Pióro

Regional development is a complex, global process, consisting of a series of changes aimed at achieving rich personalities within prosperous and democratic society. These changes are observed in the rises of per capita production, educational level and professional and moral qualities of the people, in the people’s political activity, in the use of their standards of living, in widespread cultural life, and in preserving the values of man’s environment. […]

However, not all the changes that occur in a region can be qualified as ‘development’. Only the changes that are accepted by the people concerned as concordant with directional trends can be called ‘development’. By ‘directional trends’ I refer to the conditions under which individual and social aims may be achieved within the scheme of a country’s development policy (Pióro, 1979: 195-196).

— Pióro, Z. (1979). The sociological concept of regional development. In: Kuklinski, A., Kultalahti, O. & Koskiaho, B. Regional dynamics of socioeconomic change, 195-202. Tampere: Finnpublishers.