Abstract
The chapter describes the regional patterns of the 1989–1992 recession, the recovery that began in 1992 and the process of growth that proceeded uninterrupted until 2019 (albeit with periods of a slow-down), when the COVID-19 pandemic brought a short recession. These processes are compared with regional and spatial doctrines, official policy standpoints, and real implementations (which are not necessarily functionally connected) existing after 1990. Whenever possible, comparisons with other post-socialist countries are made. One needs to remember that the recession of 1989–1992 came after the decade of stagnation that was preceded by the serious crisis of 1978–1982. In both cases, the regional patterns were significant.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
It has to be remembered that this reform went against the European stream: France, Italy and Spain introduced new larger regions that replace or supplemented small territorial units.
- 3.
More on this in Gorzelak 1994.
- 4.
I am far from blaming this approach. Personally, I am convinced that the “shock therapy” was the best possible way of coping with transformation, and any “gradual” trajectories would lead slower recovery with even higher overall social and economic costs.
- 5.
It has to be admitted that I have always agreed with “efficiency’ as the main principle of Polish spatial and regional policy and promoted it in this and consecutive discussions and deliberations.
- 6.
This was not the fortunate term. Several times I suggested to use instead a more modest and less antagonising notion of “concentration and diffusion”, but this advice was not taken.
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Gorzelak, G. (2022). Regional Patterns of the Transformation and Policy Responses. In: Churski, P., Kaczmarek, T. (eds) Three Decades of Polish Socio-Economic Transformations. Economic Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06108-0_2
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