Paweł Kubicki

The article focuses on participation in local culture from a lesser-studied perspective of foreign nationals residing in Polish cities, drawing on a case study of Kraków. In the first part of the article, the authors outline the context of the migration transition in Poland, meaning the passage between a country of net emigration towards a country of net immigration, which has dynamically changed the urban landscape. Next, the results of an exploratory study on foreign residents’ attitudes and experiences of culture in the public sphere in Kraków are presented, which are the testing ground for the analysis of the changing nature of engagement at the local level. This study points to several conclusions for further analysis, namely the overwhelmingly positive evaluation of the cultural sphere by foreign nationals, the potential for social anchoring through this sphere, and the new narratives of local identity that are emerging as a result.

The article discusses the process of Europeanization of Polish cities. This process is analysed from two perspectives: top-down and bottom-up. In the first case the author analyses the urban policy in EU and the way it is implemented to National Urban Policy in Poland. This process is illustrated by three of twelve priority themes initialled in Urban Agenda for UE “Pact of Amsterdam”: air quality, inclusion of imigrants and refugees, housing policies. In the second case the author analyses bottom-up processes of Europeanization in Polish cites stimiulated by civic movements.

The article discusses two ideas of the city in the Polish public discourse: the city as a commons and its antithesis – the city as the sum of private property. In the first part of the article, the author analyses the processes in which both ideas were developed. In the second part of the article the author analyses the role of Polish urban social movements, which are one of the few social actors that discussed the idea of the city as a commons when Polish public discourse was dominated by neoliberal dogmas in which the city was reduced to the sum of private property. In conclusion, according to Victor Turner’s concept of social change, the author analyses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the reception of both ideas in Polish public discourse.