Introduction to the research into the developmental challenges of contemporary cities

Abstract

Cities today are facing many developmental challenges which have recently become the subject of wide and detailed research in Poland and abroad by scientists as well as officials at units of territorial centres of local government. Studies on problems encountered by developing cities today are also being conducted at the City Office in Poznań, within an international project Cities
of change – cooperation of cities in the field of city development financed by the European Committee as part of the programme Europe for Citizens.

The three groups of tasks on which contemporary cities focus in particular, are city management and strategic monitoring, social consultations, and surveys on the quality of life. This narrowing of the main focus of city development to three main issues has been largely the responsibility
of local authorities and scholars, participants of an international project Cities of change, representing many European cities and regions from Bologna, Bucharest, Dublin, Dyneburg, Florence, Hague, Hengelo, Klaipeda, Murcia, Padua, Poznań, Rennes, Wolverhampton, and the Metropolitan Region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg.

The purpose of the research into selected problems facing today’s cities was to integrate the efforts and experiences of a wide circle of scientists and practitioners (city managers) in a debate on strategic issues of significant importance for the development of cities today leading to the publication of this volume. The successful accomplishment of this task meant, on the one hand, relying on the vast knowledge of recognised scholars, and on the other, involving in the research young academics who do not hesitate to ask daring questions and embark on a long quest to answer them. It also encouraged us to integrate the expertise and experience of leading members of local authorities who agreed to put down on paper and share findings of their research prompted by practical observations.

This approach allowed to combine a broad and diverse spectrum of opinions and research results that together constitute a synergic view of the developmental challenges that face contemporary cities. And yet, certain issues have only been raised, others merely touched upon, thus leaving a certain feeling of incompleteness or imprecision, usually due to the still lingering need for clear solutions regarding the conceptual apparatus.

The issues analysed, however, have failed to fall into the thematic blocks characteristic of the journal Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny, which are legal, economic and sociological. It also turned out impossible to draw clear-cut lines between issues related to strategic monitoring, social consultations, or a quality of life survey. As a result it became necessary to introduce a new ‘categorisation’ of issues, which now have been divided into the following thematic areas: strategy of city development, forms of participatory spatial planning and making it a social issue, participatory instruments of management, public administration, city economy and city  development prospects. Such grouping underlines the multi-dimensional, non-standard and interdisciplinary character of the research conducted and its results.