Inspired by the Chicago School sociology and anthropology of Mary Douglas authors of the article show the special cultural status of new urban peripheries in comparison to villages, old urban peripheries and city centers. Critically they relate to the thesis that new urban peripheries are “cultural deserts” or “bedroom/dormitory suburbs”, considering them as a form of collective organization or sustained activity patterns that replace an original kind of culture. According to Mary Douglas villages are characterized by low level of social energy and high degree of collective control, and the city centers are characterized by high level of energy and low collective control. Referring to this classification the authors of the paper claim that new urban peripheries are characterized by both low energy and low collective control. A more detailed characterization of a new urban periphery is presented in the article on the basis of materials collected in several qualitative sociological research projects. In the light of the empirical material, it can be revealed that in new urban peripheries direct forms of collective control have been replaced by social non-interference, development of individualistic self-control and privatization of micro-spaces of living and transporting. It was noted that the intensive development of individualized outdoor activity leads to gradual formation of the new body type of a new urban periphery resident.

At present, an intensive increase in housing development in suburban areas can be observed — both private, single-family developments and projects in the form of single- and multi-family housing complexes carried out by companies specialising in this field. These projects, known as developer-built projects, have already become a permanent part of the landscape of Polish suburbs. Spatial and demographic analyses of the rural municipalities of the Kraków Metropolitan Area (KMA) presented in this paper indicate the largest concentrations of this type of development. Moreover, they make it possible to indicate certain directions in which these trends are heading, the pace of their changes and their interrelationships. These analyses may provide guidance to project sponsors, local authorities, or legislators on what measures to take to prevent, as far as possible, any negative effects that may be caused by uncontrolled development or spatial, urban, and architectural chaos.

In recent years adverse processes of suburbanization have been observed in cities. It has become a serious challenge for urban and transport planners, as it influences largely the quality of space, the quality of life, and the cost of running the city. This paper is dedicated to travel models in areas serviced by a railway system, and is based on a real-life survey example of the Błonie community, a district belonging to the Warsaw metropolitan area. Research carried out in 2014 focused on combined travels behaviors recorded using GPS locators as well as quantitative research (volumes of users across various transport systems).