Transformacja regionu przemysłowego w kierunku regionu wiedzy : studium socjologiczne województwa śląskiego

Abstract

The main theoretical references of the work were based on the endogenic development, taking into account the aspect of institutionalism, creation of the network society, and an interdisciplinary achievement of such sciences as economy or social geography. The author’s proposal of theoretical considerations is an attempt to organize the factors constituting the quality of an innovative atmosphere in the Silesian voivodeship. The very factors contribute to a kind of a syndrome of the Silesian anchor thoroughly described in the work. The empirical part characterizes the Silesian voivodeship, and discusses the main trends of its development in the light of strategic regional documents. Also, it presents a characteristic of the main actors participating in the study being field in nature. The main technique of the data collection was an in-depth interview conducted among 100 respondents intentionally chosen, them being the representatives of the economy sector, and the representatives of the region experts and decision makers. The research tools were prepared for each group, that is dispositions to the free interview taking into account the specificity of the function fulfilled by the subjects in question. The studies conducted can be inscribed into the trend of a widely-understood interpretative sociology. The skeleton of the work was based on the respondents’ opinions. The main issues concerned the quality and directions of the cooperation between particular social actors, namely companies representing various sectors of economy and institutional experts as well as regional authorities. The territorial and institutional location of the main sources of innovation in the Silesian voivodeship, as well as the type and way of introducing innovations into the economy sectors were examined. The influence of the institution of enterprise support within the scope of creating administrative, cultural and political possibilities of the partnership when developing the “learning region”, and the evaluation of the actual role of the foreign capital when creating innovations in the industrial region were defined. It was claimed that the respondents understand the nature of changes happening in the region in question, can express their opinion and justify it critically, reliably and factually. Various conditions of building cooperation, the scope and possibilities of using innovations in the Silesian voivodeship, as well as the factors inhibiting and facilitating the regional development were specified. In conclusion, it was indicated that the region indeed undergoes the processes of transformation towards the region of knowledge, while the results obtained can be used by the main subjects realizing the policy of the regional development, that is, active entrepreneurs of all sectors of economy, experts and decision makers.