The sources of contemporary urban movements can be sought in the deep changes of the social and political transformation taking place in the 90s of the last century. They consisted in the implementation of new rules of social and economic life, which concerned the realities of urban life. Contemporary participation of urban residents is based on the activity of many social environments, both organized, partially organized and informally operating. The clasp that links their actions is the idea of improving the quality of urban life, expressed both in the hitherto disseminated and innovative activities, hitherto not occurring in urban space. The second part of the article contains an overview of various forms of civic activity in Zielona Góra, it is also an attempt to synthetically look at the city through the prism of initiatives and projects in the field of civic participation. It contains a discussion of selected forms of urban activities occurring in Zielona Góra.

The aim of the article is to present how the chosen social group acts to appropriate, affect and transform the urban space of Lublin. Members of the group are called social activists, workers for voluntary causes, civil society members or new townsmen and they have taken many actions to modify the Lublin urban space. The article is based on qualitative research. 68 conversational interviews have been conducted in Lublin. The interviewees’ attempts of introducing changes in the city most frequently came down to choosing one of the three ways of involvement: 1) alternative-defiant activities were all types of expression connected with visual and performance street art. They were mostly illegal and the social activists acted unofficially, or they declared their affiliation to this kind of groups; 2) cooperative-consensual actions were connected with the worker’s activities for Lublin’s preparation and participation in gaining title of European Capital of Culture 2016. They were also connected with interlocutors that usually aimed at improving the quality and culture of the urban space, bettering the city’s aesthetics, working towards improving the infrastructure by means of lobbying, dialogue, involvement in the process of area planning; 3) work in organizations focusing on the subject of collective memory and other forms of identity. Social activists in this group organized events related to the history of Lublin, its traditions and cultural heritage to emphasize its value. What is more, five types of activists were possible to identify: 1) personal goals performer, 2) leader of the chosen social environment, 3) volunteer responsible for the common good, 4) analyst improving urban infrastructure, 5) animator concerned about urban space.

This article is an attempt at synthetic description of the change of the paradigm in French public policy aimed at counteracting poverty. For this purpose, we took into consideration urban policy regarding unemployment in French priority districts. First of all, we present a brief outline of the history of urban policy in France. Secondly, are being presented the relationship between poverty and employment, as well as various concepts of poverty in French sociology. Thirdly, we characterize the most important poverty paradigms that have guided French social policy since the end of the Second World War. Finally, we present the most important tendencies in the current urban policy focused on employment in the French priority districts, showing that they are a part of the neo-liberal paradigm, emphasizing the independence and autonomy of the individual.

The article presents the results of a research on unfavourable opinions of the city/social space/citiziens published on the social networking website Facebook on profiles titled ‘Hejted’ in the the Silesian County cities. Analysed were posts which were published within a period of 3 months from 15 May this year. The research revealed that the most common posts published on ‘Hejted’ profiles related to issues concerning to the social system of each city. The negative opinions were directed towards other citizens who through their behaviour, violated existing rules, norms and commonly accepted values. The analyses also showed that only 35% of the surveyed profiles are still active at the moment, and thus engage their fans of this profile to publish specific content.

The issue of quality of life is multidimensional. A comprehensive study of quality of life should therefore be carried out in a multi-faceted manner. The main purpose of the article is to show the results of the survey carried out in 2017 in Rzeszów “Rzeszowska Diagnoza Społeczna 2017”. The factors influencing the assessment of the quality of life in Rzeszów, supplemented with available data from public statistics sources, have been analyzed. The survey was carried out on a representative sample of adults from Rzeszów. The results of the “Rzeszowska Diagnoza Społeczna 2017” have been analyzed in terms of various aspects of quality of life with an indication of factors that affect the assessment of quality of life.

The purpose of the article was to identify relationships between residents’ assessment of the living conditions in the city and selected independent variables, such as: age, gender, education, self-reported material conditions, self-reported quality of life, place attachment, predominant method of getting around the city, residential zone, duration of residence in Rzeszów from birth or shorter, and participation in the most recent city council/presidential elections. The indicators reflecting selected aspects of living conditions in the city were aggregated into an index of subjective assessment of living conditions. Subsequently, a number of research hypotheses were put forward, assuming there were relationships between the mean value of the index and the selected independent variables. The findings suggest a conclusion that respondents with better personal situation tend to positively assess the living conditions in the city. The applied analytic model appears to be universal which means that it may be used in analysis of results acquired in other studies assessing living conditions in urban areas, from the viewpoint of their residents, even if different indicators are contained in questionnaires; this would also enable comparative analyses.

The quality of life is largely determines by the space. The more friendly is space, the better is evaluation of its functioning and existing. Some places in the city space are particularly important because of their functions. The center of city significantly influences on the opinion about the whole city. This article presents a part of research results which were conducted to determine the occurrence of socially degraded space in the city center of Katowice and residents’ and users’ opinions about functionality of the city center.

Public spaces of modern cities are the areas which have similar significance that they had in the past. However, the society which they are created for has undergone tremendous changes. Pervasive advanced technology, downtown congestion, Urban Sprawl, environmental pollution and society ageing are common problems of highly developed areas. Open-access space is a vast urban area destined for the inhabitants while its numerous features are indispensible for the functioning of the city. Part of this zone serves strictly utilitarian purposes but the remaining areas are supposed to enhance the inhabitants’ comfort owing to their structure and facilities. Do the spaces meet the users’ expectations and provide for more than their basic needs? Are the users aware of the opportunities offered by the city space? The evaluation of the public space conditions was performed on the basis of Poznań, using expert and participation methods. The results gained from it enabled the author to evaluate the current conditions of the places and indicate such users’ needs that are not considered in the design procedures.

A just city is one of those ideas that still evoke vivid emotions while remaining universally accepted and far from materialization.
The most common attempts to make cities more just are reduced to different ways of redistribution. However, the changes in social relations, in the consciousness of urban residents, seems inevitable and necessary so that real urban justice could begin to shape in the process of deliberation. The problem to be solved is the clarification of the concept of urban justice as well as its operationalization. The article describes the idea of a tool for developing urban civic awareness, and hence urban justice. The basis for considerations is the idea of urban commons and the John Rawls concept of social justice. We take as an assumption that a just city is one in which access to urban resources/goods is fair. Social relations in the city should create the possibility of a just, not necessarily equal, use of a collection of resources, values, and opportunities that constitutes every city in a unique way. For a just social relationship, a greater awareness of the state of justice in the city is needed and greater activity of the inhabitants in the process of obtaining it. The concept of justice as fairness is helpful in the operationalization of this assumption. The essence of the proposed method of deepening the awareness of the inhabitants is a gradual sharing of a multi-perspective image — a map of the availability of various urban goods depending on the place of residence and individual circumstances, which reflects the state of urban justice. Such a map would be the basis of the deliberation process and, on the one hand, revealed the state of urban justice, on the other — by simulating its change as a result of urban investments — allowed it to be improved. Thanks to access to information about the state of justice, users would gain a basis for thinking about the city in a way that takes into account different situations and perspectives, which could become a stimulus for the development of grassroots participation.

One of the main problems affecting the functioning and image of housing complexes from the second half of the twentieth century is the appropriation of public space by motorists — a worthwhile and scarce commodity. Social acceptance of its devastation generates tensions not only in the functional and spatial structure of the housing estate, but also in the social sphere. For years, there has been a degradation of the housing estate in terms of technical and social conditions and the reduction of its usefulness. It is undetermined, without identity, and has no integrating features. Despite the large scale and scale of the problem, there is a lack of detailed research and diagnosis of the development status of block settlements and the recognition of problems and needs of their residents. This is the basis for developing a strategy for the transformation and development of housing estates from the second half of the twentieth century with the fundamental stage of pre-design research and social participation, involving residents in the process of change from the beginning. The aim of the study is an in-depth analysis of the selected, coming from the second half of the last century housing estate in Kielce — Pod Dalnią, mainly in the spatial and communication aspect. The author focused mainly on the study of changes in the communication service model and the diagnosis of the parking problem, which also generates other tensions in the housing estate. On this basis, the author strives for formulating guidelines for comprehensive changes and strategies for the development of block settlements that are not adapted to modern requirements and are transformed in an uncontrolled way.

Even in modern times, and even in a major city such as Warsaw, urban development and access to vital social services can be very uneven. With the expansion of the cities and the urban sprawl phenomena, there are some districts within the city with a limited access to public services and infrastructure. This article aims to analyze the social consequences of unequal distribution of public services in urban space. The presented theses are supported by the literature from the fields of architecture, geography, economics and sociology. It is a synthesis of previous studies and an attempt to systematize the topic as a whole. The text is divided in two main parts. The first part covers macro processes which result from the unequal spatial access to public services. This includes such dimensions as the economic, structural and legal ones. The second part of the article describes the experience of the local inhabitants resulting from the uneven access to public services. It can be noted that the accessibility to public services is strictly connected with the quality of life of citizens. Nevertheless, the scholars point out the necessity of the research on micro-level, including the point of view of individuals. To complement the existing gap, the qualitative study should be conducted.