Arts & International Affairs: Vol. 4, No. 2, Autumn 2019 | Page 18

MY WROCLAW
One aspect of this is the need to broaden and strengthen social capital. It is no secret
that Poland�especially at the municipal, or local-government, level�has mastered the
development mechanisms relating to the physical and the human capital. However, in
these areas, direct reserves have been all but exhausted. Of course, additional sources of
both kinds of capital will continue to emerge. However, true growth potential is linked
to social capital, which is becoming an increasingly scarce asset. Participation in culture,
which is usually a combination of interwoven individual and collective experiences, can
be an excellent tool for developing social capital.
Another aspect of this issue, seemingly economic, relates to the following simple observation:
the amount of money circulating in a certain space, such as a city, can be represented
as the product of the number of jobs and the average pay. Development�at least
in material terms�always entails financial needs. To increase the quantity of money
circulating somewhere, the above-mentioned product must be increased by increasing
the factors. This is why it is so important to generate new jobs. The process of creating
new jobs cannot be equally rapid at all times. We will, of course, continue to create new
jobs in Wroclaw, but it is unreasonable to expect that we could repeat the feat of adding
another 100,000–200,000 new jobs. For this reason, pay levels are becoming crucial.
These, however, must grow in a manner acceptable to the economy. What it means is that
with regard to both services and manufacturing there must be an increase in quantity or
quality. An increase in quantity means improved efficiency; an increase in quality (better
products) means innovation, the latter being a buzz word used in the European Union in
all kinds of contexts and configurations.
Wroclaw wants to be a city of innovation. In fact, even now we are carrying out largescale
business and research-and-development projects, possibly the biggest in Poland.
In the process of establishing the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a
quarter of the Internet respondents of the European Commission came from Wroclaw,
and the proposal to set up the headquarters of the Institute in Wroclaw was supported�although,
unfortunately, without success�by 250,000 residents of the city. Thus,
Wroclaw is on the innovation path, especially as it already has a knowledge-based economy,
according to Eurostat data. Sustainable innovation creation necessitates the satisfaction
of certain social conditions. Innovative communities must be educated, creative,
and open; ideally, they should be international. There is no doubt that a high level of
participation in culture, creating, watching, and consuming even disconnected cultural
phenomena, helps to form the requisite social fabric. In other words, without a high level
of participation in culture it is impossible to foster proper pro-innovation attitudes.
I have just touched upon issues discussed by the American urban science theorist Richard
Florida, who points out that the social pillars of development are founded on three
Ts: talent, technology, and tolerance. It is true. It is also true that they can only flourish
where free, and sometimes disconnected, thinking is cultivated, i.e. those places where
culture can and will thrive. In my opinion, Florida’s three Ts might usefully be supplemented
with a fourth one�true sense of identity. An open and creative community may
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