The Changing Role of Small Towns as Sales and Supply Markets for Rural Hinterland

The aim of this publication is to look at the problems of Polish rural areas from the perspective of the young generation of researchers, to show what problems they are interested in and what study methods and techniques they use to describe the phenomena occurring in Polish villages. The results of their studies were also presented to underscore the importance of these phenomena for the development of knowledge concerning the dynamic transformations in Polish rural areas. The Authors represent different fields of study (sociology, ethnography, economy and geography) from renowned academic centres such as University of Lodz, Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development, Polish Academy of Sciences (IRWiR PAN) in Warsaw, Life Science University of Poznan, Technical University in Warsaw, Institute of Urban Development in Krakow, and Maria Grzegorzewska University. What they have in common is interest in the problems of rural areas and their residents. They focus on the new model of rural development, very often identified with concepts such as multifunctional and sustainable development, on social innovation, the subject of transformations in rural residents' social roles, including rural women serving public roles, as well as on the strategies of coping with the reality used by residents of marginalized villages. The articles introduce the Readers to selected problems of development of Polish rural areas and help them to understand their complexity.This work was supported by the National Centre of Research and Development under Grant Socio-economic pre-conditions of the sustainable development of rural areas covered by the Natura 2000 in the “Green Lungs” region of Poland [N R11 012 04]. Praca w części dofinansowana przez Polską Akademię Nauk / Polish Academy of Sciences IRWiR PAN / Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development, 00-330 Warszawa, ul. Nowy Świat 72, Poland