Z badań nad problematyką małych miast w województwie krakowskim w okresie międzywojennym

Abstract

Small towns were a common phenomenon in the interwar Poland. By fulfilling the specific role of links between the industrial city and rural countryside, they added some colour to the social interactions and stamped their influence on the economic life of the country. The area of the Cracow Voivodeship was covered with a dense network of small towns. In 1918, there were 39 towns (including 32 small towns) within the borders of the Voivodeship. Urbanization processes were unequal and rather slow, although in some cases their dynamics was considerable (Zakopane, Dębica). Only a few large urban settlements in which the number of inhabitants exceeded 30 thousand existed in the analyzed period. Among them were: Cracow, Tarnów, and Nowy Sącz. The number of inhabitants in the majority of the remaining towns did not exceed 10 thousand and the number of such towns increased systematically. The article sketches the problem of the existence and development of small towns in the Cracow Voivodeship in the interwar period. Its author presents the origins of small towns and discusses their character. Then, he analyzes the types, administrative changes and legal status of small towns that were important from the point of view of economic and social changes in the region. Finally, he draws attention to the phenomena connected with the territorial development of small towns and the influence of this development on social changes.