- Public Space in Medium-sized Town – Role in Development Policy    1543 kb by    Goledzinowska, Anna | a_g@tlen.pl    Short Outline The paper describes the results of a cross-sectional study on a group of Polish medium-sized towns aimed at exploring how the transformation of public spaces contribute to the development objectives of those towns. Abstract The paper describes the results of cross-sectional study on a group of Polish medium-sized towns aimed at exploring how the transformation of public spaces contribute to the development objectives of those towns. An important context of this study was a prior analysis of economic and legal conditions which effected transformations of public spaces since the political and economic breakthrough of 1989. The negative aspects of system transition - such as loss of economic base and the marginalization - had a more severe impact in the area of smaller towns than large multi-functional centers. However, according to assumptions of the territorial reform from 1999, the group of towns with population from 10000 to 100000 was supposed to become key player in process of decentralization and rebirth of local identity. Since Poland got the access to the EU structural funds, the medium-sized towns of the group began to heavily invest in improving the quality of urban open spaces, while large cities were investing e. in technological parks, research centers etc. At the threshold of perceived difficulties with the continuation of the wide availability of structural funds is important to answer the question whether the investment in quality public spaces are essential for the development of this group of cities that stem from a lack alternative development strategies. Keywords public spaces, medium sized towns, development strategies Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2012: Fast Forward: Planning in a (hyper) dynamic urban context   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper