The changes in rural areas are not secondary in intensity to those in the towns. With respect to structure, a highly differentiated picture emerges : newly renovated residential and business premises, many newly erected residential areas
, and, in contrast, the decay of business premises for which there are generally unresolved issues of ownership. In terms of social structure, the rural areas find themselves in a phase of radical change towards irreversible underemployment. The very small
When the border between Germany and Poland was opened in 1989, this led to an enormous increase in road traffic, to small-scale business taking advantage of the discrepancy in purchasing power on both sides of the border, to increased cultural