SPIS TREŚCI / CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ

Residents’ bond with the city and its influence on the evaluation of changes taking place in the city

This article presents the results of a study carried out as part of the project ‘City Observatory – a platform for cooperation between the academic community and the surrounding area’, in six cities of three voivodeships of Eastern Poland – Białystok, Lublin, Rzeszów, Suwałki, Biała Podlaska and Krosno. The three capitals of the Podlaskie, Lubelskie and Podkarpackie Voivodeships and three cities from these voivodeships, which lost the status of voivodeship cities as a result of the administrative reform of 1999, were selected for the study. The study involved 11,397 respondents, from three groups of respondents: parents/guardians of primary and lower secondary school pupils, secondary school pupils and students. The main aim of the article is to determine the level of residents’ bond with the city in retrospect, based on a set of statements (items) built on a five-point Likert scale, and to identify variables that differentiate the respondents’ bond with the city in a statistically significant way. The research showed that the strength of residents’ bond with the city influences their assessment of the quality of life in the city and the changes taking place in it. The level of residents’ bond with the city is influenced by the gender of the respondents, membership of the research group – parents, students, pupils and the fact of being a city resident or city user.

The 15-minute green compact city – connections, challenges and prospects

The aim of the article, which is of a review nature, is to present the main elements linking the 15-Minute City model with urban development concepts such as Green City and Compact City. The main thesis of the article boils down to the assumption of substantive proximity of the analyzed concepts. Attention has been focused on three elements found in the mentioned approaches: accessibility of public services, organization of urban transportation prioritizing pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and improvement of the quality of public spaces. The premises for the implementation of the proposed changes in urban space have also been presented, indicating significant challenges in this regard.

Citizen assembly in the perspective of participants and attendees

The citizens’ assembly is a relatively new form of democracy, consisting of developing a thoughtful set of recommendations preceded by a detailed analysis of a given issue. The suggestions formulated are agreed upon by a representative group of residents and this process is preceded by an education phase that aims to provide participants with reliable knowledge regarding the subject of the panel. These characteristics make this co-decision mechanism increasingly popular, including in Poland. Citizens’ assemblies have been implemented in most major Polish cities. However, there is no doubt that for organizers, as well as for participants and urban communities, this is something new. Therefore, it seems important to conduct in-depth research on the implementation of panels in Polish conditions. In this context, the aim of the article is to present the results of a study on the II Łódź Citizens’ Assembly. The obtained results show that the citizens’ assembly is positively evaluated by those participating in it. Participants of the Łódź panel particularly emphasized its educational and social merits, while somewhat less so the political aspect, that is the opportunity to influence the city, which is the primary function of the panel.

Impact of artificial intelligence development on energy security and smart city management

The development of technology in recent years has carried with it the rise of new solutions aimed at simplifying many areas of life. One of them is artificial intelligence, the progress of which is definitely noticeable and undeniable. The purpose of the article is to present applications of AI in selected areas most important from the point of view of state management. Also, an attempt will be made to define artificial intelligence by interpreting its basic functions and objectives. The most important fields of AI activity from the point of view of the article are energy security and the development of smart cities. Many examples of solutions and software developed by various companies have been presented. Analysis of the implementation of artificial intelligence in the areas described has shown that today it supports the processes taking place in them, although it is not an essential element of their functioning, it carries significant development potential. In conclusion, it has been shown that the development of artificial intelligence is not free of risks, including overdependence on it, the replacement of human labor with machine labor, and if the development of AI will not encounter an obstacle in the form of undeveloped technology.

Social capital of young city residents on the example of selected indicators

The main purpose of this article is to present the results of a survey of two selected social capital indicators conducted by the author among young city residents. The indicators, which have been within the research process, are “trust” and “voter turnout”. For the purposes of the article, the author assumed that young residents of the city are students of universities located in the city of Rzeszow. The results obtained as part of the research were compared for comparison purposes with surveys conducted by the Public Opinion Research Center (CBOS) and voter turnout, which was published by the National Electoral Commission (PKW).

The attitudes toward cities based on the results of survey research in six cities in Eastern Poland

In the article, the intensity of attitudes toward cities and their correlates was analyzed based on research conducted in six cities in Eastern Poland (the capitals of three voivodeships: Rzeszów, Białystok, and Lublin, as well as three cities that lost their voivodeship capital status due to administrative reforms implemented in 1999: Biała Podlaska, Krosno, and Suwałki). The study involved 11,397 surveys completed by parents/guardians of primary and secondary school students, secondary school students, and university students. The analyses were carried out by creating a synthetic measure of attitudes toward the city. The analysis of intensity levels allowed us to capture positive, negative, and neutral attitudes. Based on the rich empirical material collected, statistically significant differences were observed concerning variables such as gender, reference city, residence within or outside the reference city, respondent category, knowledge level about the reference city, trust in other people, belief that the given city is a good place to live for the respondent, and perception of the city by others.

The image of the city in the minds of young users of Rzeszów’s space

In the era of increased competition between cities, building a positive image of the city is becoming an important element of marketing strategies. The image of a city includes all subjective ideas of reality that are formed in people’s minds as a result of perception, the influence of mass media and informal information messages. The image of a city includes both physical and emotional elements. Physical elements are objective characteristics of a place, such as its size, location, spatial structure, condition of infrastructure and type of development. Emotional elements include people’s emotional attitude and sympathy towards a given place. Therefore, all promotional activities undertaken by the authorities and changes in the city space may affect these image elements. Some changes may have a positive impact while others may have a negative impact on one’s image. The aim of the article is to present the results of a study on the image of Rzeszów. The study was conducted in spring 2022 on a sample of 415 students of the University of Rzeszów. The CAWI technique was used to collect data. These are not the first analyzes of the city image phenomenon. Previous publications show that the subjective image of the city in the minds of its inhabitants is positive. Residents point out to many good changes that have taken place in urban space in recent years. The most important ones included increasing the city’s aesthetics, improving the quality of streets and expanding the city to include surrounding towns. Unlike previous studies, which were mainly devoted to measuring hard and soft quality of life indicators, this time the focus was on assessing the specificity and originality of Rzeszów in the minds of the respondents.

Analysis of the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the security of global food supply chains

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict resulted in the transformation of modern logistics networks and supply chains to adapt to the challenges faced. This fact is particularly noticeable in the agricultural sector. Bottlenecks in the flow of raw materials have caused a global food crisis. Therefore, solutions are constantly being sought to minimize the negative effects of war, including: through the organization of solidarity corridors, as well as causing reductions in food prices. The research problem was formulated as a question: How do projects undertaken by the EU to eliminate the negative effects of war in the food supply chain sector affect their security? Additionally, a study was carried out to determine whether the actions undertaken were consistent with the adopted “farm to fork” strategy. The analysis carried out made it possible to identify the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the perspective of the global food market, along with presenting and assessing the actions taken as a result of the crisis in global food supply chains. The research conducted showed that as a result of disruptions in the functioning of global supply chains, food prices increased by approximately 34% in the first period of the conflict (March 2022). Currently, after introducing, among others, solidarity corridors, their growth is recorded at the level of 6.4%, by increasing the security of the flow of goods.

Language policy in the program documents of Ukrainian political parties

This article presents the position of Ukrainian political parties on the issue of language policy during the period of independence. In particular, it was important to show the position taken by individual political parties towards the status of the Russian language, as well as the need to ensure the functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life and in the territory of the entire state. A number of program documents were analyzed, in particular, the programs of political parties and the electoral programs of parties and electoral coalitions with which they competed in subsequent elections to the Verkhovna Rada. The focus was on those political parties that individually managed to overcome the electoral threshold at least once during the parliamentary elections held at the time of independence, or played a leading role in the electoral coalitions formed, as was the case, for example, with the People’s Union “Our Ukraine” which was the key political force in the pro-presidential electoral coalitions formed for the 2006 and 2007 elections. The position of the various political forces on the language issue was discussed after first dividing them into left-wing, centrist and center-left parties, as well as right-wing and center-right parties.

Al-Mawardi’s theory of the caliphate and its connection to the contemporary Islamism

The article presents the concept of the caliphate of theologian and jurist at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, Al-Mawardi, based on his work Al-Ahkam as-sultaniyya and the socio-political nature of the period of the Abbasid dynasty, which was the context of its creation. Based on a detailed analysis of Al-Mawardi’s views on political power in Islam (traditional caliphate), the author’s aim was to show the connection of this theory with selected elements of the contemporary ideology of Islamism, and thus attempt to answer the question about the continuity of Muslim political thought. Considering the changes of the caliphate in times of Al-Mawardi, but also in later periods, including the ones that occurred in the Islamic world after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the author argues that views on power in Islam were conditioned by a complex socio-political context, which was influenced by factors internal and external to the world of Islam. Discussed theory of Al-Mawardi’s caliphate constitutes the basis for the search for analogies in the political doctrine of contemporary Islamic reformers and the ideology of Islamism, which in turn allows Al-Mawardi’s views to be considered appropriate also for the contemporary concept of power in Islam.

The evolution of the North Korean economic system

For decades, the North Korean economy has been considered one of the most closed, autarkic and centralized economies in the world. Although this situation began to change in the early 21st century, the economic situation is full of uncertainty and speculation. In this context, it is worth asking how economic changes are taking place and how the North Korean economic system is changing. The main goal of the article is to present the evolution of the North Korean economic system since the establishment of the DPRK and capturing specific features of adopted system. The work consists of four parts: the first one shows some remarks on the East Asian economic model, which constitutes the basis for the analysis of the North Korean model. The second part presents the functioning of the socialism system in the DPRK, while the third focuses on changes in the system after the fall of the Eastern Bloc until the death of Kim Jong-il. The last part is devoted to Kim Jong-un’s economic reforms and tries to show the current economic system of North Korea. The work ends with a conclusion summing up conducted considerations. The article uses various research methods, including primarily literature analysis, historical analysis, analysis of existing data and comparative analysis.

On the autism spectrum, neurodiversity reveals subjectivity

[book review O samowiedzy osób dorosłych w spektrum autyzmu – jej źródłach, znaczeniu diagnozy oraz psychoedukacji]

Compendium of knowledge about the Cook Islands

[book review Wyspy Cooka. Wielowymiarowy obraz państwa i społeczeństwa]