Abstract:
Since 1989 Warsaw [Warszawa] has been marked by considerable functional change, accompanied by modernisation of its physical tissue. Yet, there are some factors that can retard Warsaw’s future development. Among them, the most important appears to be the persisting social and economic disparities between the city and its surrounding region. This problem is discerned in strategic spatial policy documents and tends to be addressed in two ways: One of these aims at the generation of spill-over of economic activity towards the peri-urban zone and an enlargement of the city labour market via investment in transportation infrastructure. Another approach is to promote functional polycentricity at the regional level by focusing on the development of the so-called sub-regional centres – several medium-sized cities situated within the radius of ca. 100–120 kilometres from Warsaw, with the goal of strengthening interurban, intra-regional linkages. In this paper some limitations of the above-mentioned approaches are exposed, and an alternative path for the evolution of the city-region relations is outlined, based on the concept of the urban-rural region. This concept emphasises the importance of environmental assets as factors in attracting migrants and economic activities including knowledge- intensive functions to peripherally situated, smaller urban and rural places. In the case of the Region of Warsaw with its extensive, amenity-rich rural countryside, such a development perspective may seem especially relevant. Against this background, in the paper some results are presented and interpreted that are derived from a research project conducted by the author focusing on the development of cultural-cognitive functions in selected small and medium-size towns in the Region.