Urban Regeneration in Gdańsk, Poland: Local Regimes and Tensions Between Top-Down Strategies and Endogenous Renewal

Based on case studies of the Polish city of Gdańsk, the authors identified problems of post-socialist urban governance that hinder both the development of strategic, long-term approaches to regeneration as well as a reflection of “locale” in urban-regeneration strategies. The paper begins with a description of the demographic, economic and political processes negatively affecting the inner city and that have given rise to response strategies. Three revitalization case studies will be discussed in detail as examples of decidedly top-down approaches. At the same time, the authors also draw attention to more spontaneous processes of regeneration in the form of in-migration of middle-income households to pre-war tenement houses as well as attempts to involve local residents in “community-building” projects. More progressive urban policies that improve key local services, such as the quality of schools, might support endogenous social-regeneration processes even with relatively limited financial resources. Our findings suggest that the regeneration (not only) of post-socialist cities requires flexible policies and comprehensive approaches that make use of synergies emanating from “spontaneous” processes of revitalization. This, however, is contingent upon a gradual change in the “strategic mindsets” of key players.