Museums and Local Governments in Poland: Partners in Local Development?

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the anonymous reviewers, the guest editor and Mélanie Foehn as the Editorial Coordinator for their helpful suggestions and editorial comments on the earlier version of the text.

Notes

1 In this article, the term ‘local government’ is understood as the lowest tier governance level. In Poland, this implies the authorities on the municipal level (gmina) or county (powiat) level (in the case of larger cities with county rights).

2 M. Hess defines ‘local embeddedness’ as ‘the extent to which an actor is “anchored” in particular territories or places’ (Hess 2004, p. 177).

3 The 2007 ICOM definition of the museum reads: ‘A museum is a nonprofit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.’ Available at: https://icom.museum/en/activities/standardsguidelines/museum-definition/ [Accessed 1 November 2019].

4 According to R. Oldenburg (1999), a ‘third place’ is a publicly accessible place such as a café or a book shop which is neither a formal workplace nor a private home. Thanks to its informal yet public nature, it may stimulate serendipitous encounters and meetings.

5 In the Polish context, the terms local government, local self-government, municipal government and local authorities are considered synonymous. Municipal government is at the same time the lowest tier and type of a territorial government. For a detailed explanation, see Regulski and Drozda 2015.

6 The recent decade witnessed significant increases in the number of institutions and attendance levels. This growth is however very unevenly distributed within the country. It tends to put major museums and key tourism attractions as well as major cities in a privileged position with respect to smaller institutions in more peripheral locations (Murzyn-Kupisz 2017).

7 In Poland a legal form of monument protection and a prestigious heritage label on the national level.

8 The ‘Nativity scene (szopka) tradition in Krakow’ was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2018, see: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/nativityscene-szopka-tradition-in-krakow-01362 [Accessed 10 September 2019].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Monika Murzyn-Kupisz

Monika Murzyn-Kupisz holds a PhD and a postdoctoral degree in Economics from the Krakow University of Economics, and a joint MA diploma in European Leisure Studies from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Tilburg University, Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao and Loughborough University. She is a professor at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. She specialises in multidisciplinary research in socio-economic geography, urban studies and cultural economics, with a special focus on heritage, museums, cultural and creative activities, artists and urban regeneration processes, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe. ORCID number: 0000-0002-8482-970X

Dominika Hołuj

Dominika Hołuj holds a PhD in Economics from the Krakow University of Economics. She is an assistant professor in the Institute of Spatial Management and Urban Studies at the Krakow University of Economics. Her research interests include: urban studies, local government and governance, the role of public participation in cultural heritage management processes. She worked in expert teams dealing with cultural heritage and local development issues. ORCID number: 0000-0001-8532-4052

Jarosław Działek

Jarosław Działek holds a PhD in Geography and an MA in Sociology from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. He is an assistant professor in the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University. His research focuses on the social dimensions of local and regional development. He has published books and papers on the following topics: geography of artists and creativity, cultural heritage and social capital building, social capital resources in Poland, and the perception of natural hazards. ORCID number: 0000-0002-2670-8862

Katarzyna Gorczyca

Katarzyna Gorczyca holds a PhD in Geography from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. She is a post-doctoral researcher in the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University. Her areas of expertise include transformations of large housing estates, spatial planning, urban regeneration and cultural heritage. ORCID number: 0000-0003-1999-7077