This article sought to present a process of abrupt transition where technological innovation is concerned. The matter taken up in particular was accelerating digitalisation, in the wider context of digital transformation, and in this case, in reference to spatial planning issues. This article offers an assessment of the level of digitalisation and digital transformation of spatial planning, with this, in turn, making it possible to define the potential at the disposal of rural areas, as they seek to bring in the idea of smart rural development. The empirical analyses present herein are founded upon secondary statistical data as well as our own primary data on the subject of geoportals and their functionality in rural parts of the Łódź region (Poland). The assessments of both planning coverage and geoportal functionality reported herein provide insight regarding the potential for rural areas to implement the concept of GeoDesign, as an integral part of “smart rural development”. The research carried out made it clear that only a fifth of rural gminas in the region are of high potential where GeoDesign is concerned, while every third gmina has only very low potential. A further key conclusion is that rural gminas heading along the path of “smart development” may break out of a spatial order existing thus far on the basis of disparities, and a division of regions into a centre and peripheries. This is of major significance in the context of the diffusion of innovation that digitalisation and digital transformation represent.

This paper presents a methodology to assess the internal and external coherence, and the robustness to future uncertainty, of place-based interventions addressing spatial (in)justice. The methodology merges elements of Theory of Change (ToC) and mechanism mapping with scenario planning. It was designed based on analysis of a range of European interventions (public policies and bottom-up initiatives), selected to highlight the ways spatial injustices have been tackled across different scales. The first phase of the methodology uses a ToC mechanism map to illustrate the logic of the intervention, including its baseline assumptions (internal) and contextual conditions (external). In the second phase, scenarios for the locality are developed based on potential states of global and local macro-trends, revealing how the contextual conditions are expected to change, and whether the intervention's baseline assumptions are likely to hold. This then allows the elaboration of spatial justice trajectories, and for the ToC mechanism map to be updated. To effectively illustrate the methodology, we show how it has been applied using a case study intervention implemented in a territorially disadvantaged area. We present the methodology as a flexible tool allowing detection of more general stylised facts, and spatial comparisons between a broad range of interventions.

This article addresses the problematic county of Wieruszow-a peripheral area of Poland, constituting a classic case of historical development away from urban agglomerations, additionally burdened by the stigma of a former near-border location, and later (including today) functioning at the fringe of an administrative district. The area in question exemplifies structural transformations associated with changes in patterns of accessibility to large urban agglomerations following the coming into operation of a key expressway. The work detailed here has sought to analyse the aforementioned area’s position vis-a-vis accessibility, as set against the background of factors justifying the description of “inner periphery”. An essential element in accounting for any strategy for overcoming this peripherality takes the form of the results of in-depth interviews carried out by the authors. Joint consideration of the two perspectives mentioned, i.e. the structural (showing the position of a given area in relation to its proximate (regional) and ultimate (national) environments), and the social (i.e. the expert assessment), ultimately allowed for an assessment of opportunities and threats as far as the overcoming of peripherality in its geographic and social dimensions is concerned.

Urban space, especially that of large cities, is not homogeneous, but consists rather of particular elements characterized by clarity, expressiveness and distinction, which generate both positive and negative emotions among citizens. A good basis by which to evaluate a city is therefore provided, and it has been the aim of the work described in this article to identify and interpret places that are characterized by different qualities, i.e. places of significance where individual social experiences of the Polish city of Łódź are concerned. Specifically, the aim in question has been fulfilled through the use of the photo projective method, which makes possible the creation of a subjective image of a city by reference to photographs taken by those experiencing urban space

The aim of this paper is to discuss how inhabitants of selected villages in Poland perceive their living space, what meanings they assign to it and what is important for them in their nearest neighbourhoods. The presented research is set within the cultural approach in rural geography, in which the notion of experienced and imagined rural spaces is central. We answer the question whether there are any general patterns referring to the process of transforming the space into a “place”, defined by the individual understanding of rurality, strengthening local identity and place attachment. Research was based on guided individual in-depth interviews in order to extract inhabitants’ narratives about the selected villages. Individual stories collected along the study reveal an image of the countryside as significant, often beloved, and close place, marked with a special meaning and value for interviewees, shaping their sense of self and place attachment. The interpretation of these narratives is structured into four categories of “anchors” and “magnets” focused on: 1) the village as a place of generational continuity, attachment, and rootedness; 2) the village as a place of cultivating local customs and remembrance of important historical events; 3) the village as an important, close, and familiar place; 4) the village as an attractive place to live and referred to the person-process-place framework of place attachment.