25 years of village renewal in Poland – the end of the mission or the beginning of village renewal 2.0?

The Opole Village Renewal Program (OPOW), inspired by models from Austria and Germany, marked the beginning of the popularization of village renewal in Poland in 1997. The results of the program and the growing interest in it gave rise to the expectation that village renewal would also determine the development perspective of rural areas in this country. The innovative idea at that time, opposing simple modernization/urbanization of villages, had a significant impact on the transformation of rural areas. Included in the framework of subsequent regional programs, it was a promising method of animating the processes of improving the general condition of villages, in which the rural community remained the driving force, and the effect was the removal of backwardness, improvement of living conditions, and at the same time preservation of cultural heritage and strengthening the identity of the rural community. The 25th anniversary of OPOW in 2022 created an opportunity to present the circumstances of the occurrence of village renewal in Poland as a leading bottom-up approach, its strong impact, and then a surprising regression. The article analyzes the systemic reasons for which village renewal became a niche approach. The omissions and lack of know-how adequate to the changing situation (depopulation and ageing of rural communities) on the side of the national development policy were indicated. The error of not building village renewal into the rural development system and separating it from activities regulated by law under the name of revitalization was particularly fraught with consequences. The aim of the work is to indicate village renewal as a still current method of development and a chance to introduce a new quality to the national development policy. Creating an appropriate legal and institutional framework could be the beginning of a new digital stage of its impact in a way identical to smart villages.