Granice historyczne Śląska a współczesne przemiany społeczno-gospodarcze
Contemporary socioeconomic transformations and the continuance of historical borders in Silesia

Summary/Abstract: The article undertakes to discuss the problem of influence of borders on transformations of the socio-cultural landscape of frontier areas, as well as the problem area of continuance of borders. Each border makes a barrier that restricts the flow of people, goods and money, and – sometimes – also possibilities of mutual cultural and ideological interrelations. The establishment of a border or an alteration of its function means transformation of the type of economy, settlement and population structure, and – after a longer period of time – the landscape of the frontier areas as well. The economic integration and political cooperation that has been in progress for a few years now is diminishing the traditional significance of borders in the economic and social sense. Despite this, the historical borders existing between the territories of many states for quite a long time are often clearly recognized, in contemporary spatial system, in the form of ethnic and cultural differences, deployment of technical infrastructure or the level of economic development. In a sense, Silesia is such an area, as its internal and external borders were subject to a number of successive changes in the past. Despite a number of historical references, many of them being fairly distant, the consequences of relevant past transformations are visible today. Opole region provides good examples in this respect, its differentiation resulting – on the one hand – from its location on the socio-cultural frontier; on the other one – from the processes that occurred after world war 2. One of the elements of this differentiation is the phenomenon of double citizenship together with the complex historical, political-legal and social conditionings.

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