A city in a clash – between the social and material dimension of urban renewal

Abstract

_{The revival of urban renewal in Polish cities, which for several years has been impacted by an inflow of European funds, gives hope for the regeneration of deprived areas. In order to achieve the expected results, this comprehensive process of urban renewal should become a type of social practice. However, previous experiences show that revitalization may also cause some tensions between residents and other actors involved in the actions undertaken in decapitalized and marginalized urban spaces. The clash of social and economic forces, which is accompanied by an unintended collision of interests and functions of revitalized areas, often leads to paradoxical effects. This paper presents these tensions which increased within the Local Revitalization Programs in Cracow and Lodz from 2004–2013. The analysis of the divergences between the social and material dimension of urban regeneration may help to indicate the main sources of emerging problems and draw attention to the necessity of greater coherence of different renewal projects.}