Heartbeat of the City: What are the perceptions of Katowice among the participants of the European Economic Congress?
In Poland, the stereotype of industrial Silesia is still strong, but the conurbation’s residents participating in the European Economic Congress perceive culture as more important than business and industry.
We have asked 1000 participants of the European Economic Congress and the European Startup Days, what their perceptions of Katowice are. After counting all the votes, we discovered that the city is primarily associated with industry (61%), followed by business (48%) and culture (47%).
The breakdown of the results by place of residence is especially interesting. While the stereotype of industrial Silesia is still strong among non-residents, Katowice have undergone a “cultural revolution”, those participants living within the Silesian conurbation associate it with culture (56%), more than industry (50%) or business (45%).
Particular attention should also be paid to the differences between the perceptions of the conurbation’s residents and visitors to Katowice. This, of course, refers to the role of industry, but also associations with culture and green areas.
How did we collect the votes?
We spent three days interviewing randomly-met people of all ages in different parts of the International Congress Centre and Spodek Arena. Our respondents were able to choose from 0 to 3 out of the following categories:
- sport (premier events, sports facilities)
- greenery (parks, woodland, recreation grounds)
- culture (music, architecture, entertainment)
- industry (factories, steel mills, mines)
- science (universities, education, development opportunities)
- welfare (high wages, good standard of living)
- business (services, innovation, start-ups)
Our primary focus was to establish whether the city is still perceived as a centre of heavy industry and the extent to which participants associate Katowice with alternative categories or proposed directions of development. Due to the formula of the study, involving many people, limited time and immediate visualisation of results, we used a closed list of answers, although casting a blank vote without indicating any of the suggested categories was also possible.
The votes collected via a website ended up in a database, and the results were visualised in real time at the Medialab Katowice stand and on a purpose built website. Unprocessed data from the survey is available for download as a CSV file from www.ekgmiasta.eu/en.
