Research on participation of social media users has contributed to our understanding of modern citizenship, civic engagement, and contemporary public sphere. Despite a growing interest in participatory practices in social media little is known about the factors affecting political participation of social media users. Based on an online survey of 700 social media users in Poland, this study examines the relationship between social capital (defined at the individual level as a resource embedded in personal networks) and political participation. It has been established that there is a contradictory relationship between social capital and participatory activities of social media users. Apparently, differences between the resources that are only embedded in personal networks on the one hand, and those that can be mobilized for purposive actions on the other, matter when association between social capital and political participation is considered. Moreover, the presence of these resources significantly varies across different types of social relations (family, friends and acquaintances) of respondents engaged in different participatory actions.
Recently, the issue of intercultural relations between immigrants and the host society has been widely discussed. Taking into account the increasing spatial mobility of non-EU foreigners, it seems highly important to examine their relations with the host community on the local level. This article presents the results of the qualitative study conducted in the first quarter of 2014 in the Lesznowola municipality (Mazowieckie province, Piaseczno district) in Poland. It aims at analysing the situation of the Vietnam-ese community and its engagement in the local life of the municipality and examine attitudes of both Vietnamese and Poles towards prospects for granting local voting rights to migrants in Poland. Through several years of successful business and social cooperation, the Vietnamese immigrants have become a recognisable part of the social landscape of the municipality. The degree of social and political par-ticipation at the local level on the part of the Vietnamese community has also increased, which can be observed, for example, through such practical indicator as cooperation with local educational institu-tions. Therefore, we can argue that the Vietnamese community has been transforming itself from a marginalised and self-sufficient homogeneous group into more and more self-aware and active socio-political group of actors.
The article discusses selected issues related to the process of creating a document, Strategy Warsaw 2030, adopted in May 2018. The construction of the strategy lasted almost two years and was characterized by high social involvement. The experience that Warsaw can share with other cities and municipalities clearly shows that creating documents in a participatory manner is the most possible and gives many opportunities to create synergies. At the same time, the scope of changes that the document specifi es in the context of its implementation, orders careful observation of the actions of the city authorities in the future. The article focuses primarily on the following issues: the period in which the strategy should be updated, the city’s relations with its surroundings, the strategic team, socialization and fi nally the implementation of the strategy.
The author presents changes which took place in the 3 eld of ideas of presenting art to the city audience at the end of the twentieth century. She draws attention to the importance of a movement of so-called “new museology”, which revised the museum practitioners’ attitudes towards art viewers. She presents taken from Poland and Europe practices of realizing artistic practices outside exhibition halls, directly in the public space, with immediate access to the viewer, who also is invited to participate in a process of creation of the art work together with the artist. She indicates a consequence of this practice, which is a formation of a so-called “new audience” – conscious of their expectations towards cultural institutions. In the end, the author mentions a research project on the phenomenon of the “new audience” initiated in the framework of the international project “Artecitya”.
The paper presents the concept of vital cities in the context of mechanisms of sustainable development, networking and creativity. The vital city was presented as:
- a city belonging to the inhabitants – a city managed and developed with advanced processes of participation,
- a city of reasonable management – a city that uses and at the same time protects its key potentials,
- a city of creation – a city of creating and implementing new ideas,
- a city of opportunities – a city that creates the conditions for the use of energy and creativity residents,
- a city in the surround – a city with a strong position in the environment.
Participatory budgeting has become an important element of empowerment of the residents in the process of spatial planning in Polish cities. The citizens gained the right and a concrete tool to implement their ideas on how to change the city spaces. Many of the projects of participatory budgeting are the results of serious negligence in basic infrastructure in the cities. On the other hand, some of them are an expression of great ingenuity and innovative approach of the citizens to the modernization and arrangements in urban spaces. The civic projects improve quality of life and increase the utility value of public spaces. The main aim of the paper is to review and classify tasks changing public spaces under the formula of participatory budgeting. The research in a form of diagnosis enables to present the directions of participatory budgeting. It helps to monitor and evaluate the social impacts in the process of city space transformations. The subject of analysis are participatory budgets in Łódź and Katowice based on editions in 2015/2016 and 2016/2017.
This paper includes a description of both the mode of development and the final structure and contents of the Municipal Revitalization Program, which was developed for the City of Starogard Gdański. All key parts of this program were described as well as methods used for planning the diverse activities associated with revitalization of the municipality. These were based on both actual legislation – of both national and regional importnace – as well as on Author’s own experience in this matter. In result, the article can serve as the example of one of the possible ways of developing the complex program of urban transformation for the medium-sized municipality.
Nowadays, the ubiquity of changes determines a new approach to programming development. In this situation, it is necessary to update the strategy of socio-economic development in many cities. The aim of the paper is to present the process of updating the city’s development strategy on selected examples (Katowice, Cracow, Poznań, Warsaw and Wrocław), through the prism of the scale and tools of public participation. Wrocław is a centre that particularly approached the implementation of the megatrend of public participation in the work on updating the development strategy. The paper delineates differences between public consultations and real public participation. The following research methods were used in the study: literature research, analysis of source texts, benchmarking and comparative analysis. The time horizon covers the period of public participation in the documents’ construction and is different for particular cities selected for analysis, however, it falls in the years 2013-2017.
The author shows the activity of the inhabitants in the process of revitalization which took place in Poznan at the turn of the 20. and 21. century. Overview of actions demonstrates the transformation of instruments and methods of conduct, but also is a presentation process of self-education of all participants: the associations, municipal authorities and residents. Relevant are also the examples of intentional educational and cultural initiatives addressed to the residents and held with residents in the framework of the Urban Renewal Program. Accumulation of these activities led to stimulate of civic awareness, neighborly relationship and local identification, but also initiated the transformation of individual mental. As a result, they developed a multi-threaded relationship: realization by the people of the right to co-decision and shared responsibility influences the attitudes of representatives of the local authorities and a kind of reciprocal social education, leaning to the subjective treatment of all participants of social processes.
Though current conservation policy in Poland refl ects world trends and approaches to action, compliance with all of its assumptions would entail the Polish authorities remodelling both the system and the methods by which natural resources are managed. On the one hand this requires a change of approach to the management of natural resources from the traditional, purely nature-related one, to a more modern inter-disciplinary one that takes in social and economic conditioning. On the other hand, a system need to be put in place to allow these ideas to be introduced in practice. The work described here deals with the participation of different stakeholder groups in nature management, with this regarded as a method of increasing the latter’s effi ciency. The many examples (of good practice) presented by the author well illustrate the wisdom of the approach, which often seems to achieve success where it is attempted.
The most important item of city activity is to define development directions. Because of strategic character of this issue, a very important thing is inhabitants’ contribution in decision making. Cooperation between them and city authorities should lead to positive changes in the city and inhabitants’ life quality. They learn social engagement when taking part in determining of city development directions. Showing their creativity and building social relationships in city area. The aim of the paper was determining problems of participation in the describing of city development directions process. In the research there were used several methods: literature studies, logical construction, deduction and observations.
The paper presents the author’s reflection regarding the recent transformations of the city of Krakow. The study is focused on the changes that are novelties or distinctive to the city. The conclusions indicate activities that should be treated by city authorities as challenges for the public management of the metropolitan scale.
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