| 1. |
- Biegańska, Jadwiga, et al.
(författare)
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Inconvenient ruralities? : The State Agricultural Farm vs. the rural
- 2017
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Ingår i: 11th International Conference Man–City–Nature: “New opportunities – new challenges – new perspectives”, 9–10 October 2017, Toruń, Poland.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- 1989 was a turning point within the socio-economic development in the former Eastern bloc, initiating a system transformation that affected the society at large. It also contributed to the crystallization of certain cultural settings, hitherto largely illegible due to the inhibition of spatial processes encountered during Communism. In Poland, after a quarter-century of free market economy, the focus on social problems began to expand to the spatial realm as well. It became apparent that the progressive social polarization that followed was most prominent in environments striated by a particular landscape type – the former State Agricultural Farm (PGR). Departing from the idea that cultural mechanisms are capable of allowing for established conceptual frameworks to create oppression, this paper challenges the engrained tradition of using ‘rural’ as a guiding label in societal organization when seen through the prism of deprivation. Considering their otherness, PGRs, hence, require a different way of looking at the idea of “rural development”. In this presentation, we investigate the concept of rurality in the discursive tenor of policy formulation and contrast it with a richly contextualized empirical account from a PGR in central Poland. Having taken account of the residents’ everyday lives in the socio-economic, material and discursive dimensions, our findings indicate that the notion of rurality imbricates and leapfrogs meaningful territories at the local level. Our findings suggest that many PGR-related problems are ‘space-independent’ to the point of being aggravated rather than helped by current policy goals, with commonplace conceptualizations of rurality usually ending up in failure – as in the case of “inconvenient” ruralities like post-PGR estates.
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| 2. |
- Biegańska, Jadwiga, et al.
(författare)
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Ruralities of oblivion: When structural weakness gets swept under the carpet
- 2017
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Ingår i: International Conference on Challenges and Opportunities of Structurally Weak Rural Regions in Europe: ”Social Innovations and Social Enterprises Acting Under Adverse Conditions”, Adam Mickiewicz University / RurAction, 4–6 December 2017, Poznań, Poland.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Structurally weak rural regions in Europe face multiple challenges. Their below-average economic productivity and insufficient supply of physical and social infrastructure have opened up for questions on how to curb these downward spirals and keep people away from the precipice. One notable oversight is that the term “rural areas” can be vastly misleading, especially in the context of development. In Poland, in the wake of the fall of Communism, it became apparent that bad economic situation, infrastructural deficits and social polarization were most prominent in the former State Agricultural Farm (PGR). Almost three decades later, the waning academic interest in these farms left little conceptual guidance for the politicians to grab onto, and consequently most estates remain in an ever aggravating limbo. Considering PGRs the epitome of rurality in view of the ideas informing the direction of contemporary “rural development” prompts a different way of looking at the problem. In this presentation, we investigate the concept of rurality in the discursive tenor of policy formulation and contrast it with richly contextualized empirical examples from central Poland. Our findings suggest that in order to be efficient policy must take into account the role of the concept of rurality in creating structural weakness, because a problem is not “rural” unless we make it “rural”. This means that such mode of cultural labeling may miss that many ubiquitous problems transcend spatial demarcations, whereupon standard conceptualizations of rurality usually end up in failure and disappointment. This, we argue, is especially the case with “inconvenient” ruralities like post-PGR estates, which effectively get swept under the carpet.
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| 3. |
- Krzysztofik, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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Landscapes with different logics: A physicalistic approach to semantic conflicts in spatial planning
- 2017
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Ingår i: Quaestiones Geographicae. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 2081-6383 .- 0137-477X .- 2082-2103. ; 36:4, s. 29-45
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper deals with the ways of categorising landscapes as ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ using a physicalist approach, where these terms have special meaning. The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the question whether such a division is still meaningful with regard to anthropogenic landscapes, not least in spatial planning. The concerns raised in this paper depart from the increasingly complicated structure of geographical space, including that of anthropogenic landscapes. Our standpoint is illustrated using cases of landscape ambiguities from Poland, Germany, Romania and Greece. Leaning on frameworks of physicalist (mechanicistic) theory, this paper suggests an explanation to the outlined semantic conflicts. This is done by pointing to the relationality between the impact of centripetal and centrifugal forces, the specifics of socio-economic development, as well as the varying landscape forms that emerge from the differences within that development.
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| 4. |
- Krzysztofik, Robert, et al.
(författare)
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Poverty and social exclusion: An alternative spatial explanation
- 2017
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Ingår i: Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series. - : Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika/Nicolaus Copernicus University. - 1732-4254 .- 2083-8298. ; 35:35, s. 45-64
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Poverty and social exclusion remain some of the biggest concerns in the face of obtaining social sustainability. In this respect, the continuing immense spatial differences between individual localities of seemingly similar characteristics have puzzled social scientists for decades. In quest for a better understanding, this article highlights the role of spatial heterogeneity as a factor conducive to the formation of functionally derelict areas, which in turn play a crucial role in the formation of spatial mismatch. Using two case studies from Poland, one from a big city and one from a small village, we explore the relationality between the phenomena of spatial heterogeneity, functional dereliction and spatial mismatch, whose mutual reinforcement seems to lead to a specific kind of deprivation in terms of scale and intensity. Special attention is paid to the role of spatial heterogeneity, which under certain conditions is capable of changing from being a developmental stimulant to becoming a destimulant. We argue that taking greater account of the intricate historical contexts responsible for the resistance of some pressing socio-economic problems is key to breaking the deadlock in the implementation of ineffective sustainability policies.
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| 5. |
- Kwiatkowski, Michał, et al.
(författare)
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Dysfunctional landscapes vs. quality of life : Krajobrazy dysfunkcjonalne a jakość życia
- 2017
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Ingår i: 23rd Interdisciplinary Landscape Seminar "Landscape vs. health and quality of life" (XXIII Interdyscyplinarne Seminarium Krajobrazowe "Krajobraz a zdrowie i jakość życia"), UMCS / PTTK / PTG, 21–22 September 2017, Lublin and Nałęczów, Poland.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Quality of life is a complex concept that incorporates many different material and immaterial aspects, but in general refers to the well-being of people, groups or societies, and has been used widely, not least as an indicator of both mental and physical health. The system transformation of 1989 affected the quality of life in both rural and urban areas in Poland. It also contributed to the crystallization of certain cultural landscapes, hitherto illegible due to the inhibition of spatial processes encountered during Communism. After a quarter-century of free market economy, it became apparent that the progressive social polarization that followed was most prominent in environments striated by a special landscape type – “socjałki”. Their dysfunctional character has been noticeable in a wide array of dimensions: unemployment, poverty, social anomies and pathologies, claiming attitudes, substandard housing, and ghettoization. The main characteristic, however, was their equal prevalence in both urban and rural areas, creating peculiar and developmentally insoluble landscapes of dysfunctionality. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the rural-urban dichotomy on the quality of life of visceral people inhabiting those areas. Using in-depth interviews and detailed questionnaire surveys, we arrive at the conclusion that socjałki are distinct landscapes from a health-related perspective, and are poorly explicated using conventional analytical tools. We suggest they could benefit from being studied and evaluated on the basis of commonalities other than the rural-urban dichotomy.
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