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Since mid-2021, the European Union’s border with Belarus has become a place of increased migration attempts. However, the specificity of the migration crisis on the border between the European Union and Belarus lies in the fact that it was artificially triggered by the Belarusian authorities in the early summer of 2021 in response to the sanctions imposed on Belarus by the EU earlier in that year. This situation means that local communities living near the border may feel especially threatened and experience inconvenience due the implementation of a state of emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic constituted an additional stress factor. Hence, the aim of the study was to analyse the level of stress among residents of the town of Włodawa caused by the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border and by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was conducted in the period of 01 January 2022–21 February 2022 using a survey method, with paper questionnaires. A short questionnaire with a high level of standardization was used, which consisted of nine closed questions, including three scalograms (one covering ten questions concerning the sources of experienced anxiety, another one, also a 10-item PSS-10 (Perceived Stress Scale) test, and the third one concerning the assessment of events on the Polish-Belarusian border). During the period of the study, the inhabitants of Włodawa were subjected to double stress: related to COVID-19 and resulting from the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border. The conducted research shows that the stress was of medium intensity, and was higher among women, the elderly and the poorly educated. Among the concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exogeneous ones dominated, such as difficulties in accessing health services and the media coverage. As regards the events on the Polish-Belarusian border, respondents most often negatively perceived the arrival of large groups of migrants and the activities of Belarusian border services. Contrary to predictions, there were no synergic effects of anger at the authorities due to the imposition of restrictions (related to both COVID-19 and the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border).

The aim of the study was to diagnose the current and projected pace of ageing in the societies of European post-communist countries from the point of view of its being an increasing economic burden on the economically active population. The analysis covered the years 1990–2050. Ageing is already visible and, according to the forecast, the process will accelerate even more. The old-age dependency ratio (OADR) is expected to exceed 50 in half of the countries in the study by 2050. This will result in major threats to the further development of these countries and will lead to poverty and social exclusion of the elderly. In order to slow down the ageing process, the authorities of these countries should take a number of actions, the most important of which are the implementation of an effective and efficient pro-natal policy (so that the total fertility rate would increase above 2.1), and a well-thought-out migration policy.

The article presents an attempt to analyse population changes and to measure the strength of the impact of factors causing these changes in former voivodeship (province) cities in Poland. In view of the ongoing processes of suburbanisation, the discussion also concerns the areas surrounding the city, i.e. those creating urban systems together with the city. These zones were delineated, calling them demographic influence zones, because only demographic factors were involved in defining them. The research was conducted in the period between1999–2015, and took into account the administrative reform of the country that degraded 31 cities from voivodeship (NUTS-2) capitals to poviat (LAU-1) cities. The main aim of the study was to find an answer to the question: do the directions and the strength of population changes confirm a hypothesis of the destructive impact of the loss of administrative function on settlement units. The results of the study only partially confirmed this hypothesis. Although a decrease in the population is overwhelmingly predominant in the city core, in the case of the demographic influence zone, it has already increased. Counting both parts together, it was found that in half of the cases there was a decline and in the other half a growth of the population.

The main aim of the study is to present the history and the state of research in Polish medical geography. Its origins are the same as in world geography, i.e. it is associated with non-geographers. However, it was developing very slowly till the mid-1980s. Since then a slow increase in the number of publications has been noted (with a noticeable predominance of studies in disease geography over health geography). But still, it must be emphasised that medical geography in Poland is poorly developed.

The aim of this study was to present the general situation of populations of European post-communist countries 25 years after the collapse of communism in Europe. The study consists of two parts. The first one briefly discusses the processes that led to a significant diversification in the social, economic and political situations of the populations of the studied countries. In the second part the diversity of this situation is shown (using: the Legatum Prosperity Index, the Social Progress Index, and the Human Development Index). It was found that the best situations exist in the countries which quickly and effectively implemented reforms, and whether they were independent states, or parts of larger states, under communism is of secondary importance. It is symptomatic that these are countries situated in the north-western part of the area under consideration, which corresponds to the current situation in the EU-15, where the countries located in the south (the so-called PIGS) have poor economic and partly social situations than those in the north. Furthermore, it was found that the situation with the population of Russia is worse than in many countries which were previously under the occupation of the USSR or were dependent on the authorities in Moscow.

The post-communist transformation of Ukraine differs significantly from that of other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. First of all, Ukraine’s transition from totalitarianism to democracy has been long and still remains uncompleted. The process of the democratic transformation in Ukraine is non-linear and can be described by frequent changes in transformation phases. The ultimate result of the country’s transformation determines to a considerable extent the geopolitical stability in entire Central and Eastern Europe.

Minecraft is a sandbox video game that provides an excellent tool for supporting social participation in spatial planning. Minecraft is used as a tool under the Block-by-Block initiative to invite people who otherwise would not participate in spatial planning with the use of classical forms of social participation. The main goal is to examine how possible social participation based on the Block-by-Block idea of using the Minecraft game can be in Polish realities. This was based on the example of a former sugar factory in Pruszcz Gdański. Young people and children showed considerable skills in constructing architectural objects and in spatial development on the premises of the former sugar factory in Pruszcz Gdański. In addition, the workshop participants were open to learning about and getting acquainted with the principles of correct spatial planning. Therefore, the advantage of Minecraft lies in involving young people in the processes of spatial changes, as well as in acting as a tool used to educate future users of given space. The limitation lies in the necessity to build a virtual environment, which is very labourintensive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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