No abstract

Territorial cohesion, despite its initial ambiguity, has been successfully implemented in national and regional policies across the EU. However, its operationalisation on the local level remains a major challenge. This paper asks whether pedestrian accessibility of services and public transport nodes can be used as a measure of territorial cohesion at the local level. The presented research was conducted in 2016–19 in five neighbourhoods in Poland representing various settlement contexts: large cities, mediumsized towns and suburban areas. It adapted particular indicators of territorial cohesion established by ESPON to the neighbourhood scale. The highest levels of territorial cohesion expressed by users’ satisfaction were achieved in a neighbourhood in a medium-sized town, whereas in geographical terms, territorial cohesion reached higher levels in large cities. Despite those differences, the proposed research method based on pedestrian accessibility offers quantifiable and comparable results on territorial cohesion on the neighbourhood level.

Local service centres play a vital role in shaping the quality of life in urban neighbourhoods. They offer access to essential everyday services (shops, education, healthcare, personal services) and to public spaces. If they are properly planned and managed, they can bring particular added values to a local community, such as social integration and territorial identification. The history of urban planning has produced several patterns of local service centres (ancient agora, mediaeval market square, neighbourhood unit, modern agora) but today a question arises: how can a local service centre be successfully planned and organised in post-modern political practice? How can its potential be realised and the ever-changing needs, expectations and preferences of local communities be met? Who should be involved in those processes? To answer those questions in this paper we refer to citizen participation and public communication concepts, where selecting the appropriate stakeholders emerges as a necessary starting point for effective urban governance. We present the results of in-depth interviews with local actors (local authorities, municipality officials, town planners, non-governmental organisations, local leaders) in Poland (Wrocław, Siechnice, Ostrów Wielkopolski, Warszawa and Zabierzów), Czech Republic (Prague) and Denmark (Copenhagen). Depending on the specific local context, various stakeholders are perceived as essential to the decision-making process. The power relations and problems encountered in implementing public policy in particular locations have been summarised in three sections: relationships between stakeholders, leadership, and good practices. The paper concludes with a list of typical actors who should be involved in planning, building and managing a local service centre in an urbanised neigh-bourhood.

Services originally developed as natural concentrations of human activity, reflecting the Christallerian hierarchy of central places. Today, those natural mechanisms are challenged by strong competition from online facilities. More and more services are offered by the internet and this affects the traditional ‘bricks-and-mortar' urban development. In this article, the main research problems of the inter-relatedness of real and virtual environments are defined in the context of urban neighbourhood service centres. The process of conversion from offline services into online ones is treated as a canvas for building a comprehensive research model for studying the development of the contemporary urban services sector in the local scale. Particular research questions and hypotheses are formulated and followed by a set of methods for further empirical research.

Summary A noticeably increased intensity of migration becomes a very important issue with regard to economic, socio-cultural and political matters. Broader flow of people results in the occurrence of numerous threats, but also provides opportunities and benefits for both the participants of migration flows, and the areas to which the flow is directed. An important role in this process is played by the students, who con stitute a special category of immigrants. The article contains a socio-economic characteristics of foreign students from countries of the former CIS, with the emphasis on their reasons for immigration, organizing their new life abroad, life plans and in particular their economic activity. The core purpose of the article is to identify the mechanisms of adaptation of foreign students as a specific category of immigrants to functioning in the new socioeconomic environment. The article, in addition to its cognitive merit, also has a practical purpose. The problems and obstacles faced by foreign students in Poland form a basis for general recommendations for actions aimed at improving the conditions of functioning of foreign students in the new realities.