The aim of this paper is to show importance of european cohesion policy on development trajectories of Polish regions after accession to EU in 2004. Following issues are tackled in paper: territorial elements of new paradigm of EU regional policy, evidence of EU assistance to less developed regions in Poland, cohesion patterns in Poland, impact of European cohesion policy on trajectories development of polish regions.

The policy set by the European Commission for Programming Period 2014–2020 introduced new instruments supporting regional development but also posed new requirements that must be met by European regions. One of them is smart specialization. To implement Strategy for Europe 2020, published by the European Commission in 2010, EU Member States and their regions develop strategies for smart specialization that show directions for providing support to the strengthening of research, development and innovation. Smart specialization is an important instrument for strengthening of competitiveness as well as for defining and building the knowledge-based economy. This article presents analysis of processes responsible for identifying smart specialization in Pomeranian and West Pomeranian Regions (in Polish: Voivodeships). This analysis is a continuation and extension of the research on the process of emergence of smart specialization in Pomeranian Region by the inclusion of the West Pomeranian Region into this study. Both Regions are situated on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea and are seats of main Polish harbours and shipyards. Their regional capitals Gdańsk and Szczecin are the cores of emerging metropolitan areas. The aims of the article are: (1) assessment of methods of smart specialization emergence and selection; (2) analysis of differences and similarities of areas of smart specialization of two coastal regions. In Pomeranian region the process of emergence of smart specialization was a bottom-up one where the Regional Government organized the competition and invited actors to build partnerships. In other regions of Poland it was more of a top-down process, but with participation of stakeholders. The West Pomeranian Region is an example of this approach. Methods of the research applied for this study include: analysis of literature, documents from Voivodeship Marshal Offices, individual interviews, participation in the process of emerging of smart specialization in Pomeranian Voivodeship and comparative analysis of the methods of their emergence in both regions.

The article discusses the complex issues related to 19th-century reproductive prints. Its starting point is the oeuvre of Feliks Stanisław Jasiński, a Polish engraver who was mainly active in France. He specialized in reproductive prints of works of art, and is a relatively well- -known and researched figure in the history of Polish graphic arts. Outlining the context for his activities also becomes a contribution to reflections on the place of reproductive prints in 19th century artistic culture, as well as an attempt to define a framework for considering this type of graphic production. In citing various examples of modern reproductive graphics, its diversity is proven. Theses on the primacy of the criterion of “fidelity” and technological determination in the history of reproduction are rejected. Instead, the complex links between this field and various aspects of artistic culture are pointed out. Particular emphasis is placed on the links between the functions, form and production methods of such prints. Chief consideration is given to the type of reproductive graphics made by using traditional metal techniques, which apart from their informative functions, also performed important artistic functions, as evidenced by the described phenomena occurring within this field in the second half of the 19th century, and the accompanying written tradition, formed since the 18th century.

The mathematical connections between microscale and macroscale models of a given piece of physical reality (compare e.g., statistical mechanics with thermodynamics) justify the following correlation thesis: a small change of value of a microscopic parameter (e.g. a change of number of molecules in a given volume of ideal gas) is correlated with a change of value of the associated macroscopic parameter (e.g. a change of temperature of ideal gas). The thesis stands in contradiction to one of the two premises in the sorites paradox, called here the condition of small change (cf. Paul Égré’s ‘tolerance principle’), according to which a small change of value of a microscopic parameter has negligible impact on a change of value of a corresponding macroscopic parameter. Acceptance of the correlation thesis results in a waiving of the condition of small change, and consequently provides a solution of the paradox. The correlation thesis coincides with Bertrand Russell’s view expressed in Vagueness (1923) where he argues that that vagueness in the macroscopic parameter is not of an ontological nature but only of an epistemological character, and is caused by looking at the physical system from a far-away perspective. This inexact picture results in an acquiescence with the inexact conditions that determine the impact of a small ontic change on its representation by the macroscopic ontic parameter. The macroscopic parameter is partly governed by its own conditions, according to the correlation thesis.