Geographia Polonica (1972) vol. 24
The socio-economic differentiation of Poland's spatial structure
Geographia Polonica (1972) vol. 24, pp. 11-20 | 
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Abstract
The subject of this analysis is the total socio-economic space of Poland.Geographical theory contains two approaches to an operational definition ofsocio-economic space. Firstly, the ontological approach conceives of socio-economicspace as a mode of existence of economic processes; secondly, the mathematicaland economic-geographical approach considers socio-economicspace as a set, or subset, of geographical objects with specific inter-dependences.This study of Poland's socio-economic space consists of defining andexplaining the regularities in the spatial occurrence of economic processes byanalysing the properties of sets of objects and their vertical and horizontalinterdependences. Thus conceived, the analysis of socio-economic space isclosely linked to the study of the level of the country's economic development.
The present study is based on the assumption of a latent structure ofsocio-economic space. The total socio-economic space may be viewed as a setof partial socio-economic spaces comprising different features of socio-economiclife, for example, demographic, industrial and agricultural and these relatingto transportation and services. In spite of its plurality, this set is finite.The partial socio-economic spaces, though comprising different socio-economicphenomena, refer to the same reality in that they are reflections of some ofits different aspects. Such partial spaces are interdependent, though clearlynon-identical (Dziewoński [2], p. 37). The total socio-economic space isa resultant of all partial spaces that together constitute the latent structure oftotal space.
, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
[tczyz@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland