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The research problem is minority participation in local development, illustrated by the case of the Lithuanian minority's activities in Poland. The aim of the paper is to analyse actions conducted by the Lithuanian minority in Poland (Puosk) and to point out some factors supporting cross-border cultural cooperation engaging the national minority, based on best practices from the Lithuanian-Polish borderland. It is a good illustration of a process leading to the improvement of relations between neighbouring countries, thanks to cross-border cooperation based on the minority's activities. The authors analyse a case study regarding Polish commune development strongly influenced by Lithuanian culture and the Lithuanian minority's activities. It is analysed in the paper together with qualitative research (interviews) that allowed the research problem to be solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparations for the EU's post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework have brought increased interest to the functional approach as a major paradigm of the EU policies towards cross-border areas. This approach aims to focus cross-border programmes on territories where there is a high degree of cross-border interaction. Cross-border functional areas (CBFAs) can be a potential instrument for this, fostering further reduction of cross-border barriers and enhancing flows of people, goods, materials and knowledge. However, certain aspects of this notion are rather vague. This includes both the way how to turn the rather discursive concept of the CBFA into more material-institutional practices, and how CBFAs can be identified in practice to successfully implement the EU's cohesion policy. This paper debates the concept of the CBFA and proposes understanding CBFAs as spatially specific territorial complexes, located on two (or more) sides of a state border(s) that are not defined by administrative borders, but by cross-border functional linkages, a system of cooperative relationships and the existence of governance mechanisms. The paper proposes a novel approach for CBFA's identification based on a four-level model, taking into account the selected criteria. The proposed framework enabled to identify CBFAs and potential CBFAs at the borders of Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the memoryscapes of Cieszyn Silesia, Orawa and Spisz in a context of the border conflicts of the twentieth century. The regions located on the current Czech-Polish and Slovak-Polish border have lived through paralleled histories of the border demarcation after WWI, which was unprecedented there. In both cases the national minorities were left behind the border, outside of their home states. Their stories and memories are, however, not being researched together. This paper contrasts the patterns of memory production related to the border shifts in the landscape in both regions. Emphasis is placed on the memory sites, their narratives and memory activism related to the conflicting past. The results show that the main axes of both memory debates are contrasting. While the conflict over Cieszyn Silesia was most shaped by the short war in 1919, the lesser-known dispute over Orawa and Spisz was marked by numerous smaller incidents, assimilation efforts and a layer of post WWII violence. This has important consequences for the memory production. The other important differentiating factor is the scope of memory activism inside of the national minority group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Space & Society / Tér és Társadalom is the property of Centre for Economic & Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Richard Florida claims that members of the "creative class" move to cities, perceived as open and conducive to creative work - a phenomenon which Florida insists is a fundamental economic driver in the Western world. This includes academics and researchers and results in the transfer of knowledge and skills. As the concept of "creative class" was coined in the United States, we may pose the question if it is applicable in other social contexts. The geographical focus of the current paper is on the Polish borderlands. We investigate how international academic commuters, i.e. academics travelling to work in Poland from the neighbouring countries, contribute to the knowledge transfer, or more broadly, the "creative transfer". This study, a part of a broader research project involving 100 foreign-born scholars working in Poland, uses a sub-sample of the 16 in-depth interviews with international commuting scholars (as opposed to those who presently live in Poland). The results show that most of the internationally commuting scholars come to Poland strictly to deliver teaching. Focused on this goal, they do not take part in social or cultural life in Poland. Although not earning enough money in their home countries, they do not want to move permanently to Poland. Instead, they use the opportunities given by living near the border. These practices make them more similar to regular economic migrants, rather than members of the "creative class", although some traces of the "creative transfer" can be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge of the politics of the Anthropocene is how to respond to the protests of nature: how to elaborate modes of thought, collective action and social institutions through which non-human agents can be integrated into political communities, even as non-humans exceed our understanding and remain a subject of difference. This paper looks at how the contested borderland forest, Białowieża, at the Polish-Belarusian border helps us think across protest culture during post-socialism. We examine the Białowieża forest as a site of, participant in and provoker of a series of protests: those against national park expansion, against logging, in support of bark beetle rewilding, of far right radical movements and for or against Middle Eastern and African asylum seekers crossing through the forest since EU sanctions were imposed on Belarus in 2021. We do so in order to suggest that these protests should be read as a continuum that enables reflection into why this forest is a key site of protest; that exploring them as a continuum reveals something about an emergent ecology of protest; and that this exploration offers an insight into what is at stake if we see the forest itself as protesting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Second World War the Polish-Slovak borderland became a zone of serious tensions. Particularly controversial is the activity of the Polish partisan group "Błyskawica", led by Józef Kuraś "Ogień". The soldiers are responsible for takings of private property and acts of violence carried out in villages in South Poland that were inhabited mostly by Slovaks. This paper - based mainly on the query at the Archives of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance - aims to present the scale and circumstances of those activities. The work takes wider historical context into account and uses selected anthropological and sociological theories. In this perspective, it seems justified to explain the analyzed events through the mechanism of revenge, widespread in the post-war period of anomie and crisis. Sources indicate that the Polish partisans' actions from the years 1946-1947 were not attempts to pacify the Slovak separatists (although some authors claim so) but rather repressions for the earlier actions of members of that nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The differences in welfare amongst European countries are especially evident in border regions, and this affects cross-border cooperation and relationships. Due to the historical development of Central and Eastern European countries over the last century, the affected countries are unique "laboratories" for geographical research. This study assesses disparities in socio-economic indicators representing socio-economic phenomena in the Czech-Polish border region, through the analysis of cross-border (spatial) continuity, using quantitative methods (multivariate statistics and socio-economic profiling), GIS analysis and cartographic visualisation. It is demonstrated how such a combination of methods is useful for the comparison and evaluation of the complex socio-economic situations in neighbouring countries. This research project identifies the most suitable common indicators for a proper evaluation of cross-border (spatial) continuity, and it reveals the spatial patterns as reflected by a cluster analysis. The greatest cross-border (spatial) continuity is apparent in the easternmost part of the borderlands, while significant differences on both sides of the border are evident in the very central part of the areas under study. The paper also describes methodological aspects of the research in order to provide a quantitative approach to borderland studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The opening up of borders in Europe since 1989 has created vast possibilities for trade and cultural interaction. The collapse of the Iron Curtain has seen a radical shift in the reconfiguration and re-administration of the European borders landscape. Formerly hostile borders now resemble ever expanding economic and cultural bridges. Great strides have been made towards integration throughout vast areas in both Western and former Soviet Bloc economies (Mazurkiewicz 1992). An interconnected single market has been created where once only barriers existed. Links have been fashioned between countries, societies and individuals. Nonetheless certain border areas are still difficult to access and continue to challenge not only to wider EU economic integration, but also individual aspirations. This paper reflects interviews conducted along the Polish-Russian border near Braniewo in Warmia-Mazury County, Poland. This area still has a militarized and bureaucratic border, requiring individuals to make an effort to access the other side. During individual interviews, conducted in summer 2012, two common themes were expressed. The first was of people making the most of the border which contrasted with others having no desire to cross or know what is on the other side. The first group made a choice to (inter)act and tolerated the current border situation. The second group instead chose to focus their lives inwards away from the border, highlighting the border as a kind of living entity with its own identity. This paper will discuss these themes and how individuals interact because of the existing border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Regionalne i Lokalne is the property of University of Warsaw and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper I will re-examine the theories reigning in the literature concerning the question of the time and method of middle age settlement in the areas of southern Greater Poland and northern Lower Silesia. In the context of research concerning borderlands conducted by representatives of various humanistic disciplines, I have analyzed the existing findings of both historians and archaeologists that point to the presence of a void of colonizing settlement in the area under Piast rulers. Furthermore, I have also proposed the commencement of research on the topic of settlement in southern Greater Poland and northern Lower Silesia by means of utilizing an analytical category - face-to-face society used for small, local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Science Policy & Practice is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper addresses the way that religious affiliation and conversion shape ongoing tensions over historical periods of exile, resettlement, exodus and elimination in a small town on the Eastern Polish border. I explore how local Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian’s negotiations of a troubled past are materialized and managed through narrating family histories of conversion, In particular, this paper focuses on the compromises that enable mixed faith marriages and the conflicts that emerge over the burial of religious converts. In these negotiations, members of both congregations deploy the local model of “neighbourliness” and the ideal of the borderlander, to greater and lesser success. Day-to-day the practice of considered neighbourliness helps local people to acknowledge and minimize religious and ethnic difference. However, conversion brings the realms of religion and relatedness into conjunction in a risky manner: marriage may offer an opportunity to enhance neighbourly connections, but burial is an event where the tensions over histories of conflict become apparent disrupting neighbourly relations and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Seven years after the accession of Poland and the Czech Republic into the European Union (EU) the intensity and the quality of cross-border cooperation along the new internal borders are still lagging behind. The physical barriers have been removed with the Schengen Agreement coming into force in 2007. However, the legal, institutional and mental barriers of cross-border cooperation still persist. Cross-border cooperation in spatial planning is often discontinuous and does not meet the expectations of the concerned parties. At the same time, the political pressure to cooperate is high and considerable financial means are available for territorial cooperation in the EU Structural Funds period of 2007-2013. On the basis of three case studies in the area of the German-Polish border, the paper illustrates that there is a lack of knowledge and deficient competences for cross-border cooperation in municipalities and regional administrations. Impeding and supporting factors for cooperation have been identified. It has been proven that institutional capacity among the cooperating partners is crucial. The paper presents recommendations on how to design and manage cross-border communications to achieve transboundary strategy development for efficient and sustainable regional development in Central Europe's border regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Technical Transactions / Czasopismo Techniczne is the property of Sciendo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper discusses the phenomenon of "decentralization" of literature and literary culture in Poland after 1989. The author focuses his attention on regional cultural magazines, literature in selected regions as well as on regionalism in literary studies. He analyzes their relationship with the activation and empowerment of local intellectual and literary communities, the transformation of their social identity and the revision of history and collective memory. Literature and literary studies of the regions, according to the author, contributed to the transformation of Polish culture, creating in it a space for the voice of minorities, migrants, expellees and inhabitants of the borderlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this paper is the phenomenon of the so called phantom borders - former political borders, presently non-existing, however influencing the social environment. Concentrating on practices, collections and landscape we attempt to integrate three disciplines: sociology, museology and landscape architecture to study today's manifestations of these boundaries separating the territories of Poland for 123 years. Recognizing the perspective of borderscaping we assume (phantom) borders as complex and multilevel phenomena thus requiring holistic approach reflected in the application of aforementioned disciplines during intensive ethnographic studies of former Kingdom of Poland and Kingdom of Galicia borderland communities. We argue that successful integration of methods can be based on the assumption of materiality as a common element of interactions, collections and space, making possible - in the second step - a study of meanings invoked by these tangible components and then a recreation of material-symbolic systems shaping everyday life and festive times of phantom-borderlands communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the issue of the state border. It emphasizes the fact that the state border is a multi-component and multifunctional phenomenon. It was proved that a legally established and internationally recognized border acquires a sign of politicality. The political boundary is a holistic and dynamic phenomenon, inherent in the internal logic of development. The issues of functioning and institutional support of state borders were generalized. The influence of state borders on the development of border territories was revealed. A scheme for the development and integration of contact border areas has been developed. The factors of contact border regions development were studied, as well as the process of various types of regional socio-economic systems formation under the condition of the predominance of state border certain functions. The importance of the functioning of state borders and the development of border regions for the formation of various types of ties, the level of stability of the border and the formation of a political environment have been clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russian disinformation carried out as part of the ongoing war in Ukraine is becoming a challenge for neighbouring countries that border the conflict region. The aim of the analysis was to identify common features between Russian disinformation in Moldova and Poland, which, as two of the countries that border Ukraine, were on a list of Russia’s main targets for disinformation in 2022. The geopolitical and historical importance of both countries increases their social polarisation. The study was therefore guided by the following research question: What common features can be distinguished between Russian disinformation in Moldova and Poland? The research took the form of an open comparison. According to the approach used, the empirical cases used for comparison were not explicitly limited a priori. In order to carry out the research, however, preliminary assumptions were adopted that ensured temporal, conceptual, and interpretative comparability of the data. Research results proved that Russian disinformation in both countries is based on the following common features: creating internal divisions, propagation of distrust towards the West, stimulating social emotions, use of social media, and popularising pro-Russian narratives. Analysing these areas may be helpful in increasing the ability of states to detect and disclose disinformation. Scientific publications describing Russian disinformation focus on the national perspective, which does not always correspond to the transnational nature of disinformation campaigns. Meanwhile, this article synthesises knowledge about disinformation mechanisms occurring in two countries bordering the conflict region and draws attention to the need for research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Everyday lives at the borders have lately been of interest in academic research. Drawing on visual elicitation interviews, this study analyses how ethnic Lithuanians living on the Polish borderland interpret images of the landscape which they inhabit. The aim of this analysis is to understand how these borderlanders position themselves vis-à-vis socio-spatial borderland realities, and how visual materials can instigate extensive plotted narratives. The results demonstrate that the Lithuanian minority in Poland not only challenges or accepts the public narratives, but that they also use them as props to create a unified narrative about their identification and belonging, which transgresses time, place and situated events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mirwaldt K. The small projects fund and social capital formation in the Polish–German border region: an initial appraisal, Regional Studies. This paper examines the small projects fund, a European Union-funded initiative to promote good citizen relations across borders. This paper presents this fund as an attempt to foster ‘social capital’ in the Polish–German border region. The fund is examined in light of seven conditions of social capital formation. In the Polish–German border region, the fund scores well on the first four conditions, related to the promotion of individual trust. It performs less well on the three conditions for scaling up individual trust to form social capital. However, it remains to be seen whether small project support can deliver improved citizen relations. Mirwaldt K. Le fonds de microprojets et la formation de capital social dans la zone frontalière polono-allemande: une première évaluation, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche à examiner le fonds de microprojets, une initiative financée par l'Union européenne visant la promotion du civisme transfrontalier. On présente ce fonds comme une tentative d'encourager le ‘capital social’ dans la zone frontalière polono-allemande. On examine le fonds à la lumière de sept conditions de la formation de capital social. Dans la zone frontalière polono-allemande, le fonds obtient un bon score pour ce qui est des quatres premières conditions, qui se rapportent à la promotion de la confiance individuelle. Il obtient de pires résultats quant aux trois conditions nécessaires à l'augmentation de la confiance individuelle afin de former le capital social. Cependant, il reste à savoir si, oui ou non, l'aide financière pour le développement des petits projets peut assurer un civisme amélioré. Fonds de microprojets?Capital social?Eurorégions?Frontière polono-allemande Mirwaldt K. Der Kleinprojektefonds und der Aufbau von Sozialkapital in der deutsch-polnischen Grenzregion: eine erste Bewertung, Regional Studies. Dieser Artikel behandelt den Kleinprojektefonds, eine EU-finanzierte Initiative, die gutnachbarschaftliche Bürgerbeziehungen über Grenzen hinweg fördert. Der Fonds kann in der deutsch-polnischen Grenzregion als ein Versuch, ,Sozialkapital' aufzubauen, gewertet werden. Er wird hier im Hinblick auf sieben Voraussetzungen für die Entstehung von Sozialkapital analysiert. In der deutsch-polnischen Grenzregion schneidet der Fonds bei den ersten vier Voraussetzungen, die das zwischenmenschliche Vertrauen betreffen, gut ab. Weniger gut erfüllt der Fonds drei Voraussetzungen, um individuelles Vertrauen in Sozialkapital zu umzuwandeln. Es bleibt daher abzuwarten, ob der Kleinprojektefonds dauerhaft die Bürgerbeziehungen verbessern kann. Kleinprojektefonds?Sozialkapital?Euroregionen?Deutsch-polnische Grenze Mirwaldt K. El fondo para proyectos pequeños y la formación de capital social en la región fronteriza entre Polonia y Alemania: una valoración inicial, Regional Studies. En este artículo se analiza el fondo para proyectos pequeños, una iniciativa financiada por la Unión Europea para fomentar las buenas relaciones transfronterizas entre los ciudadanos. Este fondo se caracteriza como un intento de fomentar el ‘capital social’ en la región fronteriza entre Polonia y Alemania. Se examina el fondo teniendo en cuenta siete condiciones de la formación de capital social. En la región fronteriza entre Polonia y Alemania, el fondo puntúa bien en las primeras cuatro condiciones relacionadas con el fomento de la confianza individual. El desempeño es peor en cuanto a las tres condiciones para aumentar el nivel de la confianza individual a fin de formar capital social. Sin embargo, queda por ver si el apoyo a los pequeños proyectos puede mejorar las relaciones entre los ciudadanos. Fondo para proyectos pequeños?Capital social?Eurorregiones?Frontera entre Polonia y Alemania [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper was to analyze the role of border and borderland type in transborder cooperation. To this end, 591 projects under six Interreg IIIA Programs in which Polish border regions participated from 2004 to 2006 were examined. These programs were compared to identify the various factors influencing projects in different border regions. Although research on cooperation usually focuses on a national scale, actual cooperation depends largely on regional and local conditions, which are the focus of this study. Despite a common legal and institutional framework, the Interreg projects were not all realized in the same way. Different local conditions had impacts on programs and implementation. Therefore, the effectiveness and achievement of transborder cooperation objectives depended on the modification of each program to specific regional conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Old maps, mainly from the period between 1890 and 1940, have been collected in the framework of the project "Old Maps of the Jizera Mountains". These maps provide us with a complex picture, mainly of tourism, in this currently Czech–Polish territory. The territory of the Jizera Mountains was inhabited mainly by a German-speaking population on both sides of the border until 1945. Yet it is interesting to examine how the border between the two states – in those times Czechoslovakia and Germany, now Czechia and Poland – was illustrated on these old maps. This article argues that the border was not perceived as a barrier as such until later on, mainly due to the ethnic change in the borderlands. It also reveals that the borders on the maps are of manifold nature and cannot be simply limited to the national borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The (non)contribution of schools towards cross-border integration in the divided town of Těšín/Cieszyn, located on the Czech-Polish border, is analysed in this article. The pandemic-related border closures revealed a substantial level of togetherness in this town, manifested by various social activities. Moreover, a part of these (during the pandemic restricted) cross-border social practices were those in education. We applied a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to diagnose the directions of cross-border educational flows, the approach of schools towards the identified joint cross-border social practices, and the possible level of togetherness. As a result, one-sidedness (Polish pupils attending schools in the Czech Republic) of cross-border flows was identified – which also follows the direction of a cross-border workforce. Except for the schools with Polish as the instruction language, located in the Czech part of the town, primarily serving Polish speakers living in the Czech Republic, we can mention hardly any mutually shared feeling of togetherness and an actual place-based approach towards educational governance in this divided town. We observe some ties in education between the autochthonous Polish minority in the Czech Republic and the Poles in Poland, without the involvement of pupils or teachers of Czech ethnicity, who do not reflect opportunities behind the border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the financing of border regions from the point of view of the use of selected EU funds. It analyses INTERREG A funds designed to support cross-border cooperation. The purpose of the research was to identify and analyse innovative projects undertaken under INTERREG A programmes in Polish-German areas. The territorial scope of the study corresponded to the assisted area outlined for the purposes of these programmes. It included Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship on the Polish side, and Mecklenburg- Vorpommern and Brandenburg on the German side. The temporal scope covered three programming periods: 2000-2006 (Poland only joined it in 2004), 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 (still ongoing). The studies were based on an analysis of material obtained from INTERREG A online project databases, as well as the available reports and other sources. The results confirmed that INTERREG A programmes provided opportunities for innovative projects, the share of which, among all the projects completed was small, but essential from the point of view of the development of a cross-border region. The innovative projects were mostly in the field of healthcare. The structure of the entities performing such projects was diversified, although higher education institutions prevailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freedom of movement, one of the benefits of European Union (EU) membership, is experienced at the borders of member states, where custom checkpoints stand deserted as people move feely between EU countries. Borderlands have become spaces for the diffusion of goods, people and ideas and in a new era of cross-border cooperation these traditionally peripheral regions have become laboratories for the study of EU integration. This paper discusses the changes in the border crossing experiences of Polish citizens living in the Polish border town of Słubice and their attitudes towards the cooperation between residents of Słubice and the German city of Frankfurt-Oder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pro-German family and health policies were, at their core, anti-Polish measures that cleared the path for later racially determined politics. The sources demonstrate how these policies were justified and how their character developed from protective to invasive. Therefore, I examine first protective discourses about the fight against venereal diseases, then analyze supportive regulations such as the midwifery policies and the later invasive measures like sterilizations. Although these seem to be different topics, I show that the German "people's family" (Volksfamilie) and its significance for the health of the German "people's body" (Volkskörper) is always implied. Using a close-reading approach that considers newspaper articles, administrative and private files, I show the extent to which national and nationalist beliefs interfered with the everyday life of citizens. The text thus scrutinizes unpublished sources regarding the strategic importance of families in German biopolitics and its interpretation in the conflicted border region of Upper Silesia. In 1921, a plebiscite was held to decide on the division of the region. This intensified conflicts between Germany and Poland, which had just gained independence in 1918. I argue that the unstable position of the new emerged country was instrumentalized in German discourses to underline the image of the disorganized and underdeveloped East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the Soviet nationality policy in Belarus in 1944–1947 during the population exchange between the Soviet Union and Poland. Unlike in Lithuania and Ukraine, the authorities in Belarus prioritized keeping the labor force over national homogenization, determined nationality by territory of birth, and attempted to keep the people by designating them as Belarusians irrespective of their self-identification. The article argues that in Belarus, the population transfer was a combination of an exodus of refugees with the expulsion of Poles by the state. Although the declarations about the voluntary character of the resettlement were false, the direction of the compulsion varied, and this ambivalence opened up a space of limited autonomy in which the people could exercise agency. The Soviet ethnic cleansing remained incomplete in Soviet Belarus because of the competing urge to keep the labor force. Paradoxically, much of the demographic de-Polonization of new western territories of Soviet Belarus was achieved without the state's commitment to ethnic cleansing and without the involvement of Belarusian nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the example of links between a group of cities acting as regional capitals in Poland and bordering foreign regions, the article presents the differences between the infrastructure links and the transport offer available in rail transport. The analysis of individual relations allows for a comparison of potential and actual travel possibilities. The first part of the study describes the research method and sources used, and includes an analysis of the infrastructure potential and the actual transport offer. The second part presents a structured overview of the parameters of connections made between provincial cities and the capitals of neighbouring countries and foreign regions. The third part presents an assessment and description of the degree of utilisation of the infrastructure potential. The whole is concluded by a summary, indicating the low quality, in many cases unjustified by external conditions, of international railway connections of Polish regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to determine the awareness measures of consumers from Eastern Poland and Western Ukraine towards regional food products, including consumer knowledge on regional products available in the media and their availability on the food market. The effort was made to compare consumers' opinions on the reasons for purchasing regional food and ways of distinguishing it from conventional products, as well as on the availability of regional products. Consumer awareness—that is, making informed choices based on the knowledge we have—is a measure of attitudes and cognition, and sometimes can be directed towards the brand, which is the product's regional designation. Therefore, it is necessary to comment that attitudes towards regionality can generate a behavioral intent. A diagnostic survey with an author's questionnaire was used in the study, which helped to survey 1128 respondents from Eastern Poland—that is, from the Podlaskie, Lublin, and Subcarpathia regions—and 1072 from Western Ukraine, including the Volyn, Lviv, and Transcarpathia regions. Discriminant function analysis was used in statistical analysis. Both residents of Eastern Poland and Western Ukraine obtained information on regional food products from their friends or family and from television (TV), internet, and regional fairs. Consumers from both countries pointed at too many possibilities of purchasing regional products; at the same time, they paid attention to a limited number of points of sale. TV and Internet have a great promotional potential to educate young consumers focused on the purchase of regional food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Regionalne i Lokalne is the property of University of Warsaw and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this paper is to analyse the images of the border in two Polish movies: Yuma (2012) and In Heaven as it is on Earth (1998). Although they belong to different genres, the border is a major theme in both films. This essay refers to the three points of interest concerning border movie analysis suggested by Dodds (2013), namely: the materiality of borders; different aspects of border crossings; and governance issues. His approach is combined with Lotman's (1990) "boundary of a semiosphere". The literature concerning American border cinema is also considered. It may be argued that both movies represent the understanding of borders in the current border studies agenda (Scott 2011). This means that they are shown as incoherent and mutually conflicting constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Escape tourism seems to be difficult to define. It is related to many different kinds of tourism, including the so-called Robinson tourism. Given that escape tourists' motives, ways of travelling and activities vary widely, the article deals with general conditions which may trigger the decision to undertake escape tourism. It also examines geographical spaces that are potential destinations for escapees thanks to their remote location or specific features. The article applies theoretical considerations to the consideration of Poland's tourist space as a source of possible 'escape destinations', finding that geographical spaces traditionally considered suitable for escape tourism – borderlands, peripheries or geographical extremes – have decreased in importance as the phenomenon migrates towards less obvious places and forms of psychological refuge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to show the process of reconstructing institutional, and grass-roots, cross-border relations in the Pieniny area of the borderland between Poland and Slovakia after 1989. By virtue of a decision issued in 1920 by the Council of Ambassadors, an international border between Poland and Czechoslovakia was established. For over a hundred years the permeability of the border was regulated by political decisions and diplomatic relations between both countries. The border marked by the Dunajec River divided the community of Pieniny highlanders, creating a barrier which, in some periods, was completely impassable. The article is based on field research conducted in two villages called Sromowce Niżne and Červený Kláštor. The research was supplemented with a review of legacy data as well as one of institutional sources which documented the process of establishing formal cooperation between Poland and Slovakia at a local level (as part of Euroregion as well as The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation TATR). An analysis of the empirical material proved that the key moment that initiated the restoration of cross-border relations in the researched area of the Pieniny borderland after 1989 was the signing of the Declaration of the Territorial Self-Governments of the Republic of Poland and the Slovak Republic regarding the creation of the "Tatry" Region on 31 October 1993, and finally the signing of an Agreement between Polish and Slovak self-governments on establishing a cross-border association for the "Tatry" Euroregion at a Founding Congress in Nowy Targ on 26 August 1994. The culminating point of the Polish-Slovak rapprochement at the local level was the opening of a footbridge on the Dunajec River (12 August 2006), connecting the villages of Sromowce Niżne and Červený Kláštor, which enabled the reunification of both communities and the reconstruction of mature, neighbourly cross-border relations somewhat in isolation from the issue of the location of the actual border. One hundred years of Polish-Slovak cross-border relations can be pithily summed up in the following words: "a little bit of smuggling, a lot of poverty, but little politics". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's regional policy aims to strengthen economic, social, and territorial cohesion and equal space development opportunities. It is an action linking UE that emphasises the problem of cohesion in the interregional context. The essence of territorial cohesion is the necessity to eliminate inequalities between the living conditions of the population. The concept of quality of life is ambiguous, multidimensional and interdisciplinary. This problem is of particular importance concerning border areas, i.e. the periphery of countries, which often adversely affects the population's standard of living. The article aimed to assess the living conditions and the direction of changes in those terms on the Polish-German border, an internal border of the EU (former Eastern Bloc countries). The analysis covered the years 2004–2019. The impact of the EU's regional development and cohesion policies for border areas (INTERREG) in improving the analysed regions' living conditions was also determined. The method of aggregation, standardised sums, was used in the analysis. The research showed that the level of living conditions of these border regions' population was spatially diversified, being more favourable on the German side. The analysed border regions had less favourable material and non-material living conditions than the countries' average value. Significant changes in the living conditions of border regions in the years 2004–2019 were established towards equalising the quality of life, which was influenced by the spatial policy of territorial cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This text discusses the growing tension in relations between the Polish government and the Catholic church in Poland over the plight of refugees on the Polish-Belarusian border that reached a critical state in August 2021. Although the Conference of Polish Episcopate (KEP) emphatically encouraged prioritizing the value of Christian mercy, the government insisted on a dehumanizing narrative (people as tools of war) to conclusively replace the Gospels with a new object of worship: the border. With the state of emergency imposed on November 9, 2021, altruistic activities were defamed, organized humanitarian support removed, and the right of residents to privacy suspended. A new verbiage, such as "weaponization of migrants" and "tightness of the border", justified stop-and-search procedures within "the zone", performed by various uniformed forces operating concurrently and acting with unconditional authority. Over the course of the fall and winter of 2021/2022, a parallel universe emerged, enforced by local authorities in small towns and villages located along the border with Belarus. What consequently unraveled was an impromptu narrative of a dystopian crisis rooted in the premise that migrants are the enemy in a war that is not hybrid but holy. Moreover, this text traces similarities between the evolving alternative reality experiment on the Polish-Belarusian border and the constricted world of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, as a vision of a society harnessed to the task of perpetuating political fiction, while the state apparatus produces an incessant flow of propaganda, effectuating the state of unrest and danger at the border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1918, the Republic of Poland, recovering from a century and a half of servitude, was in conflict not only with the former partitioning powers, but also with new nation states that were forming on their ruins. Lithuanians, creating their own state, rejected the proposal to return to the idea of a Polish-Lithuanian union. They chose the road to state independence, although, to do so, they often had to seek agreements with Germany and Soviet Russia. With the use of Polish literature on the subject, the article outlines the military aspects of the dispute between Poland and Lithuania over the Vilnius and Suwałki regions in the period when the foundations of the independence of both countries were being shaped, focusing on the period 1919–1920. The source base for the study consists mainly of documents of military provenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Current studies on the borderland territories suggest insufficiency of research tools, which, if applied, would improve the theoretical level of the conducted studies, particularly if that research would cover the borderlands of civilizations. Until now, the research on borderlands in Poland and elsewhere were dominated by the concepts of borderlands and trans-borderness. In my opinion, to cover the full scope of social phenomena and processes, which appear on borderland and trans-border territories, the new terms should be introduced: "borderlandness" together with the existing "borderland" and the "trans-borderland" to complement with the "trans-borderlandness". In this paper I intend to present shortly the conception of the borderland applied in my research and, on this basis, I try to develop the concept of borderlandness as well as to stress its utility in the studies of borderlands, including the borders of civilizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the Eastern borderlands issues in the publication activities of the researchers in the Institute of Library and information Science at the University of Silesia in Katowice in the years 1974-2007. The bibliographic material was gathered, systematized and described according to descriptive (date and place of publication, author) and subject characteristics (subject, scope). There are altogether 152 publications -- 13 books, 4 collective works, 133 articles and 1 review. The borderland researches are distinguished by wide subject, chronological and territorial scope. The main interests of the researchers ore Old Polish period (XVI-XVIII) and the present time. The territorial scope of the publications shows that Lithuania and Ukraine are the center of their attention. The subject matter of the research includes issues of book culture, the history of individual collections, profiles of librarians and bibliophiles. Together with the bibliographical analysis there is a short historical sketch of the achievements of the Institute in the didactic and scientific field as well as the cooperation with Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Paper I present is devoted entirely to Upper Silesia (Poland) treated as a good example of a cultural borderland. Over many centuries Upper Silesia has been subjected to strong cultural, social, political and economic influences emanating from Poland, Bohemia and Moravia, Austria, Prussia and later Germany. Through hundreds of years Upper Silesia and its sub-regions have been under the authority of various states, have been the place of contact or conflict of many cultures, have been forced into the spheres of influence of several political and economic systems. This border character of Upper Silesia makes this region especially attractive for research. The breakdown of totalitarian system and the process of political liberalisation in Poland have facilitated or even made possible the undertaking of many local sociological studies. In this climate regular research has been initiated on Silesian native population (hanysy), the regional German minority, he dash of cultures and also the awareness of the regional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: Integration and globalization processes encourage activities for the development of border regions. For the north-eastern regions of Poland and the Kaliningrad region, cross-border neighbourhood enables regions to cooperate and provides an opportunity for economic and social recovery. Purpose of the article: The present article aims to analyse areas of cross-border activity taking place on the Polish-Russian borderland, based on the opinions of the inhabitants of the Kaliningrad region. Taking into account the rapidly changing political and economic conditions, as well as social relations, the following areas of Polish-Russian cross-border cooperation have been examined: economic activity, tourism, social activity, scientific cooperation, neighbourly relations. Methods: The study presents the results of the author's own research carried out using standardized interviews with 1,022 inhabitants of the Kaliningrad region. As the research instrument, a self-designed interview questionnaire. The adopted time frame encompassed four stages of the functioning of Polish-Russian cross-border cooperation, each of them different due to political, eco-nomic and social conditions. The sample was selected using the quota method. The correspondence analysis was used for statistical tools. Findings & Value added: The suspension of local border traffic has significantly limited the development of cross-border cooperation. The Polish-Russian relations, encumbered with high risk and uncertainty, have led to a considerable decrease in cooperation between border areas. The level of risk results not only from mutual relations between Poland and Russia, but is also a consequence of political and economic relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation. In the long term perspective, local border traffic may be open and similar conditions for the functioning of cross-border cooperation may occur. Therefore, knowledge about the activity of cross-border residents of Polish-Russian border regions will be useful in counteracting the undesirable effects that may occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to outline the process of the extinction of Ukrainian culture in south-eastern Poland as a result of Polish resettlement actions and the activities of the Ukrainian underground movement (i.e., the Ukrainian Insurgent Army) in the post-war period (1944-1947). Concurrently, the study offers an analysis of the image of the "Ukrainian Banderite", created by propaganda in Polish and Czechoslovak literature, journalism, and cinematography in the period from the mid-1940s to the end of the 1980s. The authors state that both in Poland and in Czechoslovakia the analysed topic has been subject to certain cyclical waves of interest, or current political demand or usefulness, but always according to an established and politically accepted template. The black-and-white reception of the issue, propaganda fictions, the concealment of facts, and the disproportionate highlighting of others, which were applied in the literary and film production of the real-socialist period, only distorted the historical objectivity of the issue and created a complicated stereotype in the collective memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]