Cities have been researched mostly in terms of its economic, technological, and social value and significance. Despite some changes in this respect, there is still a need to research cities as a fascinating phenomenon, also in respect of its capabilities to increase human security on a local and global scale. In this context, the article examines the new paradigm of urban development within the human security, namely the right to the city. The author indicates to the growing role of cities for human security and to mutual relations between the right to the city and the concept of human security. The subject matter is indeed as fascinating as fascinating are cities themselves. They are dynamic, energetic, innovative and constantly evolving. The general thesis of the article is that cities adopting the adequate model of urban development such as the one envisioned in the right to the city may and do greatly contribute to human security. 

W artykule zostały zawarte obszerne fragmenty analizy kapitału społecznego opracowanej dla burmistrza Lubska. Autor przedstawia także założenia koncepcji edukacji międzykulturowej adresowanej do społeczeństwa małego miasta. Celem autora jest zainicjowanie dyskusji nad formami współpracy między przedstawicielami władz samorządowych i środowiskiem akademickim w dziedzinie projektowania i realizowania koncepcji edukacji międzykulturowej. Przedstawiony dokument zawiera sugestie działań władz miasta, instytucji samorządowych i organizacji społecznych, na zasadach współpracy międzypokoleniowej.

The population of Pleszew in the years 1751–1793 in the light of birth certificate registers

The text is an attempt at analysing the natural movement of Pleszew’s population in 1751–1793. The research has been based on birth certificate registers as well as city records from the time in question which provide collective information on the demographic phenomena at work.

Selected forms of international cooperation in the development policy of the City of Gdynia

The article describes several forms of international cooperation in Gdynia. It shows its influence on the development and promotion of the city in last years.

The discourse of space - the space of discourse. the image of the city in Druga Venecija (The other Venice: secrets of the city) by Predrag Matvejević

the author of this article reconstructs the image of Venice depicted in the novel-essay Druga Venecija (The Other Venice: Secrets of the City) by Predrag Matvejević. the novel is characterised by multilingualism (loanwords from the Italian language and its dialects) and contributions from other arts (numerous illustrations, maps, photo reprints, etc.). the discursive mechanisms shaping the impression of space and the world that is represented, as well as the nonlinguistic (visual) ways of its reproduction, are analysed in the article. the narration of the novel is deprived of plot, as it is essayistic and dehistoricised. The book incorporates different genres, combining elements of the essay, travelogue novels, encyclopaediae, and portolan charts. It is characterised by minimalism and restrained language, which are distinguishing features of Matvejević’s work. the poetics of minimalism is reflected in the fragmentation of the plot, the selectivity of themes, and the simplicity of style. the writer concentrates on presenting the details, exploring unknown areas that are overlooked in other literary descriptions of Venice. the originality of Matvejević’s creative method is based on tracking down abandoned, non-obvious, and devastated places; the book, therefore, describes the passages of the city, referring random information and fragments of other stories and legends. enumeration is the most frequent figure of speech used by the writer to describe phenomena in a synchronous and non-hierarchical way. the starting point for the considerations made in this article are the philosophical concepts of the relationship of semiotic systems and different types of art (both applied and fine) to the category of spatiality (Derrida, Rewers, eco, taine).

CHE COSA UNA GUIDA TURISTICA DI BRESLAVIA DICE AGLI ITALIANI A PROPOSITO DEI LORO CONNAZIONALI?

WHAT DOES A WROCŁAW CITY GUIDE TELL ITALIAN TOURISTS ABOUT THEIR FELLOW COUNTRYMEN?

The author describes the standard tourist itinerary across the city of Wrocław, especially the sites that concern the Italian presence in Wrocław or the merits of the Italian people regarding the region and its capital (artists, architects, exponents of the Church, soldiers, immigrants, etc.). He expresses the opinion that knowledge about elements of history associated with those of the same origins as the tourist group may help guides to interest and involve the group more and to improve the quality of their work. He briefly describes the preparation of the guides for their work and their sources of information, and presents the necessity of choice and selection of the material, depending on the current target audience.

W niniejszym artykule analizujemy wpływ kapitału społecznego na procesy integracji miasta Opola w kontekście przyłączonych doń miejscowości 1 stycznia 2017 roku. Głównymi metodami zastosowanymi w pracy jest analiza danych zastanych oraz treści internetowych. Dodatkowo stan instytucjonalnego kapitału społecznego w Opolu został zaprezentowany przy wykorzystaniu analizy SWOT. Przeprowadzone badania pozwalają ocenić stan instytucjonalnego kapitału społecznego jako dobry, dowiedziono również, że instytucje, które w 2017 roku zostały wcielone w strukturę miasta Opola, w jawny sposób nie rozpowszechniają treści, które mogłyby prowadzić do dezintegracji miasta. Fakty te wraz z innymi obserwacjami potwierdzają tezę o dobrych warunkach instytucjonalnego kapitału społecznego do integrowania mieszkańców Opola.

Does the Wawel Dragon prefer sushi? The semiosphere of the vision of a multicultural city in the 21st century in the artistic works of school students from Krakow

In this text, a semiotic perspective was used to analyze the artistic works of students from Krakow schools submitted to the competition entitled “A multicultural city in the 21st century”. Assuming that the condition for the semiotics of the city are social processes leading to the recognition of objects in urban space as signs, the text is aimed to answer the question: what signs and codes constitute the semiosphere of works taking part in the competition? The analysis shows that the participants creatively used signs rooted in the tradition of Krakow, modifying their meaning by placing them in new syntagmatic systems with signs from other cultural codes. These works also show that the impact of cultural interactions is related to an exchange of signs and the dynamic process of reassigning their meanings. They also illustrate other sociocultural mechanisms taking place in the conditions of multi – and interculturalism. One of them is the simple multiplication of various “cultural packages”, and another – the diverse and dynamic interactions and the interweaving of the multiple elements that make up the entire intercultural space.

Getting Lost in La Foresta-Radice-Labirinto: Calvino and the Pedagogy of Landscape for Children

The paper examines La Foresta-Radice-Labirinto (1981), a fairy tale which is one of Italo Calvino’s latest and lesser known works. In what can be regarded as his testament, Calvino looks back on and revives the ecological commitment of his literary production and his attention to the complex relationship between nature and culture, which has been a prominent leitmotif of his writings (from The Baron in the Trees to The Cloud of Smog, and from the adventures of Marcovaldo to the Invisible Cities). The paper offers a detailed symbological and eco-critical analysis of the text, in order to examine an ‘ecology of mind’ as developed by Calvino, invariably sensitive to hybridisation and to the ongoing and often difficult relation between historical and environmental mutations. In doing so, the paper lists and explores the construction of images-icons and figures-types that make up what Calvino calls ‘a pedagogy of imagination’. The paper focuses on Calvino’s dedication to education through fairy tales as a primary form of experience, capable of conveying universal messages to a young readership, and on his longing for an authentic exposure to the environment, where getting lost means finding oneself and where chaos leads to a new order, founded on an ethical search for a more harmonious union of city, human beings and nature.

Development strategies of cities with poviat rights

The article presents the results of research on development strategies of cities with poviat rights. The reason for undertaking the research was the addition of provisions on such development plans to the Act on Self-Government in 2020, and its aim was to determine, in quantitative terms, what number of cities have such plans and whether their adoption is related to the size and number of citizens of the cities. The research was also qualitative in scope and concerned the form and content of development strategies, with the aim of identifying their most important features.

Ideal cities? Examples of implementing the smart city concept in Asia

The article analyzes the issue of an ideal city. The dynamic development of digital technologies leads us to believe that it is thanks to their use that the future cities will be created. At the beginning of the XXI century, the concept of a smart city became popular as a model of transforming the city using technologies to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants. Projects of modern solutions are used more often in Asia than in Europe. Examples include cities built from scratch, but special attention should be paid to Singapore, which is at the top of many rankings. The article discusses all these issues, and the aim is to show the specificity of the functioning of a smart city on the example of Singapore.