Studentification in the postsocialist context: The case of Cracow and the Tri-City (Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot)

Abstract

For over a decade, the term studentification has been used to denote the process of urban changes linked with the presence of student populations in urban centres. This text broadens the geographic scope of research into studentification using two Polish metropolitan areas as case studies, analysing and comparing research results to existing findings referring to Western European and Anglo-Saxon settings. Using the example of Cracow and the Tri-City (Trójmiasto), two significant centres of higher education in Poland, the paper presents empirical evidence indicating that while some aspects of students’ impact on Polish cities are similar to trends observed in Western Europe and non-European Anglo-Saxon countries, the colonisation of Polish cities by students nonetheless displays some unique features strongly influenced by the post-socialist context in which such cities and their student populations function.