”New” public urban space: citizens’ initiatives in participatory budgeting in Katowice, Łódź and Poznań

Participatory budgeting has become a vital tool in making urban spatial planning more community oriented. Examination of how participatory budgeting has evolved is a pertinent subject in theoretical research and in practical applications. Projects proposed by local communities improve the quality of life in cities and enhance benefits offered by public spaces. The main goal of the paper is to present an overview and examine projects that transform public space, which have been implemented in selected Polish cities, namely in Katowice, Łódź, and Poznań within the framework of participatory budgeting exercise.

Our research has demonstrated that in many cases participatory budgeting has acted as a catalyst of a variety of local bottom-up initiatives addressing public space in researched cities. It is thanks to the engaged and creative people at the local level that new functions which improve the quality of life are developed in cities.