Abstract:
This work aims at showing the changes taking place in the economy of small towns of the Wielkopolskie voivodship in 21th century. A group of towns under examination consists of 92 places. The time scope of the research encompasses the period from 2009 to 2015. Originally the structural transformations of the economy of small towns comprise the reduction of productive functions (especially industrial ones) and the growth of services which led to unification of the functional structure of the towns. Now, the growth in service activities in the towns’ economy concerns less and less traditional services such as: trade, repair, transport or gastronomy and more and more modern services where information, knowledge, innovation represented by IT, telecommunication or education services (Kukliński 2001, Chojnicki, Czyż 2003, Dominiak 2008, 2011, 2015, Kłosowski 2011). The reindustrialization processes which would spur the development of new industries based on digitalization requiring the investment of science and highly qualified human resources are predicted to play more and more important role in the economy of small towns.
The data concerning both the number of working people and the number of economic entities registered in the REGON system according to the Polish Classification of activities from 2007 are the basis for this work. The research of changes in the economy is conducted while taking into account the size of the cities in the following arrangement: first - small towns of the Poznan agglomeration and second - the remaining towns of the Wielkopolskie voivodship.
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