Chronological and thematic approach to services in polish specialist literature

In Polish works from the fields of geography of services one can rarely find attempts of holistic approaches to its achievements from various points of view, formulated opinions, or updated information on its achievements. This results, among other things, in lack of visible progress in theory, practice and methodology of research. This paper presents factors limiting the development of research into services and their influence on the specificity and character of studies in this field. The outlined limitations and special character of conducted research is the background to the main part of this paper, that is chronological and thematic presentation of the issue of Polish geography of services. The description of the issue was divided into four periods which have the following names: the beginnings of research into the service sector, with two sub-periods; systematic research into services; “the first period” of the transformation period and contemporary geography of services. The geography of services evolved from being perceived and described as a part of the geography of settlement/geography of cities to become a separate area within geographical research. The increasing interest in services led to increased number of publications. Changes in quantity were followed by “structural” changes. The services started to be analysed from the point of view of particular sections, divisions or classes, and not generally (as a sector). The main focus of the discussion is trade in a broad sense. At present the analysis of trade takes into account new research problems within its own field which are called new geography of trade. It is necessary to increase communication between services research teams in order to share information and experiences and undertake joint studie