ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to put in order the complex structure of the diversity, pervading the empirical studies of regional development, and to propose their systematisation, on the basis of a survey of investigations concerning the territory of Poland. Despite the fact that all of the notions mentioned here, research approaches, study methods and metrics are all related to development, their systematics are truly complex. The structure of differentiation of the development studies is both multidimensional and multilevel. Depending upon the manner in which the very notion of development is characterised, in addition, we deal with the different subject scopes of the development studies. These studies may also concern various aspects of development. Further, depending upon the manner in which the notion of development is conceived, a given study may be oriented at the determination of the level of developmental advancement of a given area, or at the dynamics of development of this area in a definite period of time. Then, depending upon the measurement level, one can distinguish the measurement of development at the qualitative, ordinal and quantitative levels. On the other hand, the manner, in which the notion of the region is understood influences the reach and the spatial resolution level of the study. Finally, depending upon the possibility of making practical use of the results from an investigation, the methods might be applied, enabling the identification of the development potential and the methods allowing for quantifying the ultimate effects of the impact from this potential. The demonstrated diversity of the ways of measuring regional development results, first of all, from the differences in the motivations to undertake studies in this domain and from the wide possibilities of using the respective results.
