7_Irodalom.indd


81Literature – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (1) 79–82.

It hardly needs proof that the social and economic 
growth has been characterized by polarization. This 
phenomenon results in an emergence of the economic 
growth and stagnation areas all over East Central 
Europe. The distribution of these areas and its vari-
ability are aff ected by diverse growth factors which 
lead to convergence or divergence of the growth 
rate. This book containing nine chapters att empts to 
identify and interpret the diff erent consequences of 
increasing growth diversity on the basis of interna-
tional research project carried out between 2011 and 
2014 in Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia. 

The fi rst chapter by Paweł Churski (‘The polariza-
tion-diff usion model in changes to cohesion policy 
– consequences for the direction of growth policy’) is 
of introductory and theoretical nature. Its goal is to es-
tablish the role of the polarization-diff usion model in 
the changes to the European Union’s cohesion policy. 
At a time of frequently indicated lack of eff ectiveness 
of the compensation model, the polarization-diff usion 
model is viewed as the basis for the new paradigm in 

the member states’ regional policies conditioning the 
changed direction of the growth policy intervention. 
The presented facts ands trends as well as a discus-
sion conducted by the author provide an important 
basis for conclusion drawn with respect to the results 
presented in the remaining chapters of this volume.

The main goal of the chapter developed by Anna 
Borowczak and Michał Dolata (‘Distribution of the 
economic growth and stagnation areas in Poland in 
2000–2010’) was an analysis of the distribution of the 
economic growth and stagnation areas and its vari-
ability in time, carried out with respect to research 
into the extent and dynamics of social and economic 
growth in a total system approach. This distribution 
was identifi ed for 379 Polish counties with respect 
to the timeframe of 2000–2010 where the synthetic 
indicator and data clustering were employed. The 
adopted spatial arrangements makes it possible to 
view the polarization processes in the context of the 
distribution of areas with diverse conditioning of 
the developmental processes which stem from the 
contemporary globalization processes as well as the 
remaining relic divisions of Poland’s economic space. 
The conclusions drawn in this article have been used 
in the subsequent two chapter to form a content-re-
lated entirety.

The article by Robert PerdaŁ and Jan Hauke (‘Areas 
of the economic growth and stagnation in Poland 
– growth factors’) focuses on the issue of identify-
ing and analysing important factors determining the 
distribution and development of economic growth 
and stagnation areas in a total system and partial 
approach with respect to the selected aspects of the 
process. The procedure of identifying growth factors 
was based on a canonical correlation analysis and 
regressive modelling. The research procedure was 
conducted for all the counties as well as their specifi c 
sub-systems. This allows to identify the regularities 
related to the approach of the territorially-oriented 
growth policy.

The goal of the chapter prepared by Joanna 
Dominiak and Barbara Konecka-SzydŁowska (‘The 
eff ect of the crisis on the socio-economic situation of 
households based on the example of Wielkopolska’) 
is an att empt at identifying the impact of the crisis 
on the social and economic condition of households. 
The research was illustrated with the example of 
Wielkopolska province broken down to the social and 
economic growth and stagnation areas identifi ed in 
this region at NUTS 4, on the basis of an analysis of 

Churski, P. ed.: The social and economic growth vs. the emergence of economic growth and stagnation 
areas. Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Poznań, 2014, 197 p.



Literature – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 64 (2015) (1) 79–82.82

Poland’s total developmental variations. 1,988 repre-
sentative households were surveyed with respect to 
changes to diff erent factors (e.g. the unemployment 
rate among the household members, the income size 
and structure, running expenses borne by the house-
holds, household depths, the ways of spending free 
time etc.) in the time of crisis. Again, att ention was at-
tracted to the regularities resulting from the specifi city 
of the endogenous resources and exogenous condition-
ing in the economic growth and stagnation areas in a 
search for the related commonalities and diff erences.

The series of chapters referring to Poland was 
closed a paper writt en by Joanna Dominiak (‘The 
impact of the economic crisis on the business envi-
ronment service market, based on the example of 
Wielkopolska’). It includes an analysis of the opera-
tions of the business environment service market 
in Wielkopolska province in the conditions of eco-
nomic downturn in Poland after 2008. The research 
was based on the fi eld work in the province and 
was concerned on 32 business environment institu-
tions. 220 companies rendering commercial business 
services and 737 entrepreneurs Due to the fact that 
they are located mainly in large cities in the course 
of analysis of the social and economic growth, they 
were included into the growth areas. The question-
naire survey was carried out in the formerly identi-
fi ed growth areas (Poznań, Konin, Kalisz, Leszno and 
Poznań county). An analysis of the demand part of 
the business environment takes into consideration 
the identifi ed stagnation areas also (Słupca, Kalisz 
and Pleszew counties). On e one hand the research 
was aimed at analysing the changes to the range of 
impact of the business environment institutions and 
the changes to the scope of services rendered by them 
and their fi nancial condition in the time of crisis. On 
the other hand the author identifi es the changes to 
the intensity and scope of relations between compa-
nies and business environment institutions during 
the economic crisis.

The second part of the book starts with the article of 
Pavol Korec (‘Lagging regions of Slovakia in the con-
text of their competitiveness’). Its goal is to provoke a 
discussion on selected issues of the theory and meth-
odology and regional research into competitiveness 
and the empirical results of the analysis of the com-
petitiveness of Slovak regions with special emphasis 
placed on the country’s less developed regions.

The next chapter writt en by Gintarė PociŪtė focus-
es on one of Poland’s neighbouring countries (‘Trends 

of imbalances of demographic and socio-economic 
development in the post-reform period in Lithuania’). 
The goal of this article was to identify the most sig-
nifi cant trends in the irregular social and economic 
growth in Lithuania in the past two decades. To this 
end the author analysed the developmental devia-
tion from the average for selected demographic and 
socio-economic variables. She also identifi es lagging 
regions which are peripheral ones at all. 

A long-titled chapter authored by Paweł Churski, 
Donatas Burneika and Pavol Korec (‘Areas of eco-
nomic growth and areas of stagnation as objects of 
special intervention under regional policies of the 
European Union member states: An international 
comparison’) was an att empt for a comparison re-
search for Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia. The goal 
of this analysis was to identify the developmental dif-
ferences in the economic growth and stagnation areas 
and the direction of the regional policy intervention 
in these regions in these three new EU member states. 
The research results off er a considerable cognitive 
benefi t resulting from the standardised systematiza-
tion of the surveyed issues for these countries, over-
coming some of the objective limitations related to 
non-existent comparable data on the subject. 

The last chapter of the book called ‘Research meth-
odology of spatial variability of socio-economic de-
velopment at the sub-regional level’ developed by 
four authors, Dovile Krupickaite, Jan Hauke, Barbara 
Konecka-SzydŁowska and Robert PerdaŁ combines 
two aspects of research. The fi rst one is an analysis 
of the diversity of social and economic growth in the 
population and sett lement aspect in a supra-national 
dimension. The other aspect consisted in testing three 
diff erent methods of identifying the growth and stag-
nation areas which leads to interesting cognitive con-
clusions of methodological nature. 

A great number of carefully edited coloured and 
black-and-white maps make more chapters very at-
tractive while demonstrate the distribution of both 
the growth areas and areas of economic stagnation 
on NUTS4 level between 2000 and 2010 in Poland, 
Slovakia and Lithuania.  

This comprehensive book is highly recommended 
for geographers, economist, sociologists and poli-
ticians as well as wider audience interested in the 
problems of regional and economic inequalities of 
nowadays’ East Central Europe. 

Tibor Tiner