Poland's development model has run out of steam. Regardless of attempts to deny it and flip-flops that allow us to admire Warsaw's skyline or sympathetic data posts on corporate placement in Cracow. Today we face a dilemma of what to do next, and while the diagnosis seems clear, it is worth asking for solutions.
TheUrban and Regional Policy Congress, organized by the Institute for Urban and Regional Development as part of the Urban and Regional Policy Observatory and the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, has one unique advantage that sets the event apart from other conferences on similar topics in Poland. The city remains at the forefront here, and is not diluted in the typical conference "synergy effect", where similar contexts and issues are raised by the business sphere. Without diminishing the role of capital, usually urban issues then lose their meaning, which is avoided at the event organized by the IRMiR - especially when the main topic is the stratification of development of Polish cities.
The Urban and Regional Policy Congress was held this year under the slogan "A multi-speed Poland? Strategic development challenges of Polish cities and regions".
Photo: Wojciech Dawid © Institute for Urban and Regional Development
Is Poland developing in Konskie?
We could get used to the "best cities in Poland" rankings, within which a city with a population of less than 200,000 rarely appears on the podium. Despite an aversion (with few exceptions) to such reports, they can quite casually show the sickening truth - today the map of developing, innovative Polish cities is limited to a few larger and smaller metropolises, while the rest of Poland is shrouded in a fog of mystery.
The theme of "Poland of several speeds" resounded in almost all the speeches. The four processes of change mentioned by Dr. Wojciech Jarczewski at the beginning of this year's congress echoed like an echo in every hall - metropolization, suburbanization, crisis of medium-sized cities and depopulation of rural areas. Like the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the biggest problems of development are emerging, with provincial centers scraping everything, giving little back in return. It is difficult to talk about such problems of the present and future as national security, climate change or demography when the administrative system supports the degradation processes of much of the country. Processes, we should add, that negatively affect these problems as well. Polish metropolises have caught up with the Western world, and today we can take a photograph of the streets of Warsaw or Gdansk with full confidence that it will not smell of the shame of a "post-transformation Eastern Bloc country," but will complement an album of beautiful views of Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Oslo. Residents of the metropolis, although this feeling is far subjective, can feel pride. This pride, however, is reserved only for them, not for the residents of Końskie, Staszów or Nowy Sącz.
The latest publication of the IRMiR's Urban and Regional Policy Observatory is devoted to the functional hierarchy of Polish cities
Photo: Wojciech Dawid © Institute for Urban and Regional Development
The congress also referred to the latest publication of the IRMiR's Urban and Regional Policy Observatory, "Functional Hierarchy of Cities in Poland and its Transformations 1990-2020," whose authors took it upon themselves to sort Polish cities by hierarchy, while integrating data on cities and regions. During a panel on responsive territorialization, Professor Rafał Matyja stressed that he would like to see a map with hierarchy levels replace maps of provinces and districts in Polish offices. It allows one to look at Polish cities without generalities, subjective opinions and fleeting impressions. The polarization-diffusion model, according to which the development of major centers was supposed to stimulate development in smaller centers, not only failed to find confirmation in the data - it turned out to be completely wrong.
A change in policy? How about starting with a change in thinking?
Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz pointed out bluntly that the engines of the Polish economy have run out - Poland is no longer a country of demographic boom or cheap labor. Energy and the geopolitical situation are equally problematic. Among the topics of military security, combating the demographic crisis or building modern economic development based on the energy transition came what could be crucial for further development - preserving Poland's multicenter division. As the minister pointed out, this aspect is to be addressed in the new medium-term state development strategy.
Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, Minister of Funds and Regional Policy
Photo: Wojciech Dawid © Institute for Urban and Regional Development
However, this process cannot proceed without a certain sensitivity, which sounds abstract in the context of legal entities. This sensitivity is necessary today primarily in relations between cities, though not without an equally empathetic eye of the government. Betting on multicentrism is a long-term effort, being primarily the responsibility of the government - rethinking the current structure of district division, facilitating processes of merging municipalities or spreading resources more multilevelly.
The Urban and Regional Policy Congress outlined the need to change this framework, also the need to change thinking. The starting point proposed by specialists and researchers of urban phenomena is clear today - a new, more open, but above all empathetic approach to planning Poland's development is needed. Otherwise we are doomed to treat the majority of the country like an incubator from the Matrix for a few metropolises.
For everyone something unpleasant?
The congress provided an offer for everyone - from sessions dedicated to metropolises to those for localities inhabited by a few thousand people. The problem of development stratification is also present in the metropolises themselves.
congress participants
Photo: Wojciech Dawid © Institute for Urban and Regional Development
The division taking into account the hierarchy of centers proposed by the organizers allows discussion of the problems of cities of similar size, even if their specifics, led by local strengths, are quite different. A frequently mentioned topic both in the halls and in the backstage conversations was centralization and the effects of Polish governance, as a result of which local governments were losing financial resources. Another problem was the lack of tools, or not enough of them, to create new spatial, supra-local policies or implement soft tasks, including culture and sports. These topics connect Cracow and Gdów much more strongly than any other.
responsive local government
Several themes were missing from the Urban and Regional Policy Congress. Even if they appeared in discussions, a place for them could have been reserved in a broader format, for example, in a panel on the Pact for Space - perhaps the most important urbanist manifesto going beyond specialists. If we want to raise awareness of the problems of Polish space, strengthen the voices of experts, organize competitions or fight negative phenomena, we also need a stronger voice at events for local government officials. How else are we going to convince Polish local government officials that an architectural competition is not an expensive fad, but the cheapest way to get a whole portfolio of architectural solutions, and that concretes do not harm only a group of activists, but all residents? Congresses such as this one should further expand the scope of these issues. It is worthwhile in future editions of the event to let them resound better, to give more space, after all, not by development maps and strategies alone does a city live.
Panel "How to take climate policy into account in urban development?" - from left: Agnieszka Sobol, Monika Kostera, Tomasz Bergier, Łukasz Pawlik, Patrycja Wschód, Paweł Grobelny
Photo: Wojciech Dawid © Institute for Urban and Regional Development
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