Polish Local Government’s Perspective on Revitalisation: A Framework for Future Socially Sustainable Solutions

Justyna Przywojska

doi:10.3390/en14164888

Abstract

The principal goal of this paper is to investigate the views of local government officials on revitalisation priorities in Polish municipalities. To accomplish this, the perception of revitalisation objectives by local government representatives (who, according to Polish regulations, are responsible for revitalisation planning and carrying it out) was examined. A catalogue of revitalisation objectives, which were assessed by the respondents, was drawn up on the basis of a review of research on the conceptualisation and measurement of sustainable revitalisation and social sustainability at the local level. Exploratory factor analysis was the method used in the study. In total, the list of the examined revitalisation objectives includes 26 objectives related to the following revitalisation dimensions: infrastructure, community, economy, environment, space, co-governance, and inclusion. A survey of the executive bodies of 573 municipalities in Poland revealed a discrepancy between the sustainable approach to revitalisation advocated by the researchers and the perception of revitalisation objectives by the local decision makers. The study demonstrated that decision makers ranked objectives related to the physical dimension of revitalisation and selected objectives related to the social dimension of revitalisation and oriented at counteracting social exclusion by far the highest. The proactive objectives, related to the engagement, mobilisation and integration of the inhabitants, improvement of human capital, stimulation of the local economy and residential satisfaction, were viewed as definitely less important. The challenges facing revitalisation in Poland still fail to be perceived holistically by decision makers, which may hinder the building of strong and sustainable communities.

Highlights

Accepted: 4 August 2021Today, the idea of sustainable development exerts considerable influence on urban planning and urban development management
Many studies have examined sustainable development at the local level and have become sources of diverse development models for cities and their communities, such as: a compact city focused on the urban form [5], a smart city where technology is deployed to resolve complex urban problems, [6,7,8], an age-friendly city oriented at demographic transition [9,10,11], a sharing city that relies on the assumptions of the sharing economy [12], or an eco-city, i.e., diverse varieties of an approach focused on environmental assets [13]
This paper aims to identify the views of local authorities in Poland on revitalisation priorities in municipalities

Summary

Introduction

Accepted: 4 August 2021Today, the idea of sustainable development exerts considerable influence on urban planning and urban development management. Many studies have examined sustainable development at the local level and have become sources of diverse development models for cities and their communities, such as: a compact city focused on the urban form [5], a smart city where technology is deployed to resolve complex urban problems, [6,7,8], an age-friendly city oriented at demographic transition [9,10,11], a sharing city that relies on the assumptions of the sharing economy [12], or an eco-city, i.e., diverse varieties of an approach focused on environmental assets [13]. Regardless of differences in the above-listed approaches, at the general level, a sustainable city is understood as a Published: 10 August 2021

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