The problem of stimulation of economic activities in the areas where state-owned farms (PGR) operated in the past should be examined in a broader context, i.e. both in the context of concepts relating to activisation and development at local level, and in the context of Poland's incorporation into the European structures. As social-spatial and economic structures of rural areas the post-PGR hamlets - incorporated into communes in accordance with the administrative division of Poland, should be subject to the same influence and processes that apply to the whole self-governed local communities. Simultaneously, actions should be intensified - within regional and local programmes, as well as programmes launched by the Agricultural Property Agency (ANR), non-governmental organisations and local associations working in favour of the development of concrete communes, to eliminate the existing differences in opportunities to develop economic activities between the territory of a former state-owned farm and the remaining territory of a commune. This is becoming particularly important on the eve of Poland's accession to the European Union and the possibility to obtain access to EU structural funds and use the means destined for agriculture. It is important that the post-PGR hamlets cease to be enclaves differing unfavourably from the rest of rural areas.

Changes in the broadly understood structure of rural households are largely attributable to the systemic transformation, but mainly to the adjustment of households to the market economy conditions. Generally, it can be stated that agriculture as a whole and also most farms, especially the smaller ones, have proved to be weak entities in the conditions of free competition on the market. The profitability of agricultural production has diminished considerably. In addition, the state-owned farms were put to a restrictive restructuring and privatisation process imposed from the top, whereas farming co-operatives became subject to decollectivisation. Serious changes occurred as a result both in the ownership and legal-organisational structure of farms in 1990-2002. The private sector in the Polish agriculture has clearly become larger and stronger, which relates in particular to individual farms. The share of farming co-operatives in the structure of farms has diminished significantly. On the basis of assets of some former state-run farms (although not exclusively) a dynamic group of relatively large farms has been created, which represent new organisational-legal and ownership forms. The sector of state-run farms has been significantly reduced, mainly as far as the sphere of production is concerned. The formal number of farms is decreasing, although at a slower rate than it could be expected. However, the tough rules of the agricultural market are leading to a fast reduction in the actual number of farms-entities operating on the market. A considerable part of the farms has abandoned production or produces goods for the owners' needs exclusively. The pace of changes in the structure of farms by size is accelerating. The processes of polarisation are intensifying not only as far as the acreage of farms is concerned but also, or even more clearly, as far as their production potential goes. Practically, only larger farms are developing and becoming stronger. This is true, in particular, of farms with the area of 30 ha-200 ha. In this group of farms there continues a clearly observable process of restructuring and modernisation based on extended reproduction of fixed assets. This group is also characterised by a fast improvement in the age and educational (farming qualifications included) structure of farms. This group of farms also plays an ever more important role in restructuring and modernisation of the Polish agriculture. The excessively high proportion of farms that make no investments at all and the low level of investment outlays in general can be described as very negative phenomena. The principal factors that hampered and still hamper positive changes in the structure of farms are the excessively high and continually growing potential labour resources in agriculture and the extremely low profitability of agricultural production that translates into minimal possibilities of accumulation.

The exclusion of ever larger pieces of arable land from production is a process characteristic for rural areas situated around large urban agglomerations. The conversion of arable land into plots serving non-agricultural purposes not only reduces the area of fields used in agricultural production but also exerts an influence on the supply of the so-called non-marketable goods such as the landscape or biological diversity. Such conversion may eventually lead to problems with preserving open space around large cities, which have already surfaced in many countries of Western Europe and the United States. At present, land management in Poland is in a large measure determined by the distribution of property rights. The latter can be largely attributed to the decentralisation process continuing since the early 1990s. On the other hand, the need for sustainable land management is surfacing, which calls for the modification of the existing institutional solutions. Both the institutional environment and the institutional system exert a strong influence on the ways in which arable land is used. To draw attention to these problems the author reviewed literature relating to the management of public goods, presented the determinants of increased conversion of land to non-agricultural purposes and made an attempt at defining and assessing the institutional options for rationalisation of the process of arable land's exclusion from production both in the short and long term.

Rural women in Poland are characterised by specific features which, in a large measure, are the result of multifunctional roles that they play in their families, households and farms. These specific features are also attributable to the special character of village communities, whose significance diminished due to industrialisation and urbanisation processes but which has been recently assuming a new dimension in the changed social and economic conditions in Poland. The multifunctionality of roles fulfilled by rural women has its source in many-sided ties linking them in a different degree to work on a farm. Rural woman perform duties of vocational character, render services to their families, are socially active outside their households and ever more frequently engage in ventures that allow them to earn additional money (for example, they offer accommodation to and cook for holidaymakers, render services to other farms and independently carry out various economic activities). Housework done by rural women covers a wide range of duties - from cooking, storage and processing of food, washing, cleaning, choosing and arranging furniture and equipment at their homes and keeping them tidy - to raising children, making decisions concerning the functioning and organisation of households. The period of economic transformation in Poland has led to modifications both in the roles fulfilled by rural women and in their mutual relations, which sometimes showed disharmony caused by restrictions preventing them from fulfilling individual functions and tasks in a satisfying way.

The article presents the results of a discriminative analysis of the situation of 851 farms that carried out accounting under the supervision of the Food and Agricultural Economics Institute (IERiGŻ) in 2000 and 2001. The farms were classified on the basis of agricultural income earned in 2001. When the income earned by a farm was lower than the average income (median) the farm in question was included in Class I. When the income of a farm exceeded the average, it was included in Class II. The classes were defined on the basis of a set of financial indicators for 2000 (obtained through a statistical analysis). The group of analysed farms was divided into two parts - a set of farms with typical values of features (fitting into the bracket: average value plus or minus three standard deviations) and a set of the remaining farms whose features had untypical values. For the purpose of discrimination a linear discriminative function was used, which was created on the basis of data coming from 703 farms characterised by the typical value of features, whereas the evaluation was done on the basis of the number of correct classifications for the two sets. The most reliable indicators in forecasting a farm's financial condition in the coming year are: the profitability of sales, the productivity of assets, labour productivity, stock-turn, and the degree of the intensity of organisation of production. All these indicators have a stimulating character, which means that growth in the rates that they represent causes growth in the discriminative value.

Village councils (panchayats) have a several thousand year long tradition in India. However, panchayats were not democratic institutions in the past. In 1947, when India became an independent country, a heated discussion started on the third, local level of state administration. India's constitution (the most extensive in the world - 395 articles and 12 annexes) regulated the administrative system at the federal (union) and state levels. There were no regulations pertaining to the functioning of administrative authorities at the local level. The constitution merely mentioned the possibility of creating self-governed panchayats. Due to the absence of a clear regulation relating to local authorities in the constitution local councils were rarely formed and played a minimal role in managing the affairs of local communities. The main obstacle to the creation of local councils were social and cultural factors, i.e. the division of the society into many classes and, especially, the existence of the caste system, religious and ethnic intolerance, illiteracy, etc. In such situation chances for the development of democratic local institutions were minimal. After some time, however, India's authorities became convinced that despite the earlier described barriers efforts should be launched at the central level to create rural self-governments, which found reflection in the 73rd amendment to the country's constitution, which was adopted in 1992. The amendment became effective in 1993 and this marked the start of work on the creation of the third, local level of state administration. This work is considered to be the greatest decentralisation venture in the history of mankind.

In the result of the change of political and economic system in Poland the problem of social inequalities has receded into the background, attracting little attention of contemporary researchers. This has led to a situation where it is even difficult to determine the percentage of young people from rural areas that study at Poland's universities. It is obvious that the place of residence is one of the most important factors determining the individual's access to education. It is not only interesting from the scientific point of view but also socially important to establish from which groups of the population the present university students come and how the process of their allocation to individual faculties looks like. Among the tendencies observable at the Mikołaj Kopernik University in Toruń one seems to be particularly noteworthy - young people from rural areas most often study at departments which attract fewer candidates or at departments which are considered to be traditional and less prestigious. Young people from urban areas, in turn, study mainly at departments that are currently fashionable, popular and offer good prospects for finding a well-paid job in the future. Difficult exams and strong competition from other candidates are not an obstacle for urban youth.