The following article presents a selection of the most interesting examples of transformations of public space in towns and cities of varying sizes in Lesser Poland which were aided by European grants obtained from the pool of EU funds, with special attention to the Lesser Poland Regional Operational Programme (ROP) an also the Rural Development Programme (RDP) in the years 2007-2013. The presented findings are of a preliminary nature and are phase in the wider studies being conducted by the Author covering the multifaceted transformations of public space that have taken place and are taking place in Poland with the aid of European funding. The aim of these studies is an overall evaluation of how, in specific planning periods, the joining of the European Union and the possibility of taking advantage of Western experience, as well as financial support, influenced and influence today the transformations of public space in Polish towns and cities, and their influence on people’s thoughts and perceptions of such space.

The subject of this paper is the study of the specificity of the transformation of the urban public spaces of the Western world and the problem of the multi form nature of this phenomenon. The Author uses such concepts as that of the "hybrid" and of "hybridization" borrowed from the field of natural sciences and explains the reasons for their introduction within this specific scope of research in a broad manner.

Formation the local identity in the “thematic” Rural Renewal, The article aims to determine the main conditions for the development of rural thematic areas in the context of Rural Renewal. Against this background, the authors attempt to explain the mechanisms governing the discussed process and their effects. In view of the above, the focus was on presenting mechanisms for the development of processes that lead to the flowering of this idea (an anatomy of success – the case of the village of Sierakowo Sławieńskie) and those that slow down or completely limit this development (anatomy of failure – the case of the village of Lubcza).

The author presents changes which took place in the 3 eld of ideas of presenting art to the city audience at the end of the twentieth century. She draws attention to the importance of a movement of so-called “new museology”, which revised the museum practitioners’ attitudes towards art viewers. She presents taken from Poland and Europe practices of realizing artistic practices outside exhibition halls, directly in the public space, with immediate access to the viewer, who also is invited to participate in a process of creation of the art work together with the artist. She indicates a consequence of this practice, which is a formation of a so-called “new audience” – conscious of their expectations towards cultural institutions. In the end, the author mentions a research project on the phenomenon of the “new audience” initiated in the framework of the international project “Artecitya”.

The article presents a scientific research concerning the role and development of one of the most important leisure and recreation areas in Warsaw — Pole Mokotowskie, located near the city center, in three districts: Ochota, Śródmieście and Mokotów (part of the area is the Park of Józef Piłsudski). The research concentrates on determining the influence of contemporary spatial transformations of the park area on the spatial composition of the park.

The paper aims to analyse the relationship between the city space and the art present in public spaces and narrative located therein. Analysis of selected examples of contemporary art in urban space and literature allows the conclusion, that interdisciplinary narrativity descending from a literary work, allows for the transfer of meanings from public art objects to the city space and individual narratives of recipients. Not just the meanings, that the artists intend to convey, but also the meanings individually interpreted by those, who observe the work.

This paper brings up elementary problems related to the creation of friendly public spaces in residential complexes as the main places of social integration. Contemporary social transformations are reflected in a new, intensified usage of public spaces which – offering more and more possibilities of satisfying human needs in the field of social contact, knowledge, recreation, stimulation etc. – provoke people and their activities to transfer “life” from a private space to a public space.