The aim of this study was to determine the conditions of sustainable (long-term) partnerships for the development of cross-border co-operation with regard to how they are formed and how they function. The analysis concerns partnerships created as a part of the PHARE CBC Small Project Fund between 2000-2003. It focuses on the sustainability of these partnerships through the prism of their duration and the frequency of actions taken. The conceptual assumption was that cross-border cooperation can be seen as an institution and analysis used the concept of path dependency. Entering into relations of co-operation in a border region in Poland is a behavioural norm, but co-operation is not seen in the light of the benefits of entering into a relationship, that is, not in the light of the direct benefits of co-operation.
The goal of the study is to explore the co-evolution of the tourism and industrial sectors. This paper addresses the concept of inter-path dependency as the theoretical framework for this study. The case study of Bełchatów industrial district is applied to discuss the co-evolution of tourism and heavy industries. Tourism and heavy industries are usually seen as mutually exclusive. However, in the case of the Bełchatów industrial district, tourism (starting from social tourism, through business tourism and educational tourism) is confirmed as being complementary to the industrial path shaped by triggering events (launch of radical industrialisation, and economic transition). Recently, implementation of the Just Transition Mechanism was planned and includes development of leisure tourism in the case study area. Some doubts of that intersectoral linkages are discussed in the paper – mainly in the context of the expected sustainable development of the Bełchatów industrial district – and followed by policy recommendations.
In this article, it is argued that the economic and political transformation in Central and Eastern European countries towards the end of the twentieth century towards a market economy were irreversible and path dependent. The author discusses the importance of this issue for the success of transformation policies, as well as the significance of the role of the European Union for supporting good governance as a condition for successful transformation.
PL
W niniejszym artykule stwierdzono, że ekonomiczna i polityczna transformacja w krajach Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej pod koniec dwudziestego wieku w kierunku gospodarki rynkowej była nieodwracalna i wynikała ze ścieżki zależności. Autor omawia znaczenie tych kwestii dla sukcesu polityki transformacji, a także znaczenie roli Unii Europejskiej dla wspierania dobrego współrządzenia (ang.: good governance) jako warunku skutecznej transformacji.
Po niemal 500 latach działalności wałbrzyskie kopalnie zostały zamknięte w latach 90. ubiegłego wieku w ramach polskiej transformacji systemowej, co zapoczątkowało trwający ponad 20 lat głęboki kryzys społeczno-ekonomiczny w mieście. Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu omówienie ich likwidacji w długiej perspektywie czasowej przy wykorzystaniu koncepcji trajektorii rozwoju (path dependence), a w szczególności pojęcia socjotechnicznej blokady węglowej (socio-technical carbon lock-in). Artykuł dowodzi, że po II wojnie światowej w Wałbrzychu wytworzyła się wyżej wspomniana blokada, a szybkie zamknięcie kopalń było konsekwencją jej przerwania pod wpływem zewnętrznego czynnika w postaci terapii szokowej. Przykład Wałbrzycha wpisuje się w obecną dyskusję na temat wygaszania sektora węglowego w Polsce, opóźnianego przez blokadę węglową (carbon lock-in).
EN
During the transition of the Polish economy to a free market system in the 1990s, the coal mines in Wałbrzych were closed after nearly five centuries of extraction, which triggered over 20 years of deep socio-economic crisis in the city. This paper aimed to discuss this closure in the long-term perspective, leveraging the framework of path dependence, and in particular the socio-technical carbon lock-in. It claims that after WWII, a socio-technical lock-in occurred in Wałbrzych and the rapid closure of the mines was a consequence of its breakup resulting from the exogenous factor in the form of shock therapy. The discussion of the case of Wałbrzych contributes to the current debate on the phasing out of Poland's coal sector slowed down by the coal lock-in.
Social science is a battlefield for the formation of concepts. The Swedish case is particular. “Civil society” re-entered the scene as a neoliberal and social-conservative reaction against the social-democratic ideology of the “strong state,” in which the state and society were conceived to be almost synonymous. The Swedish revival of an old concept is in obvious contrast with the concept’s reception east of the Elbe in recent decades, where “civil society” has often been used as a label for grass roots social movements, which are independent of the state and the nomenklatura, in malfunctioning regimes with low legitimacy and poor output. This idea is lacking in the Swedish case, where we find a characteristic merger between the “top-down” and “bottom-up” perspectives. “Real, existing” civil society in Sweden has a long history. Self-organised initiatives sought support from the state and often received it – in some cases creating institutions that grew into state agencies. Forestry, electrification, and early social insurance provide examples of the interplay between the state, the market, and society. Swedish civil society has deep roots in history, going back at least to late medieval days. Civil society was a formative element in the design of the relatively successful “Swedish model” through social engineering and piecemeal reforms during the period from the 1930s to the late 1960s.