About
Project financed by the Polish National Science Centre (pl: Narodowe Centrum Nauki, agreement no. 2016/23/B/ HS4/00710), project implemented in the period July 2017 – December 2022. Since January 2023 the team continues working on the topic without external funding.
Project description
Poland appears to be an interesting “laboratory” for the study of factors influencing the evolution of the automotive market. This is largely due to historical conditions – in Western European and North American countries the development of the automotive industry proceeded in a completely different way than in Poland (and other Central and Eastern European countries). The “automotive revolution” began here much later (from the early 1990s) and was very dynamic (between 1990 and 2014, the number of vehicles registered in Poland almost quadrupled). The system transformation enabled the country’s economy to be included in globalisation and integration processes, which also significantly influenced the formation of the market. In a relatively short period of time, the car market went through three critical moments. Each time they fundamentally changed the situation on this market (political transformation, accession to the EU, the global crisis in 2008-10). All these elements make the Polish car market unique and interesting not only from a national perspective.
The main scientific objective of the project is to analyse the changes in the car market in spatial terms, which have been taking place in Poland since 1990 (i.e. since the beginning of the system transformation) as a result of the impact of global, national, regional and local factors. The project has primarily a cognitive aspect (including theoretical and explanatory) and will cover identification and analysis of factors shaping the demand for cars (social, demographic, economic, infrastructural) in the spatial dimension. In particular, an attempt will be made to demonstrate similarities and differences between urban and rural areas, historical-cultural regions and administrative units. In addition, the project will also pursue a methodological objective of testing the suitability of various methods of spatial analysis for studying car market differentiation and its transformation. It is assumed that as a result of the research – as a result of the verification of a hypothetical model – a final model of the shape of the car market in spatial terms will be formulated.
Therefore, with reference to the presented objectives, the project adopted a research hypothesis, which was subject to verification as a result of the research process. It was assumed that the differentiated level of development of the car market in individual parts of the country after 1990 should be associated with the local and regional specificity of social, demographic, economic processes and infrastructural investments (in particular in the field of transport infrastructure), as well as with the spatially differentiated pace of the processes of system transformation, European integration and globalisation.
Continuation of research
Following the end of NCN funding for the project in December 2022, the team is continuing its research into the car market in Poland against the background of Europe and the World. Further publications on the issues addressed in the project, both of a scientific and popular science nature, are being prepared – the Atlas of Cars in Poland, among others, is in the final stage of development.