GEOGRAFICKÝ ČASOPIS / GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL     3 SOCIO–ECONOMIC CHANGES IN LODZ – THE RESULTS OF TWENTY YEARS OF SYSTÉM TRANSFORMATION Waldemar Cudny* * Uniwersytet Lódzki, Filia w Tomaszowie Mazowieckim, ul. Konstytucji 3 maja 65/67, 97-200 Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland, algernon1@neostrada.pl Socio–economic changes in Lodz– the results of twenty years of system trans- formation The author’s main aim is to define the most important demographic, social, eco- nomic and functional changes which took place in Lodzas a result of the political and economic transformation in Poland after 1989. The article is based on the statistical data obtained from the Central Statistical Office (Glówny Urząd Staty- styczny – GUS), as well as on the materials and information gathered at Lodz in- stitutions and firms. The author shows that the transformation led to a serious demographic crisis in Lodzand, consequently, to a strong depopulation of the city. The transformation also affected elements of the social structure, such as educa- tion. After 1989, the city started to suffer from mass unemployment. The pre- dominant functions changed as well; processes of deindustrialization and function succession are evident. The structure of industry changed considerably, as did the ownership system; services developed. At the end of the article the author pre- sents a synthetic model of the socio-economic transformations in Lodz, as well as the development prospects for the city. Key words: Lodz, Poland, socio-economic changes, system transformation INTRODUCTION The author presents the demographic, social and economic changes that took place after 1989, in Lodz – the third most populous Polish city. Over 20 years ago, a profound political and economic transformation started in Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, which is long enough to sum up and evaluate the first stage of this process. Although the transformation affected the whole country, it is most visible in Polish cities (Parysek 2004), especially those with a long industrial tradition, such as Lodz. The forty years of the communist system in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe caused massive damage to their economies. It was a time when the basic economic rules were not followed and the economy was subordinated to ideology and politics. The fall of the communist system in Europe had be- come a fact already in the 1980’s and led to extremely complex socio-economic changes in former communist countries, that is to the transformation process. It was caused by two types of factors: external and internal. The external factors included the disintegration of international organizations embracing communist countries and controlled by the USSR, such as the Council for Mutual Eco- nomic Assistance or the Warsaw Pact. The other external change factor was the advancing integration with the European Union and NATO (Michalski 2010). The internal factors (functioning within the borders of a given country) include social dissatisfaction with the lack of democracy, as well as the economic prob- lems caused by the fall of the communist economy system (Sachs 1992). Apart from Poland, the socio-economic transformation in the former European com-      !" # $%  &’( !