ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses the question of metropolitan functions as the key to diagnosing the condition of the city. Particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of their development and their variability over time. The question of the metropolitan functions is primarily one of the place of Kraków in Europe’s network of settlement. The role that the complex of cultural, educational, research, and information functions pays in this field is considered. The combination of the power of these functions provides a synergy effect as well as the necessary conditions for the launch of creativity and innovation. The programme of new city development strategy formulated in 1990 by the reborn municipal local government strongly emphasised the return to Kraków’s original functions, namely those as a metropolis of academia and culture, and the need to open to the world. The chapter attempts to verify the outcome of this strategy and also considers the fact that the polycentric arrangements of the Polish settlement network, being the product of a long historical process, has been practically questioned recently. Today’s Poland is a unitary state, which destroys a polycentric tradition based on a network of multiple strong metropolitan centres and gives a boost to Warsaw. This significantly weakens the options for using the potential of Polish regional metropolitan centres such as Kraków.
