot).
The general regularity is that the investment attractiveness of
C|ties drops as one moves from the west to east in Poland, and the
qualitative and quantitative character of urbanisation processes
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND, FROM THE SOCIALIST CITY . 75
Map
1 :
Changes in the population figures of urban areas in Poland (2000-2008)
Source: The author's own edition based on data of Polish Statistical Office
change. In the western part of the country urbanisation is subject
to restructurisation in the form of more rapid development of
sub-
urbanisation processes, the formation of a network of medium-
sized cities and the large share of migration between cities (from
smaller to bigger cities). In eastern Poland the classical form of
urbanisation, which mainly consists in migration from rural to
urban areas, is still predominating.
According to the 2014 data from the Central Statistical Office in
Warsaw, it was 913 towns, of
which
16 were larger than 200,000,
that together accounted for over 33% of the urban inhabitants in
Poland. The category of larger than 100,000 consists of
39
towns.
The smallest category of towns, below 5000 inhabitants, involved
326 towns (Table 2).
In general, the settlement system structure remains relatively
balanced, which ranks Poland among the group of states with the
highest level of settlement pattern polycentrism in Europe. Such
76 GRZEGORZ WĘCŁAWOWICZ
Table 2 Cities by size distribution in Poland (1950-2014) (%)
Percentage of urban inhabitant in:
Cities by size 1950 1990 2002 2014 Number of cities in
2014
Urbanisation in Poland 39 61,8 61,7 60,3
Below 5 000 4,3 2,1 2,4 2,6 326
5 000- 10 000 4,5 3,3 3,5 3,3 176
10 000 - 20 000 4,2 6,7 7,0 7,0 187
20 000 - 50 000 6,2 10,4 10,7 10,9 135
50 000 - 100 000 3,4 8,4 8,7 8,4 45
100000-200 000 6,7 7,9 7,8 8,2 23
200 000 and more 9,7 23,0 21,6 19,9 16
Total 913
Source Central Statistical Office, Warsaw
structure has positively distinguished and is still distinguishing
Poland from other European states. The following Polish cities
belong to the largest urban centers of the European Union, so-
called MEGAs4: Warsaw, Krakow, Gdańsk-Gdynia, Wrocław,
Poznań, Katowice along with Górny Śląsk conurbation, Łódź and
Szczecin. A particularly important factor in the size structure of
urban areas in Poland is that the capital does not exceedingly
dominate over other cities in comparison with other EU countries.
The situation is different, however, in terms of economic activity.
Currently the urbanisation level (in 2015) is very differentiated
regionally from 77.3% in Śląskie voivodship to 41.3% in
Podkarpackie.
Toward the neoliberal city?
The processes of the transformation of post-socialist cities, from
the very beginning to current developments have been occurring in
dominant neoliberal political context, together with the
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND, FROM THE SOCIALIST CITY . 77
impact of globalisation and European integration processes. The
neoliberal policy-generally defined as a reliance on market mecha-
nisms - which has developed in Poland and in other Central
European countries maintained some regional specificities, par-
ticularly in the scope of social, economic and spatial policies
affecting urban development.
The de-industrialisation processes, initiated before the collapse
of real socialism in Central Europe, overlap with the post-socialist
transformation, accelerating changes in employment structure,
which have become one of the most important phenomena gene-
rated by the new social and political order in cities. In general, the
decrease in the number of industrial jobs was not easily replaced
by booming employment in the service sector, leaving former
industrial workers unemployed. This shift in the employment
structure remains till now an unresolved problem in former indust-
rial cities not only in Central Europe but also in many urban areas
of the developed world elsewhere.
The new phenomena which have shaped post-socialist urban
space after the 2004 European Union enlargement overlapped
with the more direct impact of
the
neoliberal attitudes. First of all,
it concerns the lack of explicit urban policy at national and local
levels. Secondly, acceleration in the increase of socio-spatial segre-
gation at regional and intra-urban scale was widely observed.
Thirdly, the whole built environment was gradually improved and
refurbished. The forth phenomenon or consequence of the neo-
liberal impact has been the complex of changes in demographic
and social behaviour, and the formation of new migration pat-
terns on international, national, urban and interurban scales.
Polish cities, like all Central European cities, have become open to
the impacts of globalisation, and European-scale competition
resulted in the search for new functional roles (i.e. niches in the
economy or market place).
In case of Warsaw, the neoliberal direction of transformation is
the most evident on the housing market (Stępniak, 2012; Stępniak-
Mendel, 2013; Gorczyńska, 2015) and also in population compo-
nents (Bierzyński et al, 2011; Bierzyński, 2014; Piekut et al, 2012) and
social segregation (Marcińczak et
al,
2012, 2013).
The last year evolution of EU policies including the new urban
policy and particularly the shift toward more place-based policy
interventions overlaps with the economic crises resulting in threats
78 GRZEGORZ WĘCŁAWOWICZ
to the economic prosperity of urban dwellers. In addition, the dis-
covery and recognition of the negative consequences of following
the neoliberal theory have become visible.
The main component of urban policy in Poland
All elements of urban policy in Poland are conducted under the
general legal framework concerning public administration and
self-government. The constitution of the Republic of Poland iden-
tified the "gmina" as the basic self-government unit at the lowest
level of administrative division (corresponding to the NUTS 5 EU
classification). There are three types of those units: urban, urban-
rural and rural gminas. The definition of urban is based on a legal
status. As far as the urban areas are concerned, the following
types of
cities
may be identified in Poland depending on their hie-
rarchical status: cities with county (poviat) status, including cities
like Warsaw as the capital of the country, others having regional
capital status (voivodeships), and other sub-regional (poviat)
county capitals status. The right of the poviats status for 65 cities
was attributed by the 1999 administrative reform. The last cate-
gory concerns the (gminas) cities which have urban status and
mixed urban-rural status. All together there are 903 municipalities
with the cities (with gminas competences), cities (with right of
poviats competences) and cities of mixed urban-rural character
(with gminas competencies) status1. Nearly each year the new
administrative decision modified the urban statistics. For example
the latest state of 2015 indicate 915 towns, of which 304 have
urban status, (66 of these urban areas have also poviat status)
and 611 communes of urban-rural status.
Division into NUTS units. Situation on: 01-01-2015
NUTS-1 Region (6 Units groups of woivodships),
NUTS-2 voivodships (units 16)
NUTS-3 sub-regions (72 units - groups of poviats)
NUTS-4 poviats (314 units) plus 66 cities of urban status
NUTS-5 Communes (Gminy) - (2478 units including 66 units having urban sta-
tus and poviat status.
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND, FROM THE SOCIALIST CITY . 79
The evolution and instability of legislation and governance of
urban areas are visible in case of
the
capital of Poland. Warsaw as
the capital and the largest city of
the
country represents one of the
specific cases. From the beginning of the 1990s till 2002 Warsaw
was a municipal association of
11
gminas, with the largest Centrum
gmina (inhabited by one million people). Each ofWarsaw's gminas
had different status, objectives, interests bringing immediate
conflicts and colliding competences (particularly at the time of
the rebirth of local democracy). In October 2002 Warsaw became
again one administrative unit with unified status, integrated
budget and management. The President of the city together with
the Council deal with all the general issues and coordination, how-
ever, all the 18 districts (with historical roots) at the lowest level,
have auxiliary functions. While structural problems of governance
in intra boundaries Warsaw seem to be solved, the unresolved
issues remain the fragmented administration of the whole metro-
politan area. Currently, since the end of
2015,
the new government
has initiated a discussion aimed at the formation of the
Metropolitan Region of Warsaw as an independent unit from the
rest of Mazowsze voivodship.
In general, national urban policies should be formulated as a
guide for local governments at sub-regional or urban scales, as
well as for those in government administration, for the business
community and for any relevant social and non-governmental
organisations. Such policies should set out the intentions, main
objectives and strategy of central governments towards urban
problems. Problems which are manifest at more local levels and
strategies to address them could then be articulated in more
coherent ways.
The current stage of urban policy formation in Poland is facing
several important challenges. The spatial consequence of the do-
minant neoliberal political attitudes in intra-urban governance
practice is the lack of efficient planning regulations which resulted
in deepening the chaos of the inherited urban structures. In the for-
mation of
a
new urban policy, the basic challenge lies between com-
petitiveness and cohesion or between social and economic priori-
ties. The pressure to be competitive on the European and global
scale requires the formulation of a comprehensive urban policy at
national, local and intra-urban levels. A policy which will be effec-
tively (in practice) congruent with the social, cultural, spatial and
80 GRZEGORZ WĘCŁAWOWICZ
economic policies, and first of all with the strategic vision of the
country's development in the next decades must be worked out.
In the process of forming the national urban policy the question
of planning for whom should be seriously considered. The con-
cept, that in the socialist countries planning (particularly spatial
planning) was structured along ideological priorities, has been
replaced in neoliberal attitudes by the concept of planning in the
interest of the capital. However, some questions arise. Why not
plan cities in the interest of society? What can we learn (efficient-
ly adapt) from EU and OECD urban policies, documents and
practices? In the document prepared for Poland the OECD identi-
fied the following challenges related to the future development of
urban areas (OECD, 2011).
The first concern is "an aging and shrinking labour force". The
second one is related to the "industrial restructuring"; it indicated
the continuation in the processes of industrial decline in terms of
employment and increase in the service sector. The structural
transformation of employment in the situation of inadequate
skills will generate unemployment problems in the long term. The
third challenge addressed "inequalities within urban areas and
social concerns"
The next three challenges concern transport. On the regional
scale it involves "...poorly developed transport infrastructure,
which fails to connect urban systems and integrate the neigh-
bourhoods within them." On intra urban scale the municipalities
are the main actors providing public transport, but the most
important challenge concerns urban sprawl and congestion with
the radical increase of people employed outside their municipali-
ty. On the country scale the basic challenge concerns the lack of
proper and efficient transport links between urban centres.
The permanent historical challenge concerns the "housing
deficit" and probably will remain so in the next decades. As the
Central Statistics Office indicates the 347 housing units per 1000
inhabitants in Poland remain one of the lowest in the EU. Such a
problem overlaps with the large demand for modernisation and
renovation of the old housing stock.
The last set of challenges concern environmental issues. In spite
the basic improvements since 1989 and particularly after EU
'integration in 2004 the basic problems still include wastewater
treatment, air pollution, and the lack of energy efficiency initiatives.
URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN POLAND, FROM THE SOCIALIST CITY . 81
Conclusions
The question posed at the beginning of
the
socio-political trans-
formation in the last decade of the 20th century "What should be
done with the socialist cities in Central and Eastern Europe?" to a
high extent has been answered in practice. The last twenty years of
political, social and economic development has brought, in ge-
neral, the substantial modernisation and improvements of living
conditions in urban areas. The numerous former industrial cities,
however, are still in a stagnant or crisis situation.
Currently the most important challenge is making urban areas
less vulnerable to political, economic and environmental changes.
One of the best examples of a field where such change is needed
is that of environmental issues, particularly energy saving.
The dominant neoliberal approach to the role of local govern-
ment at the district or city level needs some consideration. In ge-
neral, a simple minded or naive application of market theory to
the functioning of local communities remains too radical and
insensitive because local governments cannot be treated like mar-
kets, particularly in the European context, where cities have fol-
lowed historically diverse paths of development which have fos-
tered and enriched their cultural diversity and local distinctiveness
or uniqueness. The latter diversity is the outcome of constant
interactions between the state, the market and local cultural tra-
ditions, which in the case of the cultural heritage of post-socialist
cities have both positive and negative consequences.
The EU regional policies, particularly the cohesion policy includ-
ing its urban dimension, will be a sort of "soft neoliberalism"
which reminded me of the attempts in the deep past to create
"socialism with human face", which in the end failed. What will
happen now in EU cities depends to a large extent on progress in
the development of democratic institutions and particularly on
whether a strong and effective civil society is formed and fostered.
82 GRZEGORZ WĘCŁAWOWICZ
