The Fourth Congress on Urban and Regional Policy will begin in Krakow on October 7 this year. The capital of Małopolska will once again host a meeting of local government officials, researchers, representatives of non-governmental organizations and all other people who are interested in the development of Polish cities and regions. This year's congress will be held under the slogan "Poland of many speeds? Strategic development challenges of Polish cities and regions".
This year, those attending the Congress will seek answers to the problem of differences in the rate of development of individual urban centers and their surrounding regions. What these differences consist of and the consequences of their deepening are explained to us by the head of IRMIR's Urban and Regional Policy Observatory, Karol Janas.
IV Congress on Urban and Regional Policy in Krakow - Karol Janas, head of the IRMIR Urban and Regional Policy Observatory in Krakow.
© IRMiR Urban and Regional Policy Observatory archive
Przemek Ciępka: The slogan of this year's fourth Urban and Regional Policy Congress includes the phrase "Poland of many speeds." How should we understand it in the context of the Congress theme?
Karol Janas: At the outset, I would like to emphasize that the event organized this year will be held under the name "Fourth Congress onUrban and Regional Policy." So far we have already managed to organize three Urban Policy Congresses, while this is the first time it will be held in an expanded formula, where we will look at urban policy in a broader perspective, in conjunction with regional policy. These two topics have so far been somewhat artificially separated from each other. Of course, there are strictly urban topics, such as urban planning or urban greenery issues. However, national urban policy is an immanent part of regional policy, the country's spatial policy, so we intentionally combined these two aspects to show that it is difficult to talk about national development policy without looking at these links between cities and regions.
Here we start from one of the key problems we are facing now and diagnosing, which is a certain stratification. We are all developing, fortunately we have had 30 years of continuous development of Poland, its regions, municipalities, cities and villages. What makes these regions different, however, is the pace of development. Metropolitan centers, i.e. large cities, are developing faster and faster, while in the case of more peripheral areas, including smaller and medium-sized cities, we are dealing with a much lower rate of development, so that the distance between metropolitan and non-metropolitan cities is widening. During the congress, we wanted to highlight this very problem and consider how urban policy together with regional policy can counteract the phenomenon of metropolization, which has a number of negative consequences.
Przemek Ciępka: Can you tell us what these consequences are?
Karol Janas: The negative consequences of metropolization primarily concern the exodus of residents from smaller urban centers and the areas that are associated with them. A large city is not just a point on the map - it also serves the area around it. Cities, together with their adjacent areas, form a certain whole, so it is not without reason that when talking about the network of cities we use the term settlement system of the country. In cities that depopulate, the comfort of life decreases, and the same happens in the associated lower-level centers.
This raises the question of the development model for the country as a whole - do we want to move in a direction where it will be based only on the largest urban centers? Of course, metropolises are extremely important, and we do not want to artificially limit their growth. They are the engines of development, they allow us to internationalize the economy and it is there, necessarily, that innovation is concentrated. Therefore, we are not concerned with limiting the growth of metropolises, but rather to think about how to retain the population potential that is in the lower-tier centers, so that development takes place in a more balanced territorial way. If we lose the mid-level cities, the so-called sub-regional cities, where a number of services are provided to the residents of these cities and their immediate surroundings, then, as a consequence, the availability of services and the standard of living of the residents of smaller urban centers and villages will deteriorate. To put it more figuratively - instead of going to Tarnów, where residents have the nearest hospital or high school, they will be forced to travel to a metropolitan center located at a greater distance.
Przemek Ciępka: During the congress you will moderate a panel titled "Sensitive territorialization. One system and different development conditions". What are the title differences based on?
Karol Janas: During the panel we want to talk about how to approach the topic of development in a more precise way - so far this approach has been somewhat indiscriminate. So far, certain areas or groups of cities have been identified, such as the list of 139 medium-sized cities losing socio-economic functions identified in 2021, which were provided with additional resources or points in competitions for funds. Unfortunately, this intervention was carried out on a large problem group, on a carpet raid basis, and it seems to us that its effectiveness was very low. Hence the slogan of sensitive territorialization.
We are keen to see that even policies from the national level recognize the development conditions of cities or regions in a way that is more tailored to what they actually need. So far we have had interventions of a horizontal nature - for example, we equip all cities with electric buses, because that is the priority of national or EU policy. This, unfortunately, is the charm of centralizing European policy, where you have certain funds allocated to general priorities, and further down the line no one checks whether such measures actually make sense at the local level. The costs of maintaining more expensive electric rolling stock and building new infrastructure for many medium-sized cities can mean a deterioration in public transportation offerings as a result. When conducting research on the ground, we often hear that these kinds of interventions are not tailor-made suits. Sub-regional cities are very important to us in this regard - this is a group of forty or so medium-sized cities where national policy can be more tailored to the expectations of a particular urban center. Of course, we emphasize the overriding role of the principle of subsidiarity. What we mean is that, in dialogue with the city and the local government, we should work out such solutions and such a system of support that will realistically help that city. These kinds of interventions should address issues where the city needs external support, and therefore actions carried out within the framework of national policy are needed.
Przemek Ciępka: Which of the panels to be held during the Congress are you looking forward to the most - and why?
Karol Janas: This is a very difficult question, because we have managed to attract a great many great moderators and speakers. From a personal interest perspective, I would say that I am very much looking forward to the foreign panels. The congress is, of course, domestic, we are focusing here on politicians of Polish cities and regions, but we will also have guests from abroad - from Ukraine, Moldova, France or Switzerland. The latter two countries will have their own separate panels, the sessions we laboriously call French and Swiss, which are organized in cooperation with the embassies of these countries. In the French session, for example, we will talk about programs to support small and medium-sized cities precisely in France, where there is also the problem of depopulation of lower-tier urban centers. France has a different development model, she has long been largely polarized. There, Paris plays the role of a major metropolitan center, while other major cities like Lyon and Marseille remain far in its shadow. The French province, which is a huge cultural resource, is also very much depopulated. When we talk about supporting smaller cities, it is also worth paying attention to issues of heritage and cultural values. We wouldn't want such cities to disappear, because local history or the cultures of local communities are being produced on their territory. The same is true in France - there, too, they look at it this way, that these smaller cities are a certain treasure they have. Well, and they see the need for this support.
In addition, of course, I'm interested in the sessions in the main block, on regional policies. We already have almost 1,000 cities in Poland, but they are nonetheless completely different worlds. Hence, we talk separately about metropolises, separately about subregional cities and separately about smaller cities, and even very small ones, because they also have a role in the system. Residents of nearby villages will find a parcel machine, an ATM, a coffee shop or an ice cream parlor in them. For nails, they can go to an ironmonger's store in a community center, and they don't have to travel tens of kilometers on their way to a construction store in a big city. The decline of these seemingly insignificant small towns means a radical deterioration in the comfort of rural life.
Przemek Ciępka: Thank you for the interview.
For more information, please visit the event page.
