Damian Mazurek
Articles
Development trends of small towns as perceived by representatives of local authorities
Przegląd Geograficzny (2025) tom 97, zeszyt 2, pp. 165-186 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.2.3
Abstract
Small towns witness a variety of phenomena and processes that pose challenges to their contemporary and future development. Among these are growing expenditure on social welfare, labour-market problems, the transition out of conventional energy sources in the face of simultaneously increased demand, a shortage of drinkable water, and extreme weather phenomena. Focusing on these problems, the authors took on the task of identifying the relevant perceptions and expectations of authorities in Poland’s small towns.
As the main aim was to indicate the relationship between recognised types of such small towns and the manner in which authorities perceive ongoing processes, the authors developed a survey including 26 trends grouped as social, economic or environmental, which was sent out to representatives of the authorities of selected small towns. The rate of return of the survey in the base year totalled 32% of all the small towns targeted. Analysis of the findings progressed via two steps, with the authors first examining the survey results within each trend/process category. Subsequently, towns were categorised in relation to the selected criteria of economic structure, location, and position in the administrative hierarchy. With such a procedure, it was possible to identify differences of opinion among town authorities that could be related to characteristics of the centres they represented; as well as trends representing the most important development challenges in each category of town across a time horizon extending to 2040.
Examination of the results on social trends specifically reveals that representatives of the authorities in small towns foresee negative demographic phenomena in their settlement units, such as the outflow of young inhabitants and a general decline in population. They assess this phenomenon unfavourably, as they believe it denotes increased welfare expenditure and, consequently, cuts in spending in other areas. When it comes to the economic trends, the majority of local town officials share a belief that their towns’ technical infrastructure is going to improve, with this being beneficial to development in general. Relatively consensually, respondents likewise foresee and view as beneficial an improvement in the purity of the natural environment in their settlement units. The process of expansion of green areas received a similar assessment. However, such a change is no longer expected by respondents in such great numbers. The following phase, an analysis of findings by (structural, hierarchical and location-related) categories of town revealed certain significant differences in survey responses. Respondents from towns of specialised structure are less likely to mention a forecast population loss in their centre, and more likely to anticipate increased demand for energy output. A difference in population forecasts is also evident between representatives of the authorities of peripheral cities and those with good transport accessibility. More-peripheral centres are expecting a population decline. A similar pattern occurs amongst towns categorised in line with administrative criteria. Concluding, the research conducted on development trends in relation to a time horizon of 2040 yields findings stated quite commonly in the subject literature.
The classification of small towns in line with the three criteria of economic structure, location and position in the hierarchy points to societal trends (including issues relating to demographic processes) being associated with the most-divergent attitudes and assessments among respondents. The findings thus confirmed greater optimism relating to the forecast occurrence of trends, and the assessments of their impacts, when those involved represent centres generally characterised by a higher level of socioeconomic development (i.e. of specialised economic structure, featuring good transport accessibility, and enjoying a supra-local status).
Keywords: small towns, development challenges, local government, local development
[jbanski@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. S. Leszczyckiego PAN
[d.mazurek@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. S. Leszczyckiego PAN
[a.grzelak@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. S. Leszczyckiego PAN
Citation
APA: Bański, J., Mazurek, D., & Grzelak, A. (2025). Trendy rozwojowe małych miast w opinii przedstawicieli władz lokalnych. Przegląd Geograficzny, 97(2), 165-186. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.2.3
MLA: Bański, Jerzy, et al. "Trendy rozwojowe małych miast w opinii przedstawicieli władz lokalnych". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 97, no. 2, 2025, pp. 165-186. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.2.3
Chicago: Bański, Jerzy, Mazurek, Damian, and Grzelak, Anna. "Trendy rozwojowe małych miast w opinii przedstawicieli władz lokalnych". Przegląd Geograficzny 97, no. 2 (2025): 165-186. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.2.3
Harvard: Bański, J., Mazurek, D., & Grzelak, A. 2025. "Trendy rozwojowe małych miast w opinii przedstawicieli władz lokalnych". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 165-186. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2025.2.3
Classifications of small towns in Poland – methodological approaches and their results
Przegląd Geograficzny (2024) tom 96, zeszyt 1, pp. 51-73 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2024.1.3
Abstract
The work detailed here sought to test out the methods underpinning three different classifications of small urban centres in Poland, as well as to offer a preliminary interpretation of the outcomes obtained. For the purposes of this study, the smaller urban centres being worked on are the settlement units that do enjoy town rights, but also have 20,000 inhabitants or fewer. As of 2022, Poland had 739 such localities, though real-life accessibility of statistical data in practice reduced the number researched to 722 (meeting the above criteria as of 2019).
A morphologically-based classification making reference to the country’s “Database of Topographic Objects” as regards land cover within the administrative boundaries of towns and cities was carried out, and it proved possible to distinguish the categories of “housing-estate”, industrial and R&R towns, as well as towns characterised by dichotomy. The classification applied two criteria that draw upon four variables: the cover of urbanised areas, the cover of areas of greenspace, the cover of residential areas, and the cover of industrial areas (see Fig. 1). Equally, a functional/morphological approach taken with the same database allowed for the identification – via an alternative method – of three main categories of small urban centre (i.e. the monofunctional, multifunctional or oligofunctional). The analysis here was subordinated to the land-use structure in regard to function served. The main functions identified in this way were: residential, industrial, service-related, agricultural, forest-related and other. The aim of the further part of the analysis of land-use structure by function served was to indicate those categories in a given town that were of markedly above-average significance.
A third, multi-criterion classification made simultaneous reference to conditioning of a structural, a location-related, and an administrative hierarchy-related nature. In analysing the role of particular components to the enterprise-branch structure in small urban centres, it was possible to arrive at a division into two core groups: of towns characterized by a specialised structure in which one element dominates (as with industrial or tourist centres, etc.), or of towns of multi-branch structure. Where locations of the centres were concerned, it was possible to draw a distinction between two key groups: of those with good access to centres further up the hierarchy (sub-regional, regional or central), or those located peripherally, and thus characterised by limited access to the more major centres in question. A third component of the multi-criterion classification concerned the relations pertaining between small urban centres and their surroundings, with these capable of being either local or supra-local. The outcome from the multi-criterion classification is the assignment of each small urban centre analysed to one of 8 three-element categories.
Irrespective of the approach adopted, work on the systematics of small urban centres in Poland always leads to certain “rules” of distribution being identified. This reflects the way in which their development is very much conditioned by a particular location and its history. It is reasonable to assume that, in the case of those centres linked more closely with their immediate surroundings than with global networks of interdependence, it is endogenous conditioning and the way this links up with a location as defined precisely that plays a particularly key role. Depending on the specifics of the given subject matter or dimension characterising a given classification, a leading role might still be played by various different kinds of conditioning, and we could be dealing with various spatial “regularities”.
This study’s deployment of three core methods of classifying small urban centres allowed for wide-ranging analysis regarding the regularities by which such localities in Poland are distributed. It is also made easier to interpret the distribution that can be noted. A further research step might involve the cross-analysis of this paper’s three different attempts at classification – with this likely to offer new conclusions from regional analysis of the differentiation present among the studied towns.
Keywords: small towns, classification, spatial differentiation, socio-economic functions, Poland
[jbanski@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. S. Leszczyckiego PAN
[m.mazur@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
[d.mazurek@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. S. Leszczyckiego PAN
Citation
APA: Bański, J., Mazur, M., & Mazurek, D. (2024). Klasyfikacje małych miast w Polsce – ujęcia metodologiczne i ich rezultaty. Przegląd Geograficzny, 96(1), 51-73. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2024.1.3
MLA: Bański, Jerzy, et al. "Klasyfikacje małych miast w Polsce – ujęcia metodologiczne i ich rezultaty". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 96, no. 1, 2024, pp. 51-73. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2024.1.3
Chicago: Bański, Jerzy, Mazur, Marcin, and Mazurek, Damian. "Klasyfikacje małych miast w Polsce – ujęcia metodologiczne i ich rezultaty". Przegląd Geograficzny 96, no. 1 (2024): 51-73. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2024.1.3
Harvard: Bański, J., Mazur, M., & Mazurek, D. 2024. "Klasyfikacje małych miast w Polsce – ujęcia metodologiczne i ich rezultaty". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 96, no. 1, pp. 51-73. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2024.1.3