Adam Senetra

Migrations of city dwellers to suburban areas – the example of the city of Olsztyn

Abstract The migration of city dwellers to suburbs is a commonly observed phenomenon. The growth of residential areas on the fringes of cities is referred to as suburbanisation. In the present study, migration patterns were investigated in rural districts located in the direct vicinity of the administrative boundaries of Olsztyn over a 10-year timespan. Several hundred building plot purchase/sale transactions in the form of notarial deeds were analysed to determine the dwelling place of the buyer. The analysis of the transactions revealed that the dominant group of purchasers were owners of apartments in multi-family precast concrete buildings, located in the city quarter closest to the studied suburbs. Changes in the spatial structure of suburban areas were also noted.

Landscapes with different logics : a physicalistic approach to semantic conflicts in spatial planning

Abstract This paper deals with the ways of categorising landscapes as ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ using a physicalist approach, where these terms have special meaning. The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the question whether such a division is still meaningful with regard to anthropogenic landscapes, not least in spatial planning. The concerns raised in this paper depart from the increasingly complicated structure of geographical space, including that of anthropogenic landscapes. Our standpoint is illustrated using cases of landscape ambiguities from Poland, Germany, Romania and Greece. Leaning on frameworks of physicalist (mechanicistic) theory, this paper suggests an explanation to the outlined semantic conflicts. This is done by pointing to the relationality between the impact of centripetal and centrifugal forces, the specifics of socio-economic development, as well as the varying landscape forms that emerge from the differences within that development.