Robert Szmytkie
Articles
Reviving villages – a proposal for a concept and identification. A methodological approach
Geographia Polonica (2021) vol. 94, iss. 1, pp. 5-27 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/GPol.0191
Abstract
The methodological paper proposes a new concept of a reviving village and research methods to identify it. “Reviving” entails various symptoms of increasing intensity in socio-economic processes in areas which have long been in decline, and have been classified as problem regions with signs of marginality and peripherality. To identify the reviving villages we used a combination of diverse datasets and sources of information (i.e. statistical databases, cartographic materials, field research). We critically assessed the available data pointing out to its limitations. The new methodology was tested in the borderland of the Kłodzko region in the Sudetes Mountains (Poland). Proposed research procedure can be applied to any other marginal, depopulating rural areas to identify their potential current transformations.
Keywords: depopulation, marginal/problem areas, rural revival, reviving village, methodology for rural studies, Sudetes Mountains
[agnieszka.latocha@uwr.edu.pl], Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland
[robert.szmytkie@uwr.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Instytut Geografii i Rozwoju Regionalnego
, Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland
[przemyslaw.tomczak@uwr.edu.pl], Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland
, Institute of Sociology University of Wrocław Koszarowa 3, 51-149 Wrocław: Poland
, Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland
Revival of rural settlements in Kłodzko Land
Geographia Polonica (2017) vol. 90, iss. 3, pp. 319-333 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org//10.7163/GPol.0097
Abstract
During the post-war period the area of Kłodzko Land was subject to considerable depopulation processes which resulted in partial and total depopulation of outlying villages. For this reason the region is considered as problematic by many researchers, despite numerous attempts to revive it. In recent years, however, increasing variation in the trends of population change has been noticed and, besides the continually progressing depopulation, processes indicating the ‘revival’ of certain declining villages have emerged. This situationis a result of the influx of new residents, mainly from urban areas, who frequently run their own businesses and by doing so transform the functional character of particular villages.
Keywords: rural areas, population change, depopulation, functional changes, Kłodzko Land
[robert.szmytkie@uwr.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Instytut Geografii i Rozwoju Regionalnego
[przemyslaw.tomczak@uwr.edu.pl], Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland