ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationships between regional development processes and region governance reforms in Poland. It explores the policy implications of Poland's highly divergent regional development trajectories in terms of new regionalist paradigms. Poland has enjoyed stable economic growth and EU membership has brought Polish citizens new opportunities for active participation in the social and economic life of the European Union. Regionalism in Poland has generally not been a major source of political power; regional elites have derived political capital through party affiliations and relations with national elites. Upper Silesia, located in central-south Poland and now divided between the Katowice and Opole Voivodships, is a region unit where cultural, social, political, ethnic, economic and ecological issues are interrelated in very complex ways. Upper Silesia is therefore a particular regional problem within Poland's post-socialist transformation. Perhaps the most important aspect of regional development policy in Poland is the need to support a dynamic and pragmatic notion of regionalism.
