ABSTRACT
The position and status of spatial planners in the planning profession in Poland has undergone serious changes following the introduction of new legislation abolishing numerous requirements to becoming a planner and eliminating self-regulation of the profession. A visible sign of the ‘vanishing’ profession of planners is a letter from the European Council of Spatial Planners agreeing to a ‘temporary suspension’ of the Polish association in 2014. The implication of this suspension is that generations of planners entering the profession in future may very likely feel ‘professionally disoriented’ and experience a lack of self-respect because their work has become unappreciated, if not meaningless, and lacks its former ethos. Furthermore, practical experience has become difficult to acquire, creating a gap between graduation and the attainment of professional status, and casting a dark shadow over the hopes and expectations of young practitioners at the start of their careers.
