The economic dimension of revitalisation in Poland - local authorities' perspective

Motives: The paper focuses on economic aspects of revitalisation of distressed areas and discusses results of the first and so far the only one survey on the subject conducted among the local governments in Polish municipalities. The article continues our previous research on sustainable revitalisation and focuses attention on one dimension of revitalisation – the local economy. We propose an innovative framework for economic revitalisation, which has been positively verified on the basis of the analysis of research results. The article also explores the views of local authorities on entrepreneurial participation in revitalisation. Aim: The main objective is to develop a research method for analysing economic revitalisation and to identify local authorities’ perception of priority policy interventions for economic revitalisation in Polish municipalities. We also aim to verify the scale of entrepreneurs’ involvement in planning and monitoring revitalisation. Results: Respondents show higher appreciation for economic revitalisation approach based on renovation and modernisation of buildings and technical infrastructure. The integrated approach to economic revitalisation was indicated by the fewest respondents. The low level or total lack of mobilisation of the business community around revitalisation in economic dimension can be considered as significant threats to the achievement of its objectives.