Social space of a town – geographical and methodological dilemmas

The problems of social space research in geography, which are outlined here, enable to make a few general remarks: Firstly, despite the process of socialization of geography, carried out as early as in the 1970s, the importance of social issues has not decreased, but even with the political-economic transformation, globalization, the second demographic transition, shrinking of cities and the process of suburbanization, has become more important. The subjective role of man in an urban space city or a region results not only from the ability to carry on anthropogenic activities, but also from the fact that the origin of all human activities in the space is the will to satisfy various needs – from basic to specialized ones; Secondly, thorough analyses of the current conceptualizations of the social space (not only the ones carried out by sociologists) indicate weaknesses of classical theories and models, restraining studies of contemporary social structures and processes especially in complex settlement systems (Runge 2009); Thirdly, referring to achievements of the so-called Chicago School is currently insufficient to carry out space-time synthesis of the observed changes of local/regional societies which take place also at different hierarchical levels (the space of a residential area, its neighbourhood, the city, the conurbation and its surroundings, the region). The lack of sufficient public statistics, difficulties in field studies, thematic preferences, significant dominance of sociological research and the dearth of geographical attempts to conceptualize the social space are only few features of the carried on studies;And fourthly, the problem of the social space with the accompanying issues of the public and housing space are important even in the context of revitalization programmes and gentrification of urban areas, setting goals of development in the context of cities shrinking, or in conditions of demographic ageing. Thus, the analysis of changes in the social structure of the area should be an essential component of an urban and regional policy.Celem opracowania jest identyfikacja podstawowych kwestii problemowych w badaniach przestrzeni społecznej i pojęć pokrewnych w kontekście współczesnych wyzwań polityki lokalnej i regionalnej. Zainteresowania przestrzenią społeczną wynikają nie tylko z konsekwencji transformacji ustrojowo-gospodarczej, procesu kurczenia się miast, suburbanizacji, ale także z nadal widocznego procesu uspołeczniania geografii. Konieczne stają się poszukiwania nowych koncepcji wyjaśniających złożoność owych procesów, zwłaszcza wobec konieczności rewitalizacji przestrzeni miejskiej. Dlatego szczególną uwagę w artykule poświęcono relacjom między przestrzenią społeczną, publiczną i mieszkaniową