Theoretical perspectives in regional development programmes : The case of Eastern Poland.

Abstract: The thesis sets out to investigate the problem of theoretical perspectives on regional development in regional development programmes, studying the case of Regional Operational Programmes of five Eastern Poland regions. Formulation of regional development policy for the macroregion is a controversial issue in regional policy discussions in Poland. A literature review on regional growth theories was conducted to develop a number of theoretical perspectives and identify key words for each of those. The method of content analysis, taking the key words into consideration, was used to study how different perspectives are reflected in the five documents. The content analysis showed the domination of the innovation perspective in all of the documents. What can be concluded is that the regional authorities, while writing regional development programmes are often driven by regional policy advances and recommendations of superior documents. However, in case of the Eastern Poland regions the dominance of the innovation perspective does not seem to be congruent with the macroregions’ socio-economic conditions.