Kapitał społeczny miasta globalizującego się. Studium przypadku Krakowa i Poznania

Abstract

The article analyses the role of international migrants in the process of globalisation and cosmopolitisation of “globalising cities”, taking so-called secondary cities as its point of reference in the study of Kraków and Poznań. We posit that the role of migrants in the dual processes of globalisation and cosmopolitisation is contingent on the way in which the city itself has historically gone through the process of ‘globalising’, particularly in how the public sphere has been developed. In the case of the post-Fordist city (Kraków), which developed through the service and creative industries, these processes are more intensive, and migrants themselves are drivers of change. This is not as evident in Fordist-model cities like Poznań that have also experienced migration flows, but where the positioning of migrants in the public sphere is marginal. The findings in the article are based on two research projects, the first from Krakow entitled “The Relationship Between Foreigners and Public Services and the Development of ‘Nighbourliness’ in a ‘Globalizing’ City: A Case Study of Kraków”, and the second within the framework of a doctoral project realised in the Doctoral School of Social Sciences of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

Cities in transition: Krakow‘s social, economic and spatial transformation within the last thirty years (selected aspects)

“…Factors that facilitate this include, among others, the development of tourism, the significant share of foreign tourists among visitors to the city, the growth of multinational corporations in Krakow, the international activity of universities, including the presence of foreign students who choose Krakow as the place where they want to study. All this fosters a foreigner-friendly "climate" that facilitates adaptation and integration into city life, and in turn, from the point of view of city development, allows better use of the important development assets that newcomers bring [15].…”