Landscape In Poland Research Articles

Protection of the quiet and nocturnal landscape

Motives: We associate landscape primarily with the presence of vistas that change with the time of day, season and weather conditions. Landscape is shaped by light and darkness, sound and silence, all of which influence its perception. Quiet and nocturnal landscapes, however, remain on the margins of scientific interest in traditional landscape studies.Aim: The main aim of the study was to identify the younger generation’s awareness of the importance of nocturnal landscapes, light and noise pollution, and their preferences for protection against these threats. For this purpose, a diagnostic survey method was used. The results of the survey were referred to the 2015 TNS Poland report prepared for the Ministry of the Environment. In addition, the legal conditions of landscape protection in Poland were identified, with reference to protection against noise and light pollution. National and international experiences in the protection of quiet and nocturnal landscapes were also presented.Results: The survey demonstrated that public awareness of light pollution is increasing. A nocturnal (and quiet) landscape is of high value to the respondents. Light pollution causes, among other things, energy waste and landscape degradation (change of landscape characteristics), while noise negatively affects human and animal health. Therefore, the nocturnal (and quiet) landscape should be protected by law. Currently, there are no direct instruments for the protection of nocturnal landscapes in Poland. On the other hand, in the case of quiet landscapes, there are some instruments (e.g. quiet zones), but they have not been used yet. It is encouraging that public awareness of light and noise pollution is increasing. It is necessary to link landscape protection with the protection of the night sky and quiet zones, for example through advertising resolutions and the establishment of cultural parks. It is also important to educate the public about the risks involved.

Independent Media, Propaganda, and Religiosity: Evidence from Poland

Exploring a drastic change in media landscape in Poland, we show that mainstream media can significantly affect religious participation. After nationalist populist party PiS came to power in 2015, news on state and private independent TV diverged due to propaganda on state TV, resulting in a switch of some of its audience to independent TV. Municipalities with access to independent TV continued to follow a long-term secularization trend, while municipalities with access only to state TV experienced a reversal of this trend. An online experiment sheds light on the mechanisms underlying the effect of exposure to independent news on religiosity. (JEL D12, D83, L82, Z12)

Voice-over country? Okay, Boomer. How young viewers are disrupting the AVT landscape in Poland

Poland, historically known as a stronghold of voice-over when it comes to audiovisual translation (AVT), as evidenced by opinion polls of the 1990s and early 2000s, underwent a substantial shift in its AVT landscape with the emergence of streaming services. This paradigm shift not only grants viewers the autonomy to choose what and when to watch, but also enables them to select their preferred AVT type, with many opting against voice-over. This study aims to provide empirical evidence confirming these evolving AVT preferences of Polish viewers. Conducting an online survey of nearly 1300 adult Poles, we explore their AVT preferences and viewing habits across cinemas, television, and streaming platforms. Additionally, we investigate potential genre-related variations in AVT preferences, specifically comparing preferences for dubbing in animation versus live-action content. Our findings show a departure from the traditional preference towards voice-over towards subtitling, particularly prominent among millennials and Generation Z. Young Polish viewers are also increasingly drawn to VOD platforms and away from traditional linear TV broadcasts. Many viewers also express a notable fondness for dubbing in animated productions, especially those nostalgically remembered from childhood.

‘There’s nothing you can do’: multi-level factors affecting the careers of female football coaches in Poland

The main objective of this article is to examine the professional experiences of female football coaches in Poland. Existing research within the field of coaching science has highlighted a noticeable underrepresentation of women in this profession. However, the available data on this topic is limited to specific areas. By utilizing Brofenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study aimed to identify the primary obstacles female coaches encounter and the few factors that support women in this coaching realm. The findings of this study could potentially contribute to a more inclusive and diverse coaching landscape in Poland and beyond. Drawing from qualitative interviews (n = 7), the results illuminate a multifaceted array of challenges the participants face at different stages of their careers, varying in intensity. The findings underscore the remarkable resilience of Polish female coaches, who confront barriers predominantly emanating from socio-cultural presumptions prevailing within the football community. These challenges are compounded by perceptions of the game as inherently ‘masculine’ and Polish society’s conventional constructs of masculinity and femininity.

Human impacts on environment in the preindustrial forest landscapes in Poland—An overview

Quantification of human impact on past forest ecosystems becomes more challenging as one goes deeper into the past. This is primarily due to a scarcity of appropriate source materials. It is well-known that the inclusion of the Polish lands in the zone of economic ties with Western Europe at the end of the 15th century enabled the intensive export of cereal and forest products. In this article, we have used place names established before 1600 not only to demonstrate how ancient forests were exploited but also to reflect on the various environmental effects of these past activities. By analyzing the naming material, we distinguished 3 basic types of names related to logging, industrial production, and wild beekeeping. In addition, we have included several theoretical considerations related to environmental consequences of forest exploitation.

The role of digital toolsin holiday planning among Polish residents

This study delves into the influence of digital platforms, including mobile applicationsand online services, on how Polish residents plan and organise their holidays. Specifically, theresearch identifies which applications are most favored and examines the reasons for theirpopularity. A comprehensive survey was used as the primary research tool, the design andimplementation of which is detailed in the following sections of the paper. This analysis exploreskey concepts such as ‘e-tourism’ and offers visual representations of the findings, highlightingcurrent preferences and trends in relation to digital tools in the tourism sector. Finally, thepaper attempts to define and understand the importance of information technologies in themodern development of the e-tourism sector. By integrating the findings of the survey andprevious studies, the work aims to present a holistic perspective on the factors influencing thecontemporary tourism landscape in Poland.

Social and Environmental Responsibility Manager on the Example of Companies from Poland and Germany

Here, the role of business managers in Poland and Germany in creating responsible business was analyzed. The authors examined CSR strategies, challenges in balancing interests and integrating CSR principles with business practices. They emphasize the importance of education and the active involvement of managers in CSR strategies for the company’s long-term benefits. The article uses three key research methods. The first is a review of the Polish and foreign literature, allowing for an understanding of the global context of CSR. The second method is the analysis of CSR reports from Poland and Germany, giving insight into practices and standards in these countries. The third method is research based on a questionnaire survey conducted in Poland and Germany, enabling a direct understanding of the attitudes and practices of managers. Polish companies lean towards sustainable purchasing and training more than their German counterparts, pointing to a nuanced approach to CSR in Poland. Meanwhile, German firms appear more invested in community and environmental programs, highlighting their particular emphasis on certain social and environmental dimensions of business. There is a clear commitment to CSR in both countries, but the varied nature of the initiatives suggests differing cultural or regulatory influences. Enhancing CSR awareness, particularly around sustainability education and emission reductions, emerges as a priority for both nations. The data indicate that managers are crucial in steering CSR practices, with their active involvement often leading to positive outcomes. The study provides an analysis of current CSR landscapes in Poland and Germany.

Agriculture As the Creator and Guardian Of The Rural Cultural Landscape

Cultural rural landscape in Poland is a subject to further civilizational changes, and this mutual penetration of natural and anthropogenic elements illustrates the relationship between the man and the nature. However recently the idea of sustaining such landscape in good condition has gained ground in science, policy and land use practice.

The Legacies of Transition, Street Renaming and the Material Heritage of Communist Dictatorship in Poland

The fall of communism in Eastern Europe did not bring about a radical and immediate destruction of the material heritage of communist dictatorships in the region. In fact, the process of de-commemoration has been more contested and more protracted than had been anticipated. Thus, what warrants a closer consideration is why this is the case since on the whole public acceptance of the regime change has been very high. This paper considers the case of Poland, the country of the Solidarity movement, which played a major role in the fall of communism in the region. The two-decade-long history of the right-wing nationalists’ attempts to legislate street renaming culminating in the so-called de-communization law of 2016 will serve as a lens for investigating the responses that favoured the de-communization of public space. The paper argues that the protracted nature of the remaking of public landscape in Poland has been the result of the country's transitional legacies and different approaches to transitional justice among the former dissident opposition.

Występowanie, rozwój i podstawowe cechy strukturalne zespołów przyrodniczo-krajobrazowych małych miast Polski

The landscape-nature complex is one of the few forms of protecting landscape visual assets and the only one created by local governments, which may contribute to the preservation of the aesthetics of small towns. The scope of its application has not been recognised so far. The aim of the research was to evaluate the use of landscape-nature complexes in the protection of landscapes of small towns in Poland. The studies embraced the dynamics of the application of this instrument in the last 30 years, its spatial distribution and representativeness in relation to the landscape zones of Poland, the share and location in the urban space, protection motives, as well as structural features. The results show that complexes in the protection of small town landscapes in Poland are used to a small extent, not exceeding a few percent of the cities. There has not been much interest in using this instrument, particularly in the last 10 years. The occurrence of complexes in areas of high landscape values, especially in mountain, foothill, lake and coastal areas, is insufficient and not representative. The area shares are very diverse, but in most cases, they do not exceed a few percent. Complexes are located mainly on the outskirts of towns, less often in the center. The dominant protective motive is the protection of nature, while parks constitute mainly cultural and historical assets. In a small proportion of the complexes, aesthetic and visual values ​​are explicitly indicated as the purpose of protection. The differences in the landform of the complexes are small, as opposed to the cover forms. It is necessary to improve the legal basis for the protection of the existing complexes and to develop unified methods and procedures for their identification, creation and protection.

It Looks Pretty from a Distance : Eco-memory and the Vitality of Holocaust Landscapes in Poland

Abstract: Holocaust scholarship of the post-witness era has turned increasingly to environmental histories of the event as a means of implicating ecological sites and more-than-human lifeforms as powerful agents of memory. In this context, emergent concepts such as ecological memory and witnessing become useful paradigms for representing and remembering the Holocaust in places marked by the absence or erasure of human voices in particular. This article examines the role and representation of these concepts in Polish directors Anka and Wilhelm Sasnal's film It Looks Pretty from a Distance ( Z daleka widok jest piekny , 2011), in which ecological sites and landscapes bring the repressed local history of wartime Jewish murder and Catholic Polish collaboration to the surface of a provincial Polish community. I argue that the film reconceptualises humancentred notions of witnessing and testimony according to the theoretical works of Roseanne Kennedy and Shela Sheikh, and considers how Holocaust representation can portray the vitality of more-than-human ecological landscapes without their romanticisation.

How transport shapes the landscape of large-format food retail trade? Retail geography in Poland – An interactive measure

What does the landscape of the large-format food retail industry look like? Is there a uniform pattern in the distribution of large-format food retail facilities? What is the role of the road transport system in shaping the food retail landscape in Poland? The authors provide answers to these questions by analysing large-format food retail facilities using the location of their catchment areas rather than their physical location. When studying the spatial differentiation of large-format food retailers, the authors assess the factors for the transport component not only in terms of infrastructure, but also regarding its efficiency. The analyses demonstrated the differences between the distribution of large-format food retail facilities (over 200 sq. m., classified as ‘food stores’), presented in two ranges – static and interactional. It employed, inter alia, the authors' own model of private car speeds and an interactional measure of density based on a regression model and a model of potential accessibility. A distinctive aspect of the study is that it assessed the impact of the transport system on the development of the food retail industry. The methodology to address the research questions was implemented to achieve the following major objectives: to describe the spatial structure of the food retail industry and to show the role of transport accessibility in its development. It can be concluded from the analyses that the food retail industry in Poland is diverse, with differences observed at both the national and intraregional scale. The study revealed that the rise in the level of territorial accessibility translates into an increase in the differentiation of the analysed market, thereby proving that a higher efficiency of the road transport system promotes spatial differentiation for the structuring of the grocery market by large players.

Crop Harvesting Can Affect Habitat Selection of Wild Boar (Sus scrofa)

One of the basics of effectively managing a wild boar population is knowledge of its home range, spatial patterns, and habitat use. However, little is known about the reaction of wild boar to changes in the agricultural landscape during the time of harvesting. In this study, we assessed the impact of crop harvesting on habitat selection of wild boar. For this reason, we analyzed radio-collared animals in four summer months (from June to September) in an agricultural landscape in Poland. We analyzed the habitat selection by wild boar with a generalized linear model and Jacob’s selectivity index. The wild boar preference for arable land, pastures and the “other” category showed clear monthly dynamics. In contrast, a stable preference for forests and mosaics was observed throughout all months. The preference of wild boar to arable land dropped significantly in August, which we interpret as the impact of the harvest. We conclude that intensive agriculture contributes to significant changes in the frequency of wild boar in various habitats. This, however, does not apply to all habitats, because forest habitats are constantly visited by wild boar as their main daytime refuge. Moreover, extensive farming, although less attractive for wild boar, is rather neutral and does not alter the abundance of animals in habitats.

The European cultural heritage of the contemporary sacred landscape in Poland and its evaluation based on the example of roadside shrines and crosses

The European cultural heritage of the contemporary sacred landscape in Poland and its evaluation based on the example of roadside shrines and crosses

When Legal Fundamentalism Meets Political Justice: The Case of Poland

To Professor Martin Shapiro, With friendship, gratitude, and admirationThe ruling of 22 October 2020 concerning termination of pregnancy in Case K 1/20, handed down by the body once known as the Polish Constitutional Court, has devastated the legal and social landscape in Poland. The decision ruled as unconstitutional the provision that allowed medically assisted termination in cases where prenatal screening or other medical considerations indicated a high probability of a severe and irreversible abnormality or an incurable disease of the fetus. This analysis argues that the ruling is the most serious attempt to discredit and humiliate the Polish Constitution of 1997, and stands as the ultimate proof of weaponising judicial review. The argument will be made that if one wishes to understand the extent of the capture of independent institutions by the ruling majority, the ruling under consideration must be read and considered in the light of a more general context. Only by going beyond and contextualising it, can one grasp the extent to which the constitutional profile of a state has been altered by methods of unconstitutional capture. The analysis argues that once we contextualise the ruling and view it in a more systemic light, there are important systemic signposts that will help to explain how we arrived here and, more importantly, what is next. These signposts, in turn, contain a cautionary tale of the institutional fragility that is relevant for liberal democracies.

How vegetation impacts preference, mystery and danger in fortifications and parks in urban areas

Parks and heritage fortifications are important components of urban green spaces in many cities in terms of benefitting people and urban nature as well as preserving cultural heritage. Heritage fortifications, like parks, can offer various cultural ecosystem services. Therefore, recognising the preferences of their visitors is relevant from the perspective of creating and managing spaces that are people-friendly. In this research, we have attempted to identify the nature of the relationship between mystery, danger and preferences while considering the complexity of these relationships. Therefore, we examined the preferences expressed by 83 participants for 60 fortified and 60 park landscapes in Poland. The research results indicate that in the case of parks, greenery increases the sense of danger, which lowers preferences, despite the mysterious appeal of such scenery. In turn, vegetation in parks should be shaped in a manner that ensures safety. In the case of forts, the feeling of mystery makes the vegetation more appealing, despite the fact that it evokes a sense of danger. The preservation of vegetation on historical fortifications is advisable because it helps to maintain the mystery that some visitors might enjoy. These findings may help to successfully plan and design sustainable urban green spaces that are visually and socially accessible.

Reform of higher education governance structures in Poland

AbstractThe implementation of a new higher education policy started in Poland in 2020. The new policy seeks to internationalise and transform universities to increase their competitiveness. This article describes the historical context, issues and reasoning behind the reform as well as some of the challenges for the future development of higher education governance structures in Poland. Current efforts to implement the new policy at leading universities in Poland are described as examples of the changing higher education governance landscape in Poland. Despite an ideological shift and change of the political system in 1989 in Poland, higher education governance has been slow to change. Polish scientists have called for higher education reforms to address a host of problems: a mismatch of the structure of the higher education system to social and economic challenges; universities suffer from limited financial autonomy; the quality of higher education is not sufficient; barriers for researchers to pursue excellence that have been identified need to be addressed. In 2016 the Polish government started a process of dialogue with the academic world in Poland, creating the foundations for the new, revolutionary bill of higher education, the Constitution for Science. The new policy of the Polish government bases, in theory, the transformation of universities on their internationalisation to make Polish science an equal partner for leading higher education centres in the world. The example of changes in Polish higher education serves a comparative reference for the development of higher education governance in Europe.

Synagogi w płomieniach. Kres polskiej architektury synagogalnej w latach 1939–1941 w ikonografii niemieckich żołnierzy

The outbreak of World War II marked the beginning of a tragic period in history that determined the fate of Polish Jews. From its first days, the German terror was not only remembered as a prelude to the Holocaust, but also as the beginning of the end of synagogue architecture in Poland. The iconography presented in the article draws attention to the burning synagogues and, at the same time, the end of a world that was indisputably part of the culture, art and identity of Poland before 1939.In the landscape of Poland it constituted a kind of individuality, which in the vocabulary of the Third Reich was perceived as: “Jewish culture and architecture” (Judische Kultur und Architektur), “Jewishtypes” (Judische Typen), “subhumans” (Untermenschen). This is the vocabulary of the German soldier who has occupied Poland since September 1939. And although some of them had already become familiar with this world during the First World War, it was mostly the young recruit born between1920 and 1922 who perceived it in an alien way, unprecedented for him. Convinced of their mission to expand their living space (Lebensraum), and thus their right to rule over Poland and Eastern Europe, the young Germans simultaneously made a visual perception of Polish Jews. The main part the article consists of iconographic documents visualising the silent historical source and studies of the subject created after 1945. They cover the period from 1939 to 1941 and depict the process of destroying Polish synagogue architecture. These are significant years because it was during this period that the largest number of synagogues built in Poland before 1939 were destroyed.

Vernacular memory and implicated communities

Abandoned sites of trauma in Poland appear to be forgotten, but their removal from social and cultural circles is only superficial. Frequently, these sites are inscribed into the local culture of memory and members of the local Polish communities can usually locate them and share stories about them. However, as they are not commemorated, there is an ambivalent aura around them. In 2017 two foundations (Zapomniane Foundation, The Matzevah Foundation) carried out an intervention into the landscape of Poland by marking thirty burial sites of Jewish victims of the Holocaust with simple wooden markers. The effects of that intervention shed light on the vernacular local memory of the Holocaust and the folk-traditional roots of the practices and behaviors related to these sites.

Archaeology in the Shadow of Schindler’s List

This paper presents some of the preliminary results of non-invasive and invasive archaeological research on the terrain of a former German Nazi labour and concentration camp in P?aszów, a suburb of Kraków. The starting point is a reference to Schindler’s List – a film that is partially about the camp (KL Plaszow in German) and which created a certain social picture of it. This paper discusses the history of archaeological research relating to Holocaust landscapes in Poland, and sketches the historical context related to the opening, functioning, closing and later reusing of the campscape. The last section provides a glimpse into the archaeological field research and its results. The main thesis of this paper is that the history of World War II, including the Holocaust, is transforming in front of our eyes into archaeology. The paper shows how archaeology can play an active and crucial role in discovering, documenting and interpreting material remains related to the Holocaust and its manifold consequences.