Social Cohesion of Functional Urban Areas (Example of Eastern Poland)

Abstract

This paper is about studying social cohesion in functional urban areas (FUA). These territorial units become an important stakeholder and recipient of urban policy. Therefore, it is important to study problems of their development, including social cohesion. In the paper it is understood in spatial terms, i.e. it occurs when the differentiation of specific territorial units in terms of selected social indicators is reduced. In the research was studied the sigma convergence related to functional urban areas of vovodeship’s capital cities in five least-developed regions of Poland (so-called the Eastern Poland). The aim of this article is to investigate whether social cohesion is increased in the FUA of the Eastern Poland. The obtained results showed that only in three FUA in the analyzed period was sigma convergence but it was very slow process. In two FUA, no sigma convergence was identified. At the same time, it was observed that in all the analyzed areas there was an improvement in the social situation.