Metropolitan integration in Poland: the case of Poznań Metropolis

The political and socio-economic transition in Poland brought many spatial problems, including dynamic processes of suburbanization around the bigger cities, which require metropolitan-wide approach. But the national metropolitan reform process is still in an initial stage, and the only form of integrated governance in urban areas is provided by some bottom-up initiatives based on the cooperation of local governments. While the experience of ‘top-down’ approach to metropolitan region building in Poland is too short and incomplete in context of its impact on territorial polarization at the national level, the ‘bottom-up’ initiatives of local governments for metropolitan integration are key instruments to more balanced development and territorial cohesion within the metropolitan areas. In terms of metropolitan integration, the case study – Poznań Metropolis – is one of the most interesting examples for an evolutionary way from informal to legally binding institutional arrangements of urban–suburban cooperation.