Title: Characteristic features of urbanization in the area of Silesian Province () at the beginning of 21st century

Author: Robert Krzysztofik, Jerzy Runge, Iwona Kantor-Pietraga, Tomasz Spórna

Citation style: Krzysztofik Robert, Runge Jerzy, Kantor-Pietraga Iwona, Spórna Tomasz. (2012). Characteristic features of urbanization in the area of Silesian Province (Poland) at the beginning of 21st century. "Sociologie Românească" (2012, nr 3, s. 56-66).

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56 Robert Krzystofik, Jerzy Runge, Iwona Kantor-Pietraga, Tomasz Spórna , Characteristic...

Characteristic Features of Urbanization in the Area of Silesian Province (Poland) at the Beginning of 21st Century

Robert Krzysztofik* Jerzy Runge∗∗ Iwona Kantor-Pietraga∗∗∗ Tomasz Spórna∗∗∗∗ University of , Sosnowiec, Poland

Abstract:The article discusses the specific problems of urbanization development in the area of the Silesia Province in Poland. The specifics of historical and economic development, as well as the characteristic arrangement of towns, determine the shaping of many specific phenomena and processes relating to urbanization. These processes are unusual for Poland, and also not often encountered in other European metropolises. The article describes the phenomenon of transformation of the Conurbation, the functioning of the so called “non-metropolitan” agglomerations, or the collapse of the hitherto prevailing administrative structures, due to the separation of some of their districts. A characteristic phenomenon is also city shrinkage and the specific trajectories of the suburbanization process. Some of these phenomena, such as shrinking cities in the opinion of the authors are particularly worrisome. Constant depopulation in most large and medium size cities in the Katowice Conurbation and The Agglomeration depreciates these forms on the settlement map of Poland. Aphenomenon which has no equivalent in any other place in Poland is the 'internal' suburbanisation, which develops in areas located between cities of the core of the Katowice conurbation.

Keywords: Urbanization; Poland; Silesia province; shrinkage; agglomeration; suburbanization.

Cuvinte-cheie: urbanizare; Polonia; Provincia Silesia; depopulare urbană; aglomerare; suburbanizare.

* University of Silesia, Department of Economic Geography, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Bedzinska Street 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec. Email: [email protected]. ∗∗ University of Silesia, Department of Economic Geography, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Bedzinska Street 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec. Email: [email protected]. ∗∗∗ University of Silesia, Department of Economic Geography, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Bedzinska Street 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec. Email: [email protected]. ∗∗∗∗ University of Silesia, Department of Economic Geography, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Bedzinska Street 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec. Email: [email protected].

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Introduction It was visible, especially in the per capita count; The Silesia Province covers an area of – inherited, and still partially continued 12.3 thousands km² and belongs to the group degradation of natural environment of the smallest provinces in Poland. elements; Simultaneously, within the borders of the – de-capitalizing of housing infrastructure, region, there are located as many as 71 cities, transport or commune infrastructure to including 12 with a population exceeding 100 the extent not encountered in other thousand (Krzysztofik, 2008). In 2009, the regions. It is also caused by local factors, Silesia Province was populated by 4,640,725 exceptionally rare in Poland, such as people, which comprised 12.2% of the mining damages for example; population of Poland. At the same time, cities – highlighting the negative features of the were populated by 3,624,410 people, which geographical location of many meaning- comprised 78.1% of the province population, ful urban centers in polycentric arran- and 15.6% of the urban population of Poland. gements, which was characterized by, This fact, among many, indicates that the e.g., visible inter-urban competitive problem of contemporary city development in tendencies taking undesirable form. This the Silesia Province constitutes an important aspect was additionally intensified by the element of research in the national urban issue of historical and cultural contiguity, settlement system. with its most measurable fact being that After 1989, the Silesia Province found only 48% of the Silesia Province lies in itself in an extremely difficult situation. the area of the historical Silesia; The range of problems brought about by – intensification of the depopulation pro- the economic and social transformation cess of the province, and in particular, was unprecedented in any other region, the Katowice Conurbation area, started both in quantity and quality aspects. The as early as the 1980s (Kłosowski, Runge, most important ones were the following: 1999), and continued in the system and – restructuring and liquidation of a economy transformation period (Spórna, significant part of industry – nowhere in 2010). Poland were such a large number of These and many other phenomena and industrial plants, employing over 2,000- socio-economic processes, have clearly 3,000 workers, liquidated. Many cities modified or redefined the structures of that used to be traditionally mining cities, urban settlement, as well as the models of lost this feature over ten years ago (e.g. urbanization development in the Silesia Dąbrowa Górnicza, Chorzów, Będzin); Province, in the a period of 20 years – unemployment – in that period was not (Runge, 2005; Spórna, 2011). present in Poland in such large urban The effects of the economical, social units (here: above 100 thousand inhabi- and political transformations of the late tants), and in which unemployment 1980s, expressed in the range of their levels significantly exceeded the national diversification and escalation, were parti- average. No other region of Poland had cularly visible in the process of citification, so many large (over 15 thousand people) in the aspect of its quantitative grounds, as unemployment centers, concentrated in well as functional or administrative ones. cities of the area, not larger than 100 km²; The key-phenomena and processes – decentralization, reorganization, and, in connected with citification and urbani- many cases, the decrease of income, and zation of the region, according to the in particular, the income of city budgets. authors, were compiled as the following problems: the evolution of typologically

58 Robert Krzystofik, Jerzy Runge, Iwona Kantor-Pietraga, Tomasz Spórna , Characteristic... diverse settlement forms present here – Agglomeration, Rybnik, Jastrzębie Zdrój polycentric and monocentric; the shaping and Żory in the polycentric Rybnik of “non-metropolitan” agglomerations and Agglomeration and Bytom, Chorzów, polycentric scattering of metropolitan space Dąbrowa Górnicza, Gliwice, Jaworzno, in the Katowice Conurbation; moreover, Katowice, Mysłowice, Piekary Śląskie, the collapse of the legacy administrative Ruda Śląska, Siemianowice Śląskie, structures of some large and medium-sized Sosnowiec, Świętochłowice, and cities, and the specific features of the Zabrze in the Katowice Conurbation. In the emergence of so-called, new cities, the core of the largest urban region of the issue of shrinking cities. Silesia Province there are two centers In the last decade, on the other hand, which are not cities with district (poviat) the exceptionally crucial issue was the rights: Będzin and Czeladź (Figure 1). process of “city shrinkage” (Krzysztofik The inner zones of the agglomeration and others, 2011), and also the specific arrangements in the Silesia Province contain spatial arrangement of the suburbanization the majority of the remaining cities lying in phenomenon, which may best be explained proximity of the core centers. The outer zones by the oxymoron: the “inner” suburbani- consist of urbanized rural communities and zation and the “shifted” suburbanization. some small towns (Figure 1). A characteristic feature of the Silesia Province is the fact that all urban From conurbation to agglomerations, in the broad sense, take up monocentric agglomeration 6827 km², which comprises 55.4% of its area. From another point of view, it is also The Silesia Province is the only one in noted that within these urban complexes, Poland containing the three basic types of there are as many as 28 municipalities (of prevailing settlement form types: the mono- various types) which share borders with the centric agglomeration, the polycentric agglo- neighbouring provinces or the administra- meration in the strict sense, and the urban tive area of the Czech Republic. The same conurbation. In the real geographic and eco- number of border communities are located nomic space, these are: the Katowice outside the structures of the discussed Conurbation, the polycentric Rybnik agglomerations. Agglomeration, the monocentric agglomera- The case of the Silesia Province tion of -Biała and the monocentric undoubtedly presents a lack of consistency agglomeration of Częstochowa. Next to the of the administrative area, with the spatial settlement forms mentioned above, the urban and administrative system of the agglo- complex in the area of Zawiercie shall be merated urban complexes. This remark mentioned, which consists of five centers, particularly refers to the central and eastern populated altogether by nearly 100 thousand part of the Silesia Province, where two inhabitants, within administrative continuity of cities of the core and three cities of the the cities. inner zone lie on the border of the All four largest agglomeration arrange- neighbouring Małopolska Province. The ments consist of the core and the peripheral Katowice Conurbation here merges with zones, including their inner and outer the smaller urban complexes of the western zones. The cores of the mentioned settle- part of the Małopolska Province of ment forms are constituted of cities with Chrzanów, Olkusz and Oświęcim. district [poviat] rights, as follows: Bielsko- The phenomena referred to give Biała in the Bielsko Agglomeration, evidence for two major processes. The first Częstochowa in the Częstochowa of them is the evolution of administrative

Sociologie Românească, volumul IX, Nr. 3, 2011, pp. 56-66 59 structures of the agglomeration, which Moravian Ostrava, through Rybnik and forms a type of conglomerate of various Katowice, up to Częstochowa. This city arrangements located across the border complex of urban agglomerations in the in Poland and the Czech Republic, and south of Poland (Polish megalopolis), stretching from Opole and Wrocław, comprising nearly 7.5 million inhabitants, through the Katowice area, up to Kraków is one of the largest areas of this type in and Tarnów, and from the Silesian and Europe.

Figure 1: Urban Agglomerations on the area of Silesia province, Poland. Source: Krzysztofik, 2008. Explanations: 1 – cores of urban agglomerations, 2 – inner zones of urban agglomerations, 3 – outer zones of urban agglomerations, 4 – other urban agglomeration, 5 – regional centers and directions of main connections, 6 – borders of countries, 7 – borders of the Silesian Province, 8 – borders of urban agglomerations, 9 – borders of counties, 10 – borders of administrative units (), 11 – borders of towns localized inside of urban-rural units, 12 – directions of administrative hierarchy inside administrative units.

60 Robert Krzystofik, Jerzy Runge, Iwona Kantor-Pietraga, Tomasz Spórna , Characteristic...

The other issue is the fact that, in may be described as “non-metropolitan” contrast with the remaining 15 provinces, (Krzysztofik and Szmytkie, 2011). In the the Silesia Province is, in fact, a so-called gradation of the following further levels of urban province, using terminology metropolitan functions, the cities of prevailing before 1999. Within the frames Bielsko-Biała and Częstochowa rank the of urban provinces, there were separate highest. Rybnik has a very low index units, which consisted of urban agglo- (Sokołowski, 2006; Smętkowski et al., 2008). meration areas, leaving out the less The level of metropolitan functions in urbanized areas in the satellite provinces, Bielsko-Biała and Częstochowa enhance to gravitating towards metropolises. In this the biggest extent the elements relating to case, it is slightly different. The urban higher education, domestic and foreign complexes located within the province tourism (mainly in Częstochowa), and create arrangements that complement each partially to economy (mainly in Bielsko- other within the borders of the province. It Biała). The range of these phenomena does results from the fact of a limited rank of not predispose them to be described as some agglomeration cores, e.g.: metropolises. It is intensified due to the Częstochowa, and the competition between barriers that weaken such a point of view. other cores in the neighbouring provinces. The first, and at the same time the key one, From this point of view, the Silesia is the small demographic potential of the Province may be described, more agglomerations, as well as their core cities. accurately, as an agglomerated province, The same refers to both the 240 thousand rather than urban province. Częstochowa, as well the 170 thousand Bielsko-Biała. Another question is, undoubtedly, the proximity of the Katowice “Non-metropolitan” Conurbation, as well as the Kraków agglomerations and Agglomeration. “scattered” metropolitality A difficulty for the potential evolution of metropolitan structures was created by The basic problem of the agglomerated the depriving of the centers of the province arrangements located within the Silesia city status, in 1999. The affiliated institu- Province is their low level of metropolitan tions of the Silesia Province hardly com- institutions and functions (Sokołowski, pensate for the lost status. They do not, in 2006; Smętkowski et al., 2008; Is a any way, strengthen the degree of centrality metropolis…, 2009). The principle accor- and metropolitality of these two cities. ding to which, in Polish conditions, each A different state is present in the metropolis creates an agglomeration, but polycentric Rybnik Agglomeration. Even not every agglomeration is a metropolis though the region is populated by nearly (Parysek, 2010), particularly refers to the 600 thousand inhabitants (as many as, for Silesia Province. The Katowice example, the Szczecin agglomeration), due Conurbation is the only metropolitan to its mining and industrial character, poly- arrangement here, and although it is the centricity, a low index of development for most populated urban complex in Poland, it the central functions of the largest city – does not have a similar rank as far as the Rybnik – and the proximity of the metropolitality index is concerned Katowice Conurbation and the Ostrava- (Smętkowski and others, 2008; Is a Karvina Agglomeration, institutions of metropolis…, 2009). metropolitan character have not developed Three remaining agglomerations – here. Their rank is significantly lower than Bielsko-Biała, Częstochowa and Rybnik – in Bielsko-Biała or Częstochowa.

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Problems connected with the very low They are connected with the economy to a level of development of the metropolitan lesser extent. function here act as a barrier for the inclu- Currently, the rivalry between Katowice sion of the region into the group of and Gliwice (the sports and recreation hall agglomerations, pending for being subject with more than a regional range of to the so-called metropolitan act or the influence), or Katowice and Sosnowiec (the agglomeration act. Although the act shall international trade fair and exhibition be directed particularly towards the poly- centre) may be sensed. However, the pri- centric urban arrangements, where the spe- vileged and primary position of Katowice cific and multi-centric settlement back- is, thus, far unchanged. ground significantly weakens the con- Unfortunately, from a different point of centration of development impulses and view, the dispersion of functions, insti- creating the privileged city, almost all tutions and establishments connected with governmental and non-governmental plans creating metropolitality that is present in exclude the Rybnik agglomeration from the many cities, weakens the position of project. Katowice as the centre of the region to a The governance of monocentric urban large extent. Katowice, being the privileged agglomerations is not easy. It is highlighted city of the largest urban region, constitutes by M. Lackowska (2009). This range of a secondary, and according to some problems is clearly visible in concrete rankings, third-rate metropolitan centre in actions (or their negligence) taken by local the country. governments and other stakeholders. The situation of extreme difficulty takes place in the multi-centric arrangements, where, Urban shrinkage next to the larger-smaller relationship, a crucial role is played by the larger-other There are 71 cities located in the Silesia larger interaction. This problem is present Province, including 45 (63%) with a in both the polycentric Rybnik Agglo- depopulation index equal to or exceeding - meration and the Katowice Conurbation. 2% (in the period of 1988-2009). These Rivalry and interurban conflicts, cities are defined in the thesis as shrinking. weakening the governance idea in its It shall be highlighted, however, that regional (agglomeration) context, have among 10 largest cities which are losing their primary ground in poly-centricity, their population there are 9 in the area of however, one of the factors is the disper- Silesian province. The group includes sion of the metropolitan functions and Katowice, which in the indicated period institutions in the administrative area of lost 57.4 thousand inhabitants. A larger several cities. decrease of population in Poland happened The problem especially refers to the only in the 700 thousand Łódź city. enterprises established after 1990. At pre- The group of shrinking cities includes sent, apart from Katowice, the most both large cities, with over 100 thousand developed functions and metropolitan inhabitants, as well as very small cities, institutions are present in Gliwice. The where the further decrease in population following cities in the hierarchy are: might question their urban future. Sosnowiec, Bytom, Zabrze and Tychy. The most advanced shrinking process is With the exception of Katowice, the observed in the Katowice Conurbation, in metropolitan functions are built on the the area of the historic and in basis of the existing entities, in the fields of some smaller cities facing labor market higher education, culture and healthcare. problems.

62 Robert Krzystofik, Jerzy Runge, Iwona Kantor-Pietraga, Tomasz Spórna , Characteristic...

The Katowice Conurbation, in the unemployment and the critical perception period of 1988-2009, decreased by over of the cities experiencing demographic and 250 thousand inhabitants and 10 out of 16 economical regress. It is worth noticing cities of the conurbation core have lost over that the perception refers to both the 11% of their inhabitants. Neither urban inhabitants (potential emigrants), and centre noticed an increase of population. people from other provinces (would-be The reasons for city shrinkage in the immigrants). In the historic Upper Silesia – Silesia Province are various. In some cities, especially in the cities that belonged to these are single reasons, in the majority, Germany before World War II, there also however, they are of a complex nature. happened economic and social migrations The most frequent – regional – reason connected with the departures to that for population decrease were problems of country. Hence the high indexes for Toszek the labour market, together with (-39%) or Sośnicowice (-13%).

Table 1: Ranking of shrinking towns by population decline, 1988-2009 Town Population decline, Percentage of decline, 1989-2009 (in thousands) 1989-2009 WodzisławŚląski -62.1 -56 Tychy -58.1 -31 Katowice -57.4 -19 Bytom -55.6 -23 Sosnowiec -37.4 -17 Ruda Śląska -23.9 -17 Chorzów -21.4 -19 Będzin -18.5 -24 Gliwice -17.0 -9 Mysłowice -16.9 -18 Częstochowa -14.8 -6 Tarnowskie Góry -13.4 -18 Zabrze -13.2 -7 Pszczyna -12.8 -34 Piekary Śląskie -9.4 -16 Dąbrowa Górnicza -8.3 -6 Siemianowice Śląskie -8.1 -11 Jastrzębie Zdrój -8.1 -9 Knurów -5.8 -15 Świętochłowice -5.8 -11 Racibórz -5.0 -9 Czeladź -3.8 -11 Zawiercie -3.5 -7

Explanations: Towns which lost administrative area (administrative separation) in the period of 1989- 2009 have been italicized. Source: Krzysztofik and Szmytkie, 2011.

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The collapse of administrative created according to this model. The structures of cities and the emergence restitution of municipal rights happened of the so-called “new cities” also in the process of village urbanization (Krzanowice, Pilica, Sośnicowice), with The key-reasons for the depopulation of relation to those villages that used to have the cities have been connected with the municipal rights (Krzysztofik, 2006). In problems of labour market and industry this case, the acting principles were restructuring, as well as the social and eco- connected with the benefits of the nomic consequences of these perturbations: agglomeration status, and most of all, the unemployment, lack of perspectives for the many centuries of municipal history and future, low salary index in the newly built traditions of the ennobled towns. industrial plants, limited municipal However, the most frequent pheno- budgets, lack of finances for urban menon was the emergence of new cities by infrastructure, etc. The list is comple- their separation from the city, which mented by the elements that refer to the incorporated the separating district in the degradation of spatial structures of the 1970s, which fact shall be pointed out here. selected fragments of cities (undeveloped All these processes were of the rank-and- brownfields, inner-city wastelands, vacant file character, and did not happen in such buildings, the degraded transport infra- an intense manner, in any other province. structure and, partially, also municipal On the whole, nine “new-old” cities were infrastructure or the low level of land rent, created in such a manner, after 1990 which, contrary to appearances, does not (Bieruń, Imielin, Lędziny, Miasteczko Śl., attract new inhabitants). One may also add Pszów, Radlin, Radzionków, Rydułtowy, migration relating to the suburbanization Wojkowice). This process started in the and departure of people, who, having 1980s, however, with the restitution of received social welfare, returned to their Sławków and Poręba. The actions towards home towns, mainly in eastern, southern the same aim ended with no positive effect and central Poland. in Kazimierz Górniczy (Sosnowiec), In the case of some cities, the Kochłowice (Ruda Śl.), Łabędy (Gliwice) population decrease was connected with or Ząbkowice (Dąbrowa Górn.). the separation of the hitherto prevailing The “new cities” examined here districts and the creation of separate urban emerged as a result of two primary reasons. or rural units. This process took place in The first premise was the crisis of the large Wodzisław Śląski, Tychy, Pszczyna or cities they separated from, the crisis of their Mysłowice, among other places. The leading functions (mainly industrial) and process of city disintegration was the most their negative image. That, added to the important factor of their demographic issue of administrative overgrowth of the decrease. Nevertheless, in a majority of cities, and the fact that their inner-city cities, the reasons for their shrinking were spatial structures were inconsistent. The created by the previously-mentioned social distances from the city centre and the and economic factors. peripheral district were considerable, One of the most characteristic features reaching up to 10 kilometers. In the case of of citification of the Silesia Province was a city with no more than 100 thousand the emergence of the so-called new cities, inhabitants, which, additionally, was due to the collapse of administrative becoming unattractive in many aspects, the structures of some large and medium-sized natural consequence was to break the urban centers. The cities of the central and spatial bonds and, ultimately, to separate. south-western part of the province were

64 Robert Krzystofik, Jerzy Runge, Iwona Kantor-Pietraga, Tomasz Spórna , Characteristic...

An important factor for the secession The study of the changes in the was also the clear increase of the autonomy population of the Silesia Province, and case spirit, demonstrated on the local forum. studies and field studies in the communities This element always constituted the final of the Katowice Conurbation, show a link of the decomposition process of the phenomenon which is not typical for any hitherto prevailing administrative structures other Polish agglomerations. While in a of the cities. It may be considered, majority of them, suburbanization is of a primarily, only in the case of administrative concentric layout, or a concentric and radial changes in the Pszczyna area, and only layout around the core of a metropolis, in partially, in the Tychy area. the case of the Katowice Conurbation, the The strength of the above mentioned noticeable tendencies are towards the basic elements is confirmed by the fact that development of phenomena which may be even rural units began to separate from the defined as “shifted suburbanization” and cities (the community, the “inner suburbanization”. In literal and Chełm Śl. community, the Goczałkowice critical relation to both terms, the question Zdrój community, the Kobiór community, to be asked is about the real development the Marklowice community, the eastern of the phenomenon of suburbanization, part of the rural community of Pszczyna, according to its definition. the western part of the rural community of The term of “shifted suburbanization” is Pszczyna, the Wyry community). Even understood as the demographic and spatial though the secessions of this type were development of communities located some fewer than in the case of restituted cities, distance (even up to 70 km) from the nowhere in Poland did they happen to the Katowice Conurbation, and showing direct same extent. Altogether, in the process of connections in the relations between the separation, 17 new communes – municipal core and the peripheries, similar to those or rural structures–emerged in the period observed in metropolises with the “classic” 1990-2010. Two of them were integrated concentric and radial suburbanization within the frames of one rural community model. Development zones for the “shifted of Pszczyna. suburbanization” are located in the Beskid The total balance of the post-war (here, Mountains, as well as in the Kraków- 1945-2002): changes in the administrative Częstochowa Upland. borders of the present Silesia Province The development of such a pheno- shows a number of 146. Out of them, 37 menon is supported by: good and happened in the period of 1990-2002 constantly improving transportation (Runge, 2005). accessibility, a high level of social and eco- nomic development of the new settlement zones (especially in the Beskid Mountains), “Inner” suburbanization and and above all, the factor described by G. “shifted” suburbanization Benko as the lure of the landscape in the southern and north-eastern part of the The characteristic settlement arrangement province. This problem in the case of the of the Katowice Conurbation, the features of Katowice Conurbation is solved by the economic and social development of the dilemma: to live 20 km away from Katowice region, the specifics of natural environment and be frequently exposed to the view of components of the Silesia Province became large industrial plant chimneys of the Upper the evolution basis for individual spatial Silesia Industrial Area, or to live 70 km away planning of the suburbanization pheno- from Katowice, but in the mountains or in menon (compare also: Runge, 2011). the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland?

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Another characteristic phenomenon is authors, constitute the most important the oxymoron-like “inner suburbanization.” trends of changes in the process of citifi- In the case of the Katowice Conurbation, it cation of the Silesian province. Frequently, consists of “absorbing” development the character of the changes, due to widely impulses that might create classic suburban understood and specific settlement, eco- zones to a centrally located area, frequently nomic and social background factors, ma- in the closest proximity of centres. kes them unique in the national context. This phenomenon is related to the The study should undoubtedly become a spatial and functional structure of the starting point to further and more detailed Katowice Conurbation as a whole, but is research. also visible in the case of single cities The Silesia Province, with 71 cities (model example in Sosnowiec). They can integrated within its borders, including the be directly referred to as the multi-centric model by Harris and Ullman (Krzysztofik biggest number of large cities (of over 100 et al., 2011). The characteristic, non- thousand inhabitants), several urban concentric arrangements of spatial inner- complexes representing all the basic city structures, lead to the creation of morphological and functional types, and peculiar location niches outside the city having the specific border location, make it outskirts for new single-family develop- one of the most interesting geographic ments. The undeveloped areas, both of the areas for research in Poland and Europe. greenfields nature and the brownfields The problems of city development in nature are conductive, as well as the level the Silesia Province took different shapes, of ground rent, which is not much higher at the turn of the centuries. These here, but is frequently rather lower than in phenomena are totally new on the one hand the suburbs. Also, the lure of the landscape (e.g. specific suburbanization models, city factor, which is extremely important in shrinkage), and on the other hand, they are creating suburbial zones, is at a higher level well known phenomena, but they develop here than in the suburbs. It results from the in new realities and conditions (e.g.: fact that a majority of the large industrial administrative changes of cities or issues plants that have an effect on human beings connected with the level of metropolitality and their environment are located in the for the regional agglomerated arran- peripheral areas. This time the dilemma is gements). of a different kind – it is shaped by the Also, the evaluation of the observed question of the point of moving away from phenomena variates. It is rather negative benefits and privileges of a big city, with a towards city shrinkage (cases that do not partial or doubtable environmental and landscape factor, decisive in the case of take into account the administrative moving outside the core. collapse), and positive towards the attempts to move the rank of the metropolitality degree higher – through new institutions Summary and trans-regional enterprises, especially in the Katowice Conurbation. The above presented outline describes the problems, which, according to its

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66 Robert Krzystofik, Jerzy Runge, Iwona Kantor-Pietraga, Tomasz Spórna , Characteristic...

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