This book provides a comprehensive analysis of long-term changes in the car market of an emerging economy, with a focus on its spatial and temporal dimensions. Poland, the case study in question, represents a unique "laboratory of automobile revolution" during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The volume brings to the fore several key aspects of the car market, such as car ownership, markets for new cars, import of second-hand cars, car use, electromobility and environmental impact. Many of them are the subject of a global debate in the context of achieving sustainable development goals. Others, meanwhile, point to the unique nature of transformations related to the car market in Poland. Altogether, consideration of these aspects enriches the international literature with new results and findings that will broaden the field of discussion on the car market onto the emerging economies, especially those of Central and Eastern Europe. The book combines the results of quantitative and qualitative research. The former is based on a big data set (ca. 40 million vehicles) and the latter on an in-depth social survey (questionnaire interviews with more than 4,000 drivers). The discussion of the geography of automobile revolution is linked to other social, economic and spatial phenomena and processes (e.g. urban sprawl or rural marginalisation; consumer decisions and the evolution of quality of life; and the development of individual entrepreneurship or environmental protection), as well as to transport, tax and customs policies. The analysis of the dynamics of change pays particular attention to the role of "critical junctures", such as the collapse of the communist system, EU membership, the world financial crisis (2007-2009) and first period of COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). The book will be of interest to scholars, students and practitioners dealing with transport research, geography of transportation, spatial economy, urban and regional planning and sustainability studies, and for car hobbyists.

This book provides a comparative analysis of shrinking cities in a broad range of postsocialist countries within the so-called Global East, a liminal space between North and South. While shrinking cities have received increased scholarly attention in the past decades, theoretical, and empirical research has remained predominantly centered on the Global North. This volume brings to the fore a range of new perspectives on urban shrinkage, identifying commonalities, differences, and policy experiences across a very diverse and vivid region with its various legacies and contemporary controversial developments. With chapters written by leading experts in the field, insider views assist in decolonizing urban theory. Specifically, the book includes chapters on shrinking cities in China, Russia, and postsocialist Europe, presenting comparative discussions within countries and crossnational cases on theoretical and policy implications. The book will be of interest to students and scholars researching urban studies, urban geography, urban planning, urban politics and policy, urban sociology, and urban development.

This book demonstrates how the creative industries are driving new sectoral and spatial dynamics in European cities, regions, and countries, and how these may be influenced by international and global dynamics. It takes a purposeful geographical approach to the study of the creative industries across various Western, Central and Eastern European contexts since the 2008-2009 recession. Despite the growing research looking at the development of the creative industries in the last 15 years, there are still gaps in the coverage of what is happening in Central and Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe. This book addresses these gaps in two parts focusing on particular geographical scales and creative processes: local interplay between sector and space and the role of the creative industries in regional and national economies after the crisis. The book presents original analyses of the post-crisis environment, and novel data on topics such as the role of institutions in the regulation of the fashion industry in global cities, the impact of clustering on film innovation, location patterns of art galleries, regional specialisations and paths of professional carriers in creative industries.