Scholarly record

ORGANIZATION OF EXPO 2022 IN THE AREA OF REVITALISATION AS A TEST FOR THE EUROPEAN URBAN POLICY

A. Tylman, M. Cysek-Pawlak, S. Krzysztofik

Abstract

The aim of revitalization is to bring permanent economic recovery into a degraded areas. Revitalization processes are of special nature, due to their complex character, combining different aspects of urban policy, as well as due to the unpredictability of time and finance determinants. It is this unpredictability which forces the need to secure long term funding for these processes. The International Specialized EXPO 2022 is expected to address the problems of revitalization. The only European city that has submitted its candidature is ?ód?, situated in central Poland and with population of 698,688 (2016). ?ód? is a city where revitalization is the main direction of activities in urban policy. Revitalization in ?ód? aims at restoring identity of the place and the people. ?ód? is currently the largest beneficiary of European funds for the purpose of revitalization in Poland. It is also an example of a city, where the centre consists of interwoven post-industrial areas, labourers' housings and factory owners' villas and stately houses, where poverty is adjacent to wealth. The article discusses the process of revitalization not only as a key to achieving the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy (as indicated by the Toledo Declaration of 2010), but also as a pilot process for the introduction of proven, integrated and participatory, solutions in other sectors of urban policy and in other urban areas. This is important as the whole European Union urban policy is oriented towards integrated and participatory solutions. The article also presents the potential ways in which the International Specialized EXPO 2022 could supplement and strengthen the work already undertaken in revitalization of a European city and the implementation of European integrated and participatory urban policy. The studies presented in this article are interdisciplinary – legal and architectural. They were carried out by using the comparative and dogmatic methods – in the area of law and the empirical method – in the area of architecture. The article concludes that integrated and participatory revitalization conducted in ?ód?, strengthened by a significant cultural event – the International Specialized EXPO 2022 addressing the problems of revitalization – will become fast verifier of the effectiveness of the European Union integrated and participatory urban policy.

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