Factors affecting housing conditions: a case study of Cittaslow towns in Poland

Abstract

The concept of slow cities -"cities of good life" -promoted among small and medium-sized cities, results directly from the idea of sustainable development, which sets as a primary objective the reduction of poverty and increasing the standard and quality of life. The quality of life is understood as ensuring good housing conditions, access to services, health care and education, care for the natural and cultural environment, increasing economic activity and development with respect for spatial order and sustainable development principles. Housing conditions are one of the main determinants of the quality of life. Other decisions such as getting married, starting a family or changing jobs often depend on having adequate housing. The housing situation in Poland in comparison with the majority of EU countries is unfavorable, both in terms of the number of dwellings as well as their quality. Therefore, the aim of this research was to assess the housing situation and the factors influencing it in the towns associated in the Polish National Cittaslow Network in Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship. In the majority of cities, housing conditions were classified as medium or mediocre. Additionally, the cities were assessed in terms of their economic, demographic and investment potential, which made it possible to construct a synthetic index of their development. The level of the synthetic indicator was influenced most by the demographic, economic and investment situation. Moreover, a weak positive correlation was observed between the synthetic indicator and the housing situation. This means a weak influence of the synthetic indicator on the housing situation and vice versa. Demography in the examined Cittaslow cities influences the general development potential more strongly than housing. Therefore, city leaders should focus on creating instruments and solutions for improving demographic indicators. This is all the more justified, as the long-term forecast shows that this area may improve. This would make it possible to avoid threats resulting from deterioration of the economic and investment situation, and further on -housing.

Digitalisation, knowledge management and technology transfer impact on organisations' circularity capabilities

“…to develop circular processes that can support and implement CE strategies. Not only organisations, but overall cities adopt CE principles (Farelnik, 2021;Napiórkowska-Baryła & Świdyńska, 2021). It is an challenge how CE should be managed in a optimized way when it involves multiple stakeholders.…”

Multidimensional Comparative Analysis of the House Price Index in Europe Between 2021-2022 in the Aspect of Economic Security

“…The price is one of the economic categories that determines the size of the purchase and sale transactions on the stock exchanges and markets of respective countries. It means the value of goods, service, currency or production factor expressed in money (Owsiak, 2015, p. 344;Omelchuk, 2018;Napiórkowska-Baryła, Świdyńska, 2021). Strong and long-lasting increases in dependent variables -crude oil and LPG prices -expand standard deviations of other dependent variables.…”