DIVERSITY OF SOCIAL POTENTIAL IN A PERIPHERAL AREA – AN EXAMPLE OF MIDDLE POMERANIA COMMUNE

The aim of this article is to diagnose and assess the differences in terms of social potential within a peripheral area. The analysis concerned the area of Middle Pomerania. A typology of communes in this region was carried out to confirm the thesis about existing internal differences in terms of structure and dominant economic functions. Five different functional types were revealed, i.e., peripheral communes, functional-transitional communes, touristic communes, functional-urban communes as well as large and medium-sized cities. The typology was assessed in terms of its cognitive usefulness and practical use in the diagnosis and assessment of differences in local social potentials. In the course of considerations, the hypothesis stating that it is possible to distinguish relatively internally homogeneous but heterogeneous types of communes in the peripheral area and identify, for each of them, local social potentials used for the creation of the so-called critical mass initiating their development processes was confirmed. Secondary data from the Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland was used to carry out a typology of the communes of Middle Pomerania. In the adopted research approach, social potential was expressed in the form of latent constructs for human and social capital. The human capital index (HCI) and the formal social capital index (FSCI) calculated individually for each functional type of communes were used. The diagnosis of the social potential was carried out in the period of July-August 2020 by means of a diagnostic survey using CAPI and CAWI methods on a random, representative sample of N = 1,121. The analysis and assessment of the existing social potential differentiation was carried out in spatial terms, taking into account the selected types of communes for the peripheral area. The preliminary results of the research allowed to positively verify the adopted hypothesis. Each of the distinguished functional types of communes in the peripheral area under study is characterized by a different level of social potential.