Editoral

This volume of Quaestiones Geographicae is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Poznań geographical centre. The tradition of geographical research is much longer, but it was not until Poland regained independence in 1918 and the University of Poznań was founded in 1919 that its institutional basis was created. Geography has existed at the University of Poznań since its very beginning (with a break during World War II). The founder of the Institute of Geography was Professor Stanisław Pawłowski, later the rector of the University of Poznań, secretary general of the 14th International Geographic Congress in Warsaw (1934) and Vice-President of the International Geographical Union (from 1938), murdered by German occupiers in 1940.

Despite material and personal losses suffered, the Poznań geographical centre quickly revived after World War II and today it is the largest geographical centre in Poland. The development of this centre and the international dissemination of its achievements is strongly connected with our journal Quaestiones Geographicae established in 1974.

The 100th anniversary of the founding of the University of Poznań (currently Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań – AMU) and the 45th anniversary of the establishment of the journal Quaestiones Geographicae are the occasions which made us dedicate this issue to these events. The volume opens with the articles describing the output of Poznań socio-economic geographers. The first paper, written by Jerzy Parysek, is a historical overview of the most significant achievements presenting scholars of the Poznań School of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management as well. At this point it should be emphasised that the Poznań centre was one of the leaders in Poland combining research and education in the field of human geography with spatial planning, spatial organisation, regional and local development, revitalisation issues, etc.

The next article, authored by Benicjusz Głębocki, Ewa Kacprzak and Tomasz Kossowski shows one of the accomplishments of the Poznań geography of agriculture and rural development, i.e. a new approach to a multicriterion typology of agriculture. In the following paper, Jacek Kotus, Michał Rzeszewski, Tomasz Sowada and Patrycja Mańkowska present an example of research in the field of social geography. The authors deal with the anatomy of place-making in the context of the communication process, using a story of one community residing in one of the Poznań squares.

Tourism is another research field at Adam Mickiewicz University, strongly connected with geography. Hence, the fourth article by Anna Kołodziejczak tackles the issue of accessible tourism for people with disabilities and emphasises the role of different forms of information in its successful development.

In the recent years a “hot issue”, touched upon by many academics of the Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management of AMU, has been the process of urban shrinkage and its consequences. Numerous materials analysing this process were collected during the implementation of two EU projects under the acronyms of CIRES and Re-City. Some results of this research are presented in the article by Emilia Jaroszewska entitled Urban shrinkage and regeneration of an old industrial city: The case of Wałbrzych in Poland.

The next articles have been written by foreign authors. Some of them have cooperate with Poznań geographers for many years, which allows a mutual exchange of scientific experiences. The first one, Alexander Druzhinin, President of the Association of Russian Social Geographers (ARGO) and member of Editorial Advisory Board of Quaestiones Geographicae discusses the role of the sea as a factor of the socio-economic dynamics of today’s Russia. The Hungarian authors, György Csomós and Balázs Bodnár, explore the relationship between the creation of intermodal passenger terminals and urban development, using the case of Debrecen. In turn, the article by Barbara Maćkiewicz, Raúl Puente Asuero and Antonio Garrido Almonacid is the result of collaboration between Poznań-based and Spanish geographers. They tackle the issue of urban agriculture as the path to sustainable city development on the example of allotment gardens in Andalusia.

The volume closes with the article by Justyna Chodkowska-Miszczuk which presents another important issue of the current debate on sustainability, i.e. alternative energy sources. It focuses on institutional support for biogas enterprises, seen from the local perspective.

We believe that this volume will contribute to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and its geographical centre, simultaneously emphasising the importance of Quaestiones Geographicae in its development. This is also a good opportunity to thank all the authors, reviewers, editorial assistants, members of the Editorial Advisory Board for their fruitful collaboration and the readers – for their continuous interest in our journal.