The Changing Distribution of Polish Industry, 1949-65

The post-war communist government of Poland has greatly expanded manufacturing and extractive industry. This study outlines the changing distribution of industry in the context of the government's policies for national and local economic development. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between the evolving distributions of industrial employment and population. The major trends of both are outlined, and the consequent pattern of industrialization between 1949 and 1965 is analysed through the use of trend surfaces. Cluster analysis is then used to group like counties (powiaty). The characteristics and distribution of the ten groups of counties thus produced are described. Almost all counties have experienced industrial growth since 1949 and the proportion of the population employed by industry has increased almost everywhere. However, wide variations exist in the extent of these changes among counties and a complex pattern emerges when they are mapped. Although these variations can be explained in terms of the conflicting aims and problems of the Polish government, their areal complexity suggests several alternative explanations which require further investigation and several deficiencies in the data which require rectification. SINCE I945 the communist government of Poland has expanded manufacturing and extractive industry in the belief that 'industrialization is the chief factor in economic progress', and accepted that 'policy on the location of industrial investments is an integral part of the general policy of industrialization-especially in a planned economy'.' This study was undertaken to discover what general changes have occurred in the distribution of this group of industries against the background of the locational policies of the Polish government. Two approaches have been used. After an account of the chief elements of Polish industrial policy, the major trends of industrial growth and changes of population over the country are outlined, and the developing pattern of industrialization is analysed through the use of trend surfaces. The dense-space method of cluster analysis is then employed in an attempt to divide the country into regions with similar patterns of development between 1949 and I965

Business · Distribution (mathematics · Economic geography · Geography · Economic Growth and Productivity · Global Trade and Competitiveness · Mathematics · Polish socio-economic development

• Central Area Activities in a Post-communist City

  Open Access•Ray Riley•Urban Studies•1997

  Add to list