Department of Development Policy and Marketing

• Drejerska N., 2015: Is sustainability possible in suburbs of big cities? – the example of Warsaw. [w:] Walter Leal Filho, Arnolds Úbelis, Dina Bērziņa (eds.): Sustainable development, knowledge society and smart future manufacturing technologies. Switzerland, Springer International Publishing, pp. 323-330.
• Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., 2015: Non-parametric regression model as a tool for analyzing the structure of selected characteristics of the inhabitants of the suburban area of Warsaw and their workplaces.[W:] Appenzeller D. (scientific ed.): Mathematics and computer science in the services of economics: economic analytics, methods and tools. Poznań, Publishing House of the University of Economics, pp. 43-55.
• Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., 2015: Small and medium-sized enterprises in the suburbs of Warsaw – determining the importance of locations with the use of classification trees . Scientific Papers of the University of Economics in Wrocław 2015, No. 385, pp. 45-52.

  Research project of the National Science Center N N114 145240

  Economic and social conditions for the development of rural areas of the Mazowieckie voivodship constituting the suburban and external zones of Warsaw

  implemented in 2011-2013

  Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Faculty of Economic Sciences

Warsaw suburban zone

Selected Issues

Warsaw suburban zone

Selected issues

download pdf: Suburban area

Keywords:

rural areas, labor market, entrepreneurship, human capital, development, suburban area, Mazowieckie Voivodeship, suburbanization

Key words:

rural areas, labor market, entrepreneurship, human capital, development, suburban area, Mazovia region, suburbanisation

Summary

The suburban communes of Warsaw selected for the research are undoubtedly the area of intense socio-economic changes. This accumulation of development processes, the spreading of phenomena characteristic of cities, makes the studied area extremely interesting from the cognitive point of view. At the same time, the changes taking place are so complex and multi-threaded that it is difficult to distinguish what exactly should be the subject of research – one thread entails several other, no less interesting, issues. In this situation, it remains to be hoped that the presented research results present both the general background of changes and specific elements of reality, such as, for example, functional relations between the capital city and its suburban area in terms of the labor market. Moreover, it seems that the added value of the conducted research is taking into account both the activity of local governments and small and medium-sized enterprises located in the studied area, as well as residents, their situation and opinions on processes taking place.

The studied area was characterized using statistical methods. Using the BZW measure, 30 suburban communes of Warsaw were grouped into three classes: with the highest, medium and the lowest level of development. The first group included: Lesznowola, Michałowice, Nadarzyn, Raszyn, Nieporęt, Izabelin, Stare Babice. With the exception of Nadarzyn, all municipalities of this group have a direct border with Warsaw. Moreover, apart from Nieporęt, these are communes located on the left bank of the Vistula River. This shows the strongest developmental impact of Warsaw on the municipalities directly adjacent to it, and moreover, the impact on the west side of the city. In the next group, 14 communes constituted a kind of transitional area – most often not directly adjacent to Warsaw, but with a strong influence of the city on the socio-economic processes taking place there. The remaining 9 communes are peripheral units from the point of view of the research area adopted, farthest from the capital, but still included in the suburbs of Warsaw.

The results of empirical research conducted in the offices of municipalities in the suburban area of Warsaw indicate that development strategies were developed in most of the surveyed local government units. This may prove the authorities’ awareness of stimulating the activity of both residents and entrepreneurs, investing in improving infrastructure components, the quality of life of residents, and facilitating the start of business activity. At the same time, the fact of having a development strategy may also be only a fulfillment of a technical condition necessary, for example, in the case of applying for financial support from European funds. The goals set out in the strategies were implemented, however, due to limited financial resources, the implementation of the strategy was difficult for some communes (mainly with a low level of development). The communes (with a few exceptions) were rather active in the use of European Union funds. Despite this, complaints were made about the complicated application procedures and the conditions for granting co-financing for projects (per capita income) that are not always favorable for municipalities in the suburban area of Warsaw. As a rule, the projects were prepared by the commune employees, rarely by external experts. The commune’s strengths were, above all, the proximity of the capital city and convenient transport connections with other larger cities, a high level of technical infrastructure, as well as free land that could be used for investments.

As can be seen from the characteristics of strengths, the suburban area of Warsaw is characterized not only by a favorable road infrastructure layout and free investment spaces, but also, to a large extent, by high natural values. These values can be both an encouraging factor and a limiting factor in the freedom of management. According to more than half of the commune authorities, the natural and protected areas in the commune constitute an opportunity for the development of enterprises. These conditions are conducive to tourism and suburban, weekend or business recreation (organization of conferences in a green environment, and at the same time close to Warsaw, eg Serock).

The results of research in enterprises indicate that 55% of the surveyed entities concentrated their activities on the local market. Respondents from gminas with a low level of development, more often than others, went beyond the local market with their scope of activities – which could result from the need to increase insufficient demand for their products and services. According to the respondents, the most important factors determining the location of enterprises were: convenient location in relation to recipients and the absorption of the local or regional market. The proximity of Warsaw was indicated as an important location factor in every fourth enterprise. When deciding on the location of the enterprise, attention was also paid to the costs associated with renting, purchasing or building the premises. In turn, as part of the concluding questions on perception of the commune in which the surveyed companies had their headquarters, the strengths of the respondents indicated the proximity of Warsaw and convenient transport connections with the capital and other larger cities, extensive technical infrastructure, continuous development of the commune (related to, among others, the constant increase in migration and a large number of births) and suitable conditions for the development of entrepreneurship. The following were indicated as weaknesses: poor technical infrastructure, high costs and other difficulties in running a business (e.g. lack of support from municipal authorities, lack of advisory services), as well as excessive traffic volume and the related environmental pollution, and poor road communication. It should be noted here that certain factors were indicated both in the group of strengths and weaknesses. The surveyed entrepreneurs tended to assess the technical infrastructure through the prism of their immediate surroundings, e.g. a specific access road to their company. Therefore, the obtained responses were very diverse and what was an advantage for some people, e.g. building a road in their immediate vicinity, for others did not matter.

A significant part of the primary research conducted in households in the suburbs of Warsaw concerned the functional relations between the capital city and the surrounding area in terms of the labor market. The situation of the researched population is relatively good; it is characterized by both a high rate of professional activity and a high employment rate. Generally, therefore, the proximity of the developed labor market, which is the capital city, as well as its immediate surroundings, favors the professional activity of the inhabitants of the suburban area. This good situation also attracts new residents from other parts of the region as well as from Warsaw itself. As shown by the results of the research, the new residents are young, well-educated people with relatively high income. These processes undoubtedly lead to an increase in the human potential of the studied areas, fitting into the discussion of both theoreticians and practitioners on endogenous factors of economic growth, however, at the same time cause increased pressure in many dimensions. One of them is environmental issues – the development of the residential function requires more land for this purpose. The vast majority of these are private investments, for which, at rising prices, other areas are being found, e.g. the existing agricultural land. However, taking into account the fact that these are the most common commuters, it is undoubtedly a challenge to ensure adequate infrastructure in this regard. Generally speaking, new migrants commute by their own cars, putting a significant strain on the city’s access roads. The presented research results clearly indicate the lack of an attractive public transport offer for this group.

The obtained research results also allow for the identification of phenomena that are not typical only for the inhabitants of the suburban area. These phenomena are part of the nationwide or even global trends in the labor market. Moreover, they seem to confirm that despite the relatively better situation on the labor market in the vicinity of a large city, the suburban area is not an area free from problems encountered elsewhere. At this point, it is important to mention the results of research indicating the instability of employment, especially among young people, also well-educated, and the existence of a shadow economy – employing workers without a formal contract.

The results obtained with the use of one of the statistical methods – classical correspondence analysis – make it possible to refer to the creative capital referred to in the theory. They indicate the existence of a relationship between higher education and high and full independence of work, secondary education and the average level of independence, as well as basic vocational education and a low level of independence of the work performed. Moreover, the conducted analysis made it possible to distinguish a group of entrepreneurs who characterized their work as fully independent and creative, and most often indicated their own idea as the beginning of professional activity performed during the study.

Taking into account the fact that the labor market plays a significant role in the processes of forming functional urban areas, significant results were also obtained in terms of professional activity of the inhabitants of the suburban area. The analysis of the correspondence made it possible to distinguish a group of “young migrants” – with higher education, who moved recently (in 2005–2012); their income exceeded PLN 2,000 net per month per family member. Young people dominated in this group – 51% of them did not exceed 36. age. Nearly 90% of the respondents in this group are hired employees who commute to work in Warsaw every day, with the average travel time being one hour. There was also a group of entrepreneurs who worked in their place of residence; mainly people from 36 to 55 years old (71% of respondents at this age). Moreover, they are people living in a given place from birth or immigrants, but with a much longer period of residence than “young migrants”. This leads to an interesting conclusion on the tendency to run a small business in an area rather by locally rooted people.

Despite the identified problems, the situation of the studied population of suburban areas seems to be the basis for building a positive image. A small scale of professional inactivity, having additional qualifications (acquired during formal education, but also informal in the case of people with lower education levels), creativity of entrepreneurs, flexibility (at least declared) in the group of unemployed people, and those seeking employment indicate the actual endogenous potential of the respondents municipalities; potentials that are difficult or impossible to identify on the basis of statistical data, and visible in qualitative research. Moreover, the indicated potentials are generally noticed by local authorities and entrepreneurs, but at the same time, in the hierarchy of strengths, they are definitely placed behind factors resulting from purely geographical or infrastructural conditions, which could be described as “hard” determinants of socio-economic development. Nevertheless, in the opinion of the authors’ team, this qualitative identification of the “soft” potentials of the suburban area of the largest city in Poland is a strong point and an important result of the entire research process summarized in this publication.

Summary

This volume traces selected issues of economic and social development in the Warsaw suburban zone. It was elaborated as a part of the project entitled “Economic and social determinants of rural areas development of the Mazovia region in the suburban and external zone of Warsaw”, No N N114 145240, financed by the National Science Center (Poland). The main purpose of the research was to identify and deeply characterize economic and social processes observed in rural areas of the Warsaw suburban zone.

Specific objectives included:

• diagnosis of a development level of selected communes in comparison with the whole region and identification of their diversification,
• determination of demographic and economic potential of the Warsaw suburban zone inhabitants, especially from a perspective of a human capital level,
• research on specificity of the Warsaw suburban zone inhabitants’ situation on the labor market, including a scale of economic inactivity, unemployment and employment in the group of respondents, and in particular commuting to Warsaw as a central city of the functional region,
• identification of conditions of enterprises that function there, as well as reasons and directions of diversification of their activities,
• determination of a role of local self-government and other institutions in fostering and promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas and evaluation of local self-government activities in applying for and using the European Union support.

The empirical research was conducted in rural households, enterprises and local self-governmental units in 30 rural and rural-urban communes around Warsaw, which were identified as the Warsaw suburban zone basing on the methodology of Korcelli and Śleszyński [Korcelli P. and Śleszyński P ., 2011: National Spatial Development Concept 2030 – draft of January 25, 2011, delimitation previously prepared for the ESPON program] as well as Bański [Bański J. (ed.), 2009: Analysis of the diversity and perspectives of rural development in Poland to 2015. Rural Areas Studies vol. 16, PTG, IGIPZ PAN, Warsaw; typology of communes according to the impact ranges (development of urban functions)]. Finally, the research included questionnaire interviews in 800 households (2215 adult participants), 221 micro and small enterprises as well as postal questionnaire in 30 local self-government offices.

Research results show that the analyzed suburban communes of Warsaw are an area of an intense socio-economic transformation. However, the multi-threaded nature of these changes makes the authors present a reduced general background of the changes. Moreover, the authors hope that provided examples, such as functional connections between the capital city and its suburban area in the labor market, are a good illustration of the changes. Especially as these changes are presented at the same time from the perspective of three key groups: local self-government, inhabitants and entrepreneurs.

The studied area was characterized using some statistical methods. The use of the relative development level measure (BZW) made it possible to group investigated 30 communes in three development classes: the highest, medium and the lowest one. The first group included: Lesznowola, Michałowice, Nadarzyn, Raszyn, Nieporęt, Izabelin, and Stare Babice. With the exception of Nadarzyn, all these communes directly border Warsaw. Furthermore, apart from Nieporęt, these communes are situated on the left bank of the Vistula river. This indicates the strongest development impact of Warsaw on directly neighboring communes as well as the impact oriented towards the west of the city. The next group of 14 communes constituted a specific area of transition – usually not directly bordering Warsaw but with strong impact of the city on socio-economic processes taking place there. The remaining 9 communes are peripheral units in the investigated area, being the farthest away from Warsaw but still included in the suburban zone.

According to research results, majority of local self-governments had development strategic documents. This may indicate the authorities’ awareness of the role of stimulating inhabitants’ and entrepreneurs’ activity as well as their own investments in improving infrastructure assets, quality of life and facilitating business start. At the same time, providing a development strategy may also be only the fulfillment of a technical precondition – for example, in the case of applying for the European Union funds. The communes authorities (with some exceptions) were rather active in applying for the support. Nevertheless, they complained about procedures of applying and sometimes detrimental conditions for granting funds for projects to the Warsaw suburban zone communes (per capita income). In the opinion of representatives of local self-government offices, the strengths of the Warsaw suburban area include: a convenient system of road infrastructure and accessible investment area. Additionally, there are large areas of communes characterized by high natural values. These values can be both stimulating as well as limiting possibilities of economic activities. According to more than a half of the local authorities, the natural environment provides a great opportunity for development of weekend or business tourism (for example conference and professional meetings with a quiet and peaceful atmosphere close to nature in Serock).

Entrepreneurs focused their activity mostly on the local market. The respondents from communes with a low level of development, more frequently than others, came out beyond the local market – which could be a result of their need to increase insufficient demand for their products and services. In their opinion, the most important factors determining the firm location included: proximity to customers and local or regional market capacity. The neighborhood of Warsaw was identified as an important factor in every fourth company. The most important strengths included: proximity to Warsaw, good transport connections with the capital city and othermajor cities, developed technical infrastructure, continuous development of communes (related, inter alia, to constant growth of the population as a result of migration and high birth rates ) as well as appropriate conditions for entrepreneurship development. They also out some weaknesses: poor technical infrastructure, high costs and other difficulties in doing business (eg lack of support from the local authorities, lack of advisory services), too much traffic, pollution and poor road communications. It should be noted that some factors were indicated as both the strengths and the weaknesses. The entrepreneurs had a tendency to assess the technical infrastructure through the lens of their immediate environment, such as a particular driveway to a firm. Therefore, the responses were very diverse, and what for some respondents was an advantage, for others did not matter at all.

The situation of inhabitants on the labor market was relatively good. It was characterized by high rates of either professional activity or a high rate of employment. Therefore, proximity of the developed labor market (the capital city) as well its immediate environment promote professional activity of the suburban inhabitants. It attracts new people both from other parts of the region and from Warsaw as well. As shown by the results, the newly settled inhabitants were young, well-educated, with a relatively high level of income. These processes undoubtedly lead to an increase of human potential of the examined areas and reflect a discussion of both theorists and practitioners on endogenous growth factors. Though, these changes also increased pressure in many dimensions. Firstly, environmental issues should be considered. The development of the residential function requires more land for this purpose. New residential areas are usually private investments using for example previous agricultural land, but with increasing prices year by year. Secondly, the provision of appropriate infrastructure to people commuting to work every day is another challenge. New migrants usually use their own cars, causing a significant traffic jams on the way to Warsaw. The results clearly indicate no attractive offers of public transport in this case. These results also allow to identify some phenomena that are typical not only of the residents of the suburban zone. These phenomena are a part of national or even global trends in the labor market. Furthermore, they seem to confirm that, despite the relatively better labor market situation in the area of a big city, the suburban zone is not free from problems encountered elsewhere. Here, we should remember about job insecurity, especially among young, well-educated people, and the existence of the shadow economy – hiring workers without any formal contract. Conclusions drawn basing on one of statistical methods (a classical correspondence analysis) allow to refer to a concept of creative capital. They prove a relationship between having a tertiary education attainment and significant or full independence in the workplace, secondary education and a medium level of independence as well as vocational education and a low level of independence in the workplace. Moreover, the conducted analysis allowed to distinguish a group of entrepreneurs who perceived their work as fully creative and independent; they also stressed their own ideas as the beginnings of their present professional activities.

Taking into account the fact that the labor market plays an important role in forming the functional city areas, the research results also allow to draw some significant conclusions in this aspect. The correspondence analysis allowed to distinguish a group of “new migrants” with tertiary education attainments, who moved recently (2005–2012) and who can be characterized by a relatively high income level (more than 2000 zlotys net per person in a household). The majority of them were young people (71% were 36 years old or younger). They usually commuted to Warsaw every day and it took them one hour on average to get to the workplace. There was also a group of entrepreneurs who mainly ran their businesses at the place of living. Usually they had lived there since their birth or moved but considerably earlier than “new migrants”. It leads to an interesting conclusion about running a company rather by people locally rooted. Despite the problems, the situation of the suburban population seems to be quite advantageous. The small scale of inactivity, additional qualifications (acquired both in formal and informal education), entrepreneurs’ creativity, flexibility (at least declared) in a group of people unemployed and seeking for employment indicate actually existing endogenous potential of the investigated communes. Even though, the potentials are difficult or impossible to be identified on the basis of statistical data, but clearly visible in qualitative research. What is more, the indicated potentials are generally noticed by the local authorities and entrepreneurs. However, in the strength hierarchy they are underestimated and still remain behind factors connected with purely geographical considerations or infrastructure, which could be described as “hard” determinants of socio-economic development. Nevertheless, in the opinion of the authors, the qualitative identification of “soft” potentials of the suburban zone of the largest city in Poland is the strong point and an important result of the whole process of research summarized in this publication.

The results of the research are presented, inter alia, at the following conferences and in studies:

• presentation of a paper: Drejerska N., Braja M., 2014: Local self-governments as actors in local development – a perspective of inhabitants of the Warsaw suburban area . Agrarian Perspectives XXIII International Scientific Conference. The Community-led Rural Development. Czech University o Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic 19/09/2014.
• Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., Pomianek I., 2014: The use of correspondence analysis to study the situation of residents of the suburban area of Warsaw on the labor market . Jajuga K., Walesiak M., (scientific editor) Taxonomy 22. Data classification and analysis – theory and applications. Scientific papers of the University of Economics in Wrocław, No.327, Wrocław, pp. 338-345.
• presentation of the paper: Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., 2014: Micro and small enterprises in the suburbs of Warsaw – determining the importance of location with the use of classification and regression trees . XXIII Scientific Conference of the Data Classification and Analysis Section of the PTS and the XXVIII Taxonomic Conference on “Data classification and analysis – theory and applications”, Międzyzdroje 8-10 September 2014.
• presentation of the paper: Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., 2014: Commuting in the Warsaw Suburban Area from a Spatial Perspective . International scientific conference Spatial Econometrics and Regional Economic Analyzes, Łódź 09-10 June 2014, University of Łódź, Faculty of Economics and Sociology.
• Drejerska N. 2014: Commuting to work of residents of the suburban area of Warsaw against the background of investments in transport infrastructure . Logistics 2014, No. 4, CD No. 4, pp. 3500-3506.
• Drejerska N. 2014: Sources of livelihood and location of jobs for residents of the suburban area of Warsaw . Scientific Annals of the Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists 2014, Vol. 16, z. 1, p. 30-34 and presentation of a paper under the same title, 21st Congress of the Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists: Functioning and development of the food subsystem and rural areas, Lublin, September 16-18, 2014.
• presentation of a paper: Drejerska N., 2014: The labor market in relations between suburban areas and a large city . International scientific conference entitled “Agriculture, food economy, rural areas – 10 years in the European Union”, April 11, 2014, Warsaw University of Life Sciences.
• Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., Pomianek I., 2013: Comparative analysis of the level of development of rural and urban-rural communes in Mazowieckie voivodship in 2002 and 2009 using the k-means method.[w:] Szkutnik W. (scientific ed.) Socio-economic problems in the determinants of risk and statistical indeterminacy. Methods and models in the development of regions. Katowice, Publishing House of the University of Economics, pp. 9-21.
• Drejerska Nina, 2013: Another village or already a city? Inhabitants of suburban areas in the labor market. The Village of Tomorrow 2013, No. 4, pp. 4-5.
• presentation of a paper entitled: The use of correspondence analysis to study the situation of residents of the suburban area of Warsaw on the labor market. authors: N. Drejerska, M. Chrzanowska, I. Pomianek, XXII Scientific Conference of the Data Classification and Analysis Section of the PTS. Data classification and analysis – theory and applications Karpacz, September 11-13, 2013, organizers: Data Classification and Analysis Section of the Polish Statistical Society and the Department of Econometrics and Computer Science at the Faculty of Economics, Management and Tourism at the University of Economics in Wrocław.
• Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., Pomianek I., 2013: An attempt to determine the functional area of Warsaw with the use of the measure of relative development level and Hellwig’s measure , Acta Scientiarum Polonorum – Oeconomia, 12 (1) 2013
• presentation of a paper entitled An attempt to determine the functional area of Warsaw using the relative level of development (BZW) and the Hellwig measure , authors: M. Chrzanowska, N. Drejerska, I. Pomianek, 2nd Scientific Conference of Spatial Econometrics and Regional Economic Analyzes, organizers: Department of Spatial Econometrics, University of Łódź, Committee of Statistics and Econometrics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Łódź, 4-5 June 2012
• presentation of the poster entitled: Is sustainability possible in suburbs of big cities? Nina Drejerska at the 3rd International Conference on “Integrative approaches towards sustainability” Jūrmala, Latvia, 27-30 June 2012; conference co-financed from the 7. EU Framework Program – download
• Pomianek I., 2012: Demographic determinants of development of Warsaw suburban zone communes , author:, Scientific Annals of the Association of Agricultural Economists and Agribusiness, vol. XIV, issue 6, p. 231-235
• Drejerska N., 2012: Looking for further determinants of regional development , Acta Scientiarum Polonorum – Oeconomia, 11 (1) 2012, pp. 37-45 – download
• Drejerska N., 2012: Human capital vs. creative capital – a role for regional development, Scientific Annals of the Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists, Vol. 14, z. 6, pp. 56-60.
• Pomianek Iwona M., 2012: Financial autonomy of local self-governments in the Warsaw suburban zone – a comparative study. Marketing and Finance in Agribusiness: Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference: Section New Trends in Finance: April 18th – April 19th 2012, Kiry s. 76-87.
• presentation of a paper entitled Polarization or equalization – characteristics of urban-rural and rural communes of Mazowieckie voivodship in 2002 and 2009 according to the relative level of development (BZW) and Hellwig’s measure, authors: M. Chrzanowska, N. Drejerska, I. Pomianek, XII International Scientific Conference on Quantitative Methods in Economic Research, Department of Econometrics and Statistics, Faculty of Applied Informatics and Mathematics, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, June 30 – July 1, 2011
• presentation of the poster entitled A taxonomic comparative analysis of the level of development of rural and urban-rural communes in Mazowieckie voivodship in 2002 and 2009, authors: N. Drejerska, M. Chrzanowska, I. Pomianek, 20th Scientific Conference of the PTS Data Classification and Analysis Section and 25th Taxonomic Conference “Data classification and analysis – theory and applications”, organizers: Data Classification and Analysis Section of the Polish Statistical Society; Department of Finance and Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, Poznań University of Life Sciences; Department of Statistics, Faculty of Computer Science and Electronic Economy, Poznań University of Economics; Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists, SKAD 2011 Poznań-Wągrowiec, 21-23 September 2011 – pobierz

Research project of the National Science Center N N114 115439 entitled “Living conditions and work of women in rural areas” implemented in 2010-2013

Project “Economic and social determinants of rural areas development of the Mazovia region in the suburban and external zone of Warsaw”

No N N114 145240, financed by the National Science Center (Poland)

Warsaw suburban zone

Selected issues

Key words: rural areas, labor market, entrepreneurship, human capital, development, suburban area, Mazovia region, suburbanisation

Summary

This volume traces selected issues of economic and social development in the Warsaw suburban zone. It was elaborated as a part of the project entitled “Economic and social determinants of rural areas development of the Mazovia region in the suburban and external zone of Warsaw”, No N N114 145240, financed by the National Science Center (Poland). The main purpose of the research was to identify and deeply characterize economic and social processes observed in rural areas of the Warsaw suburban zone.

Specific objectives included:

• diagnosis of a development level of selected communes in comparison with the whole region and identification of their diversification,
• determination of demographic and economic potential of the Warsaw suburban zone inhabitants, especially from a perspective of a human capital level,
• research on specificity of the Warsaw suburban zone inhabitants’ situation on the labor market, including a scale of economic inactivity, unemployment and employment in the group of respondents, and in particular commuting to Warsaw as a central city of the functional region,
• identification of conditions of enterprises that function there, as well as reasons and directions of diversification of their activities,
• determination of a role of local self-government and other institutions in fostering and promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas and evaluation of local self-government activities in applying for and using the European Union support.

The empirical research was conducted in rural households, enterprises and local self-governmental units in 30 rural and rural-urban communes around Warsaw, which were identified as the Warsaw suburban zone basing on the methodology of Korcelli and Śleszyński [Korcelli P. and Śleszyński P ., 2011: National Spatial Development Concept 2030 – draft of January 25, 2011, delimitation previously prepared for the ESPON program] as well as Bański [Bański J. (ed.), 2009: Analysis of the diversity and perspectives of rural development in Poland to 2015. Rural Areas Studies vol. 16, PTG, IGIPZ PAN, Warsaw; typology of communes according to the impact ranges (development of urban functions)]. Finally, the research included questionnaire interviews in 800 households (2215 adult participants), 221 micro and small enterprises as well as postal questionnaire in 30 local self-government offices.

Research results show that the analyzed suburban communes of Warsaw are an area of an intense socio-economic transformation. However, the multi-threaded nature of these changes makes the authors present a reduced general background of the changes. Moreover, the authors hope that provided examples, such as functional connections between the capital city and its suburban area in the labor market, are a good illustration of the changes. Especially as these changes are presented at the same time from the perspective of three key groups: local self-government, inhabitants and entrepreneurs.

The studied area was characterized using some statistical methods. The use of the relative development level measure (BZW) made it possible to group investigated 30 communes in three development classes: the highest, medium and the lowest one. The first group included: Lesznowola, Michałowice, Nadarzyn, Raszyn, Nieporęt, Izabelin, and Stare Babice. With the exception of Nadarzyn, all these communes directly border Warsaw. Furthermore, apart from Nieporęt, these communes are situated on the left bank of the Vistula river. This indicates the strongest development impact of Warsaw on directly neighboring communes as well as the impact oriented towards the west of the city. The next group of 14 communes constituted a specific area of transition – usually not directly bordering Warsaw but with strong impact of the city on socio-economic processes taking place there. The remaining 9 communes are peripheral units in the investigated area, being the farthest away from Warsaw but still included in the suburban zone.

According to research results, majority of local self-governments had development strategic documents. This may indicate the authorities’ awareness of the role of stimulating inhabitants’ and entrepreneurs’ activity as well as their own investments in improving infrastructure assets, quality of life and facilitating business start. At the same time, providing a development strategy may also be only the fulfillment of a technical precondition – for example, in the case of applying for the European Union funds. The communes authorities (with some exceptions) were rather active in applying for the support. Nevertheless, they complained about procedures of applying and sometimes detrimental conditions for granting funds for projects to the Warsaw suburban zone communes (per capita income). In the opinion of representatives of local self-government offices, the strengths of the Warsaw suburban area include: a convenient system of road infrastructure and accessible investment area. Additionally, there are large areas of communes characterized by high natural values. These values can be both stimulating as well as limiting possibilities of economic activities. According to more than a half of the local authorities, the natural environment provides a great opportunity for development of weekend or business tourism (for example conference and professional meetings with a quiet and peaceful atmosphere close to nature in Serock).

Entrepreneurs focused their activity mostly on the local market. The respondents from communes with a low level of development, more frequently than others, came out beyond the local market – which could be a result of their need to increase insufficient demand for their products and services. In their opinion, the most important factors determining the firm location included: proximity to customers and local or regional market capacity. The neighborhood of Warsaw was identified as an important factor in every fourth company. The most important strengths included: proximity to Warsaw, good transport connections with the capital city and othermajor cities, developed technical infrastructure, continuous development of communes (related, inter alia, to constant growth of the population as a result of migration and high birth rates ) as well as appropriate conditions for entrepreneurship development. They also out some weaknesses: poor technical infrastructure, high costs and other difficulties in doing business (eg lack of support from the local authorities, lack of advisory services), too much traffic, pollution and poor road communications. It should be noted that some factors were indicated as both the strengths and the weaknesses. The entrepreneurs had a tendency to assess the technical infrastructure through the lens of their immediate environment, such as a particular driveway to a firm. Therefore, the responses were very diverse, and what for some respondents was an advantage, for others did not matter at all.

The situation of inhabitants on the labor market was relatively good. It was characterized by high rates of either professional activity or a high rate of employment. Therefore, proximity of the developed labor market (the capital city) as well its immediate environment promote professional activity of the suburban inhabitants. It attracts new people both from other parts of the region and from Warsaw as well. As shown by the results, the newly settled inhabitants were young, well-educated, with a relatively high level of income. These processes undoubtedly lead to an increase of human potential of the examined areas and reflect a discussion of both theorists and practitioners on endogenous growth factors. Though, these changes also increased pressure in many dimensions. Firstly, environmental issues should be considered. The development of the residential function requires more land for this purpose. New residential areas are usually private investments using for example previous agricultural land, but with increasing prices year by year. Secondly, the provision of appropriate infrastructure to people commuting to work every day is another challenge. New migrants usually use their own cars, causing a significant traffic jams on the way to Warsaw. The results clearly indicate no attractive offers of public transport in this case. These results also allow to identify some phenomena that are typical not only of the residents of the suburban zone. These phenomena are a part of national or even global trends in the labor market. Furthermore, they seem to confirm that, despite the relatively better labor market situation in the area of a big city, the suburban zone is not free from problems encountered elsewhere. Here, we should remember about job insecurity, especially among young, well-educated people, and the existence of the shadow economy – hiring workers without any formal contract. Conclusions drawn basing on one of statistical methods (a classical correspondence analysis) allow to refer to a concept of creative capital. They prove a relationship between having a tertiary education attainment and significant or full independence in the workplace, secondary education and a medium level of independence as well as vocational education and a low level of independence in the workplace. Moreover, the conducted analysis allowed to distinguish a group of entrepreneurs who perceived their work as fully creative and independent; they also stressed their own ideas as the beginnings of their present professional activities.

Taking into account the fact that the labor market plays an important role in forming the functional city areas, the research results also allow to draw some significant conclusions in this aspect. The correspondence analysis allowed to distinguish a group of “new migrants” with tertiary education attainments, who moved recently (2005–2012) and who can be characterized by a relatively high income level (more than 2000 zlotys net per person in a household). The majority of them were young people (71% were 36 years old or younger). They usually commuted to Warsaw every day and it took them one hour on average to get to the workplace. There was also a group of entrepreneurs who mainly ran their businesses at the place of living. Usually they had lived there since their birth or moved but considerably earlier than “new migrants”. It leads to an interesting conclusion about running a company rather by people locally rooted. Despite the problems, the situation of the suburban population seems to be quite advantageous. The small scale of inactivity, additional qualifications (acquired both in formal and informal education), entrepreneurs’ creativity, flexibility (at least declared) in a group of people unemployed and seeking for employment indicate actually existing endogenous potential of the investigated communes. Even though, the potentials are difficult or impossible to be identified on the basis of statistical data, but clearly visible in qualitative research. What is more, the indicated potentials are generally noticed by the local authorities and entrepreneurs. However, in the strength hierarchy they are underestimated and still remain behind factors connected with purely geographical considerations or infrastructure, which could be described as “hard” determinants of socio-economic development. Nevertheless, in the opinion of the authors, the qualitative identification of “soft” potentials of the suburban zone of the largest city in Poland is the strong point and an important result of the whole process of research summarized in this publication.

Publications and presentations in English:

• Drejerska N., 2015: Is sustainability possible in suburbs of big cities? – the example of Warsaw. [w:] Walter Leal Filho, Arnolds Úbelis, Dina Bērziņa (eds.): Sustainable development, knowledge society and smart future manufacturing technologies. Switzerland, Springer International Publishing, pp. 323-330.
• presentation: Drejerska N., Braja M., 2014: Local self-governments as actors in local development – a perspective of inhabitants of the Warsaw suburban area . Agrarian Perspectives XXIII International Scientific Conference. The Community-led Rural Development. Czech University of Life Sciences, 19/09/2014.
• presentation: Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., 2014: Commuting in the Warsaw Suburban Area from a Spatial Perspective . International scientific conference Spatial Econometrics and Regional Economic Analyzes, Łódź 09-10 June 2014, University of Łódź, Faculty of Economics and Sociology.
• Chrzanowska M., Drejerska N., Pomianek I., 2013: An attempt to determine the functional area of Warsaw with the use of the measure of relative development level and Hellwig’s measure , Acta Scientiarum Polonorum – Oeconomia, 12 (1) 2013
• presentation of a paper entitled An attempt to determine the functional area of Warsaw using the relative level of development (BZW) and the Hellwig measure , authors: M. Chrzanowska, N. Drejerska, I. Pomianek, 2nd Scientific Conference of Spatial Econometrics and Regional Economic Analyzes, organizers: Department of Spatial Econometrics, University of Łódź, Committee of Statistics and Econometrics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Łódź, 4-5 June 2012
• presentation of the poster entitled: Is sustainability possible in suburbs of big cities? Nina Drejerska at the 3rd International Conference on “Integrative approaches towards sustainability” Jūrmala, Latvia, 27-30 June 2012; conference co-financed from the 7. EU Framework Program – download
• Pomianek I., 2012: Demographic determinants of development of Warsaw suburban zone communes , Scientific Annals of the Association of Agricultural Economists and Agribusiness, vol. XIV, issue 6, pp. 231-235
• Drejerska N., 2012: Looking for further determinants of regional development , Acta Scientiarum Polonorum – Oeconomia, 11 (1) 2012, pp. 37-45 – download
• Drejerska N., 2012: Human capital vs. creative capital – a role for regional development, Scientific Annals of the Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists, Vol. 14, z. 6, pp. 56-60.
• Pomianek Iwona M., 2012: Financial autonomy of local self-governments in the Warsaw suburban zone – a comparative study. Marketing and Finance in Agribusiness: Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference: Section New Trends in Finance: April 18th – April 19th 2012, Kiry pp. 76-87.