PSE Team
PSE – People, Space and Environment
The PSE team consists of social geographers and psychologists who focus on antecedents of pro-environmental behaviours (PEB) and urban space perceptions. Our group studies climate change perception, energy transition, green behaviours, spatial and social changes in real urban and rural settings. While psychology captures the individualized reasons for uptaking PEB, human geography brings a more general, systemic context.
Our latest research projects include: (1) place attachment and the role of the physical and social features of spaces in the development of people’s emotional bonds with places; (2) perception of a place’s history and place continuity in the development of place identity; (3) collective memory of cities and its relationship to openness toward the cities’ multicultural past and present; (4) mobility, as related to emotional bonds with places, including the role of having more than one living place (studies of second homeowners); (5) pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, as related to place perception and social (national) identity; (6) perception of place changes, including the changes due to the revitalization and gentrification processes of degraded urban spaces (also in the context of spatial planning); (7) effects of the transformations of urban spaces due to tourism development, such as the rapid development of Airbnb services and transnational gentrification; and (8) socioeconomic and environmental determinants of leisure time activities in terms of intergeneration effects.
In October 2021, we will open a new Institute of Psychology building with laboratory space for environmental and social psychology.
Team Leader: Dr Adrian Wójcik (read: Team Leaders)
Members:
1. Prof. dr hab. Maria Lewicka (marlew@umk.pl)
One of the most cited researchers in the world!
ORCID, Research Gate, Google Scholar
Research interests:
- environment al psychology;
- psychology of place;
- collective memory;
- place memory;
- reasoning and human rationality;
- processes of evaluation;
- social psychology;
- Central-Eastern Europe.
Scientific achievements:
- Several original theories in social cognition and psychology of reasoning;
- initiating research in Poland in environmental psychology and psychology of place;
- a theoretical contribution to the theory of people-place relations.
Hobby: I tend to combine personal passions with research interests, changing them into research questions. I am interested in Central- Eastern Europe’s regional differentiation regarding place identity, national identity, and collective memory.
I am also interested in the history of Toruń and its spatial development. Besides photography and reading, including good detective stories with plots located in historically and geographically interesting settings.
2. Dr hab. Jadwiga Biegańska, prof. UMK (jadwigab@umk.pl)
ORCID, Google Scholar, Research Gate
Research interests:
- social aspects of the functioning of cities and villages;
- problems related to the formation of the suburban zone;
- issues concerning the contemporary concept of urban and rural;
- planning the development of formally urban and rural areas.
Scientific achievements:
- author of over 120 publications, including those in journals with an Impact Factor;
- participant of the prestigious Gothenburg seminar on innovative urban solutions (as an expert at the invitation of the Mistra Urban Futures);
- vivid cooperation with foreign (e.g. Swedish, Latvian, German, US, Belgian, British, Macedonian) and national research centres;
Hobby: Scandinavian culture, proxemics
3. Prof. dr hab. Justyna Chodkowska-Miszczuk (jchodkow@umk.pl)
ORCID, PUBLONS, Research Gate, Google Scholar
Web of Science Researcher ID: E-6019-2015
Research interests:
- energy-related Social Sciences;
- sustainable development;
- local development;
- embeddedness idea;
- renewables;
- energy policy;
- biogas;
- mobility;
- ecological awareness;
- climate change adaptation.
Scientific achievements:
- I am the author and co-author of over 60 scientific papers. The research is carried out in cooperation with researchers from European centres: the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands.
- I am the head of the National Science Centre research project no. 2016/21/D/HS4/00714, entitled “Biogas enterprises in the framework of the embeddedness concept”. The research aims to develop a comprehensive and multifaceted concept of the embeddedness of new energy enterprises (biogas plants) in a local context based on comparative studies conducted in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.
- I am a member of the international Energy SHIFTS RENEWABLES Working Group Horizon 2020. The group’s objective is to develop energy-related Social Sciences and Humanities strategic priorities for future EU-funded researches and innovation. The project will contribute to the EU European Energy Union.
- I was a coordinator and organizer of two Polish–Dutch CityLab project editions, conducted jointly with researchers from the Saxion University of Applied Sciences. The project concerned integrating waterfronts, development of tourism and recreation in waterside areas, revitalization based on field studies in Toruń and Deventer.
- I was a mentor of three editions of the Geocompetences: man – environment – economy – development” project, entitled “Integrated Water Management and Renewable Energy Supply”, dedicated to students of the NCU, co-financed by the European Social Fund and implemented in the Netherlands (cooperation with researches from Saxion University of Applied Sciences, Deventer).
- Twice I participated in the Erasmus+ project, where I completed short internships in Slovakia and the Netherlands.
Hobby: the cultural heritage of Eastern Poland, strategy board games, cycling
4. Dr hab. Elżbieta Grzelak-Kostulska, prof. UMK (grzelak@umk.pl)
ORCID, Google Scholar, PUBLONS, Reseach Gate
Research interests:
- population issues considered at different spatial scales (territorial mobility, the transformation of the reproduction pattern);
- research into the social and spatial dimension of ageing;
- geography of tourism;
- research in Cittaslow cities.
Scientific achievements:
- Obtaining the degree of doctor habilitatus based on the dissertation: Senior citizens in Poland in the light of modernisation processes;
- Author and co-author of more than 150 scientific publications in the fields of population geography – on changes in demographic processes and structures, perceptions of migrants; tourism – on tourism activities of various categories with particular emphasis on seniors, the impact of social networks on recreational activities, selected problems of sustainable tourism; urban studies – on the social transformation of cities and suburban zones in the context of their urbanity and rurality;
- cooperation with foreign (e.g. Swedish, Norwegian, Belgian) and national research centres;
- an expert appointed by the National Centre of Science in research contests (Opus, Sonata, Preludium, Beethoven, Etiuda).
Hobby: travel to small and large cities
5. Dr hab. inż. Krzysztof Rogatka, prof. UMK (krogatka@umk.pl)
ORCID, Research Gate, Google Scholar
Research interests:
- revitalization;
- gentrification;
- urbanism;
- architecture;
- spatial planning;
- social participation;
- the role of the natural environment in the city, building activity in an urban and suburban area.
Scientific achievements:
- Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń;
- the urban planner in Municipal Urban Office in Toruń;
- participant in national and international scientific conferences and programs dealing with broadly understood urban functionalism, among others: DiverCITY – City for all, Urbact-GEN-Y City;
- laureate of the nationwide „Revitare” competition for scientific and research works on the revitalization of degraded areas;
- collaborator of universities in Slovenia, Germany, Italy and Spain (visiting professor at the University of Ljubljana);
- member of International Academic Association on Planning, Law and Property Rights, Platform of Experts in Planning Law and Society of Polish Urban Planners;
- principal investigator in grant financed by the Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning in Erkner (Germany);
- author and co-author more than 100 scientific publications, including cartographic studies on issues related to broadly understood spatial planning, architecture, urban functionalism, revitalization, gentrification, social participation in the light of environmental issues, spatial transformations of cities and suburban areas.
- cooperator of local administrative authorities regards preparing master plans, development plans and revitalization programs;
- author and co-author of the „Study of conditions and directions of spatial development for the city of Toruń”, master plans for the city of Torun and urban concepts related to environmental issues, waterfronts areas, protection of cultural heritage.
Hobby: the architecture of modernism, nature, coffee
6. Dr Stefania Środa-Murawska (steffi@umk.pl)
ORCID, Google Scholar, Research Gate
Web of Science ResearcherID: A-6842-2019
Research interests:
- culture-led development;
- local development;
- socio-economic changes in Central Europe;
- urban geography.
Scientific achievements:
- author or co-author of over 80 publications;
- She managed a grant from the National Science Centre in Poland called “Culture-led development of small cities in Poland” and DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) grant “Culture-led development of small city – case study Tubingen/Germany”.
- Member of an international team working on the project “Increasing the resilience of urban areas and their surroundings to impacts of climate change by integrative management of water resources and water-related risks” (BMBF project).
7. Dr Czesław Adamiak (czeslaw@umk.pl)
ORCID, Google Scholar, Research Gate, PUBLONS
Czesław Adamiak, PhD in geography (2014), is a member of the team People, Space and Environment. He is an adjunct in the Department of Spatial Planning and Tourism, Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management. His research interests include tourism geography, regional development, and the application of geographic information systems and big data in social sciences. His current research focuses on online peer-to-peer rental platforms in tourism behaviour and the evolution of tourism destinations. He has authored publications papers in leading international interdisciplinary journals in tourism (Annals of Tourism Research, Current Issues in Tourism, Tourism Geographies) and spatial planning (Landscape and Urban Planning). For his doctoral thesis, he was awarded the Eugeniusz Romer Award by the Committee of Geographical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences). In his free time, he practices tourism, preferably in mountain areas.
8. Dr Michał Główczewski (miglow@umk.pl)
ORCID, Research Gate, Google Scholar
Research interests:
- Social psychology;
- Identity psychology;
- Social identity;
- Psychology of justice;
- Experience of justice and legitimacy of / trust in public institutions;
- Belief in a just world.
Scientific achievements:
- Collaborator of several research projects, including those on safe and defensive forms of identification with a group and belief in conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic;
- Prize in the competition for the best master’s thesis, awarded for the thesis entitled Psychology in the service of law – truth or myth?, Institute of Forensic Science in Krakow.
Hobby: Tourist guide in Toruń, board games, good crime stories, history of the II World War
Doctoral Candidates:
1. Mgr Leszek Dąbrowski (l.dabrowski@doktorant.umk.pl)
ORCID, Google Scholar, Research Gate
Research interests:
- urban studies;
- leisure;
- Generation Z;
- town twinning/sister cities.
Scientific achievements:
- author and co-author of over a dozen publications on socio-economic geography;
- the best graduate of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń;
- two-time scholar of the Minister of Science and Higher Education;
- scholar of the Polish Section of Regional Studies Association;
- researcher at The National Science Centre project and within the program “Najlepsi z najlepszych! 3.0” (“The best of the best! 3.0”).
Hobby: music, new technologies, soccer, travel
2. Mgr Ewelina Lopata (ewelina.lopata@doktorant.umk.pl)
ORCID, Google Scholar, Research Gate
Research interests:
- Smart city;
- Megacities;
- Local development;
- Urban mobility;
- Urban innovations;
- City management;
- Social participation;
- Environmental awareness;
- The sharing economy;
- Sustainable urban development;
- The role of the natural environment in the city;
- Economic and social aspects of city functioning.
Scientific achievements:
- Master’s degree in Economics – Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń;
- Master’s degree in Management – Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw;
- Accounting certificate – Accountants Association in Poland;
- Authorship and co-authorship of scientific publications.
Hobby: travels, literature, sport
3. Mgr Dominika Jurgiel
4. Mgr Paweł Smoliński
ORCID, Google Scholar, Research Gate
Research Interests:
- socio-economic development;
- trade sector in cities;
- proecological attitudes;
- social and environmental divesity of cities.
Scientific achievements:
- Author oraz co-author of over a dozen scientific articles about social and economic geography;
- Scholarship of Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education;
- Best graduate of NCU Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management in year 2019/2020;
- Contractor of research projects that were part of POWER „Najlepsi z Najlepszych! 3.0” and „Najlepsi z Najlepszych! 4.0”. programs
Hobby: traveling, megacities, cuisines of the world, Arabic countries culture
5. Mgr Mateusz Strzałkowski (m.strzalkowski@doktorant.umk.pl)
Research interests:
- environmental psychology;
- social psychology;
- place psychology;
- spatial planning and architecture;
- aesthetics and cultural capital;
- participation processes
Scientific achievements:
- received few research scholarships grom Polish National Science Centre
- coordinated a few dozen of participation processes and social diagnoses as part of the Sustainable Development Laboratory projects
- MA in psychology on NCU
- MA in administration on NCU
6. Mgr Tomasz Starczewski
ORCID, Google Scholar, Research Gate
7. Mgr Alex Lubiński
Former researchers
dr Pramit Verma
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