Urban Regeneration as a Specific Type of Public Policy Response to Urban Decline. The Case of Poland

Piotr Idczak,Ida Musiałkowska

doi:10.1515/openps-2021-0019

Piotr Idczak, Ida Musiałkowska

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1515/openps-2021-0019

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Abstract

AbstractThe paper examines the issue of whether the process of policy formulation and implementation on urban regeneration in Poland is done pursuant to the rules of a cycle of public policy-making. This is carried out through the use of the functioning cycle of public policy in Poland proposed by Zybała (2015) that stresses the specificities of Polish conditions in the public policy-making. Hence, the aim of the study is to provide an overview of public policy-making on urban regeneration in the context of legislative and institutional-administrative practices. In the light of increasingly complex challenges faced by cities, there is a need for the necessary counter-balancing regeneration measures taking a form of state sponsored public policy. Therefore, the Act on Regeneration was adopted in 2015. The paper concludes that the adoption of this Act was dominated by the legislator which, with relatively little contribution from other stakeholders, resulted in a rather unambitious set of legal provisions on regeneration that have not substantially changed the instrumental approach of local authorities to urban regeneration.

Highlights

Urban regeneration is a comprehensive set of integrated actions aimed at solving the problems of degraded urban areas by bringing about a lasting improvement in the economic, physical, social and environmental conditions of the specific area that supports socio-economic transformation (Kaczmarek, 2001, p. 16; Roberts, 2008, p. 17)
By relaying primarily on insights from the functioning cycle of public policy in Poland (proposed by Zybała (2015)) that emphasises the specific features of rationality in the public policy-making in Poland, this study examines the arguments that explain what factors related to urban regeneration may impact on the cause-and-effect relationship between public policy measures and their outcomes
The most remarkable finding to emerge from the data is that only 335 communes have adopted regeneration programmes on the basis of the new Act on Regeneration – it is just one fifth of all communes carrying out regeneration

Summary

Introduction

Urban regeneration is a comprehensive set of integrated actions aimed at solving the problems of degraded urban areas by bringing about a lasting improvement in the economic, physical, social and environmental conditions of the specific area that supports socio-economic transformation (Kaczmarek, 2001, p. 16; Roberts, 2008, p. 17). This should be a continuous and well-coordinated process conducted jointly by local authorities, local communities and other stakeholders, which is an integral and indispensable part of the development policy focused on achieving such goals as, for instance, preventing the degradation of urban spaces and crisis phenomena, stimulating development and qualitative changes by increasing social and economic activity, improvement of living conditions and protection of the national heritage, etc. (Lang, 2005; Lorens, 2010; Wojnarowska & Kozłowski, 2011) With such an approach it is stressed first of all the necessity for interconnected and targeted actions executed by both public and private bodies, which should be carried out in accordance with the terms of the sustainable urban development.

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