Projecting Cities

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy , 2014

The public spaces of Poznan, are defined by a system of squares, parks and streets connecting them. The Old Market Square and downtown district markets and other squares are the nodes of the system. The main shopping streets radiating from the Old Town are the connectors between the squares-unfortunately transected streets with significant traffic or railway tracks. The problems associated with the dominance of a transport in the city center causes a significant reduction in the attractiveness of inner-city neighborhoods. The negative impact of these conflicts and above all, the decrease of the spatial and social attractiveness of the public space within the most valuable area of a city centre, is the main reason for its functional fall. The low level of an attractiveness of a downtown affects the increase of a development in periphery areas and an outflow of capital to these areas. Today, there are more shopping malls on the periphery than in the Old Town in Poznan. This results in even greater collapse of the most valuable tissue of the city and its slow but permanent degradation. In these circumstances, the idea of a specific downtown renewal was invented and called MAD city for people. It is based on two directions. The first is related to the formal actions to improve engineering solutions. The second one focuses on the socioeconomic decline and aims at its revitalization through the implementation of a creative device into urban public spaces. The author appears in two different roles when commenting on the ongoing changes in Poznan city space. As a designer of traffic regulations and a transport infrastructure on one hand and as an activist for the revitalization of a public space.

Miscellanea Geographica

Society Register , 2020

The article discusses the process of formation and transformation of urban movements in Poland. Conclusions are based on the data collected during the research project "Urban Social Movements in Poland" supported by the National Science Centre. For the requirements of the project was adopted a method of qualitative research using the techniques of in-depth narrative interviews, participant observations and secondary data analysis. The author conducted 30 in-depth interviews with leaders of urban movements from sixteen cities. The article describes the process of structuralization and the creation of identity of the Polish urban movement and their role on the local political stage, stressing, in particular, their significant role as a creators of a new discourse in Polish cities.

in J. Hou, S. Knierbein (eds) City Unsilenced: Urban Resistance and Public Space in the Age of Shrinking Democracy. Routledge, 2017

Cities are increasingly important arenas of civic activism, especially in form of so-­‐called neighborhood initiatives and grassroots urban movement. As research presented here shows, conceptual and symbolic " battles for space ", usually associated with city planning processes, were crucial for the emergence of grassroots' urban initiatives in Poland. As a result of intensive networking, urban activists became an important and highly visible lobby group, especially in the context of their relations with local governments, influencing not only political decisions, but also the functioning of local as well as national administration. Nowadays in Poland the grassroots urban movement is one of the most visible factors affecting public administration practices concerning planning and development, pushing for innovations and participatory mechanisms in all spheres of urban policy.

The unprecedented transformation of European cities into autonomous actors in the global economic, financial, workforce and symbolic markets, and simultaneously, their new role as key stakeholders in the process of reimagining common European identity determines the growing importance of the public space as well as the increased social awareness about it on European level where principles of multilayered governance take place. It is interesting to analyse the position of Central and East European cities in this transformation.

Studia Regionalia, 2015

In this article the link between most important social changes in Poland and trends in urban space transformation is being examined. Main aim is to present that processes and phenomena in social sphere generate the need for urban space modifications. Organization of this space should reflect the changes in attitudes and aspirations of given generation. Among this curtail social changes following processes should be indicated: globalization and metropolization, transition from socialist cities to post-socialist cities, demographical changes (especially ageing and depopulation of urban space); processes of creating and developing democratic procedures, formation of new groups and cultures in the cities, social polarization as well as changes in the lifestyles of city dwellers. The changes in urban space are the result of above mentioned processes and phenomenon.

2013

Accessibility of public space plays vital role in integration of citizens, who have problems with moving around urban area. Public objects in cities, such as buildings, squares or even multilevel intersections, may constrict possibility to travel for many users, who are unable to use specific places, due to their inaccessibility. Inadequate design of space excludes certain groups of users from full access to city resources and conduces social exclusion. The aim of this paper is to discover which groups and how suffer from spatial exclusion in Warsaw. Despite many initiatives of non-governmental organizations, citizens still encounter many barriers in public space. The capital of Poland might be considered as a good example of inaccessible city, mostly due to historical reasons. This issue will be investigated using data from project "Warsaw Map of Barriers", run by SISKOM-Association for Warsaw Transport Integration. Problematic locations are displayed on interactive map on internet webpage. Making city accessible requires comprehensive knowledge about specific users' needs, which must be respected. The outcomes of this analysis can be transferred and used in different cities and countries, which still cannot fulfil demand for universal design of space.

Cities

While the idea of the city as a commons had corrupted in Poland throughout the socialist period and did not recover in the wake of the systemic change, individualism appears to have become a dominating force shaping Polish cities since 1989. The aim of the paper is to unpack the concept of urban space as a commons and examine its readjustment at the beginning of the 21st century through the lens of the Polish print media. Results of the discourse analysis indicate that the term, applied to fragments of urban space varying in function and scale, has strong connotations of conflict and strife. Legacy of Poland's contemporary history appears as the most common justification for the weakness of the urban commons and despite the growing awareness of the issue, the debate on possible remedies is still at an early stage and hence inconclusive.

European Journal of Social Sciences Education and ResearchPublisher: European Center for Science Education and Research, 2016

In the paper there are presented questions of public space renewal, especially within a city centre. The authors present a case study of a city of Poznan in which a number of actions are taken in a field of spatial revival There is accentuated that the most important task is to provide spatial alterations long with social interest and involvement. It is the participation of city inhabitants the most crucial aspect of public space renewal process.

The image of a place is always based on particular space perceived and evaluated by the users. Thus each visible, permanent change in the landscape can influence the image of a place in the users’ minds. This paper presents a panel study conducted in 16 selected neighbourhoods in Wrocław city (Poland) in the years 1997, 2007 and 2016. A picture documentation has been used to show the dynamics and character of spatial transformations. The results highlight the diverse distribution of changes in the urban landscape: more changes took place closer to the city centre and less in the peripherial areas. The dominating directions of development embrace greenery, refurbishing the existing urban tissue and new investments. Also the reorganisation of transport infrastructure is a very important component of the transformation of the landscape. The observed changes seem to give a good basis for shaping a positive image of most of the studied neighbourhoods in Wrocław.