The article presents changes in conditions and development of technical (water supplynet, sewage, gas district and communal roads) and social (housingsupplies, schools, drugstores, hospitals, libraries, hotels) infrastructure elements in Olkusz district in Małopolska province in 1998 – 2003. The rate of changes was described. Present situation is introduced with Perkal index, as well as analysis of relationships between equipment of infrastructure elements and level of socio-economic development expressed by number of commercial entities and revenue of communes per inhabitant Obtained high values of correlation coefficient confirm significant importance of the infrastructure in shaping the socio-economic development. During the period of investigation, the development rate of district technical infrastructure was 2,5-times higher in composision to the social one. Within technical infrastructure elements, the fastest development of the gas grid was observed. Within social infrastructure oneshealth protection objects – drugstores. More infrastructured elements are present in urban and urban-rural communes: Bukowno, Olkusz and Wolbrom, much less in rural communes: Trzyciąż, Klucze and Bolesław. The most important infrastructure needs come from the necessity of water supply and sewage disposal management modernization. ...
The paper endeavours to present different conditionings of the process of development of rural areas in Poland during the period between the wars, i.e. 1918–1939. The author shows the ethnic population structure, as well as the socio-economic factors in ten individual provinces which have their equivalents on the map of contemporary Poland. The provinces of Poland which currently form the integral parts of such countries as Lithuania, Byelorussia or the Ukraine have not been taken into consideration. The differentiation within the analysed rural area (at the level of provinces) with regard to: the technical and social infrastructure, the level of ruralisation and agrarian structure, as well as the source of income has been presented. Additionally, the ethnic conditionings of such territorial layout resulting in diversity and even the disparities of development of infrastructure in Poland between the First and the Second World Wars have been pointed out. The carried out research confirms the higher level of socio-economic development of the western provinces of Poland between the wars, in comparison with other provinces, especially in terms of infrastructure. This results from the people’s mentality based mainly on the higher level of discipline and good organisation inherited from the German neighbourhood. Concluding, ...
