The spatial economy and the housing sector in Poland are in crisis. The crisis has severe social, economic and spatial consequences since it is a systemic crisis. The main source of that crisis is neo-liberal economic policy of the Polish governments and making the field of spatial and housing economies the objects of market game. Another reason of the Polish backwardness in spatial economy is nearly two centuries-long gap in statehood building causing that the Polish law and economic instruments of spatial economy currently belong to the most neglected public areas in Poland. The crisis has been deepened by a lack of independent and competent civil service, as well as social passivity. Harmful legislative initiatives eliminate public control over space, and that results in pathological urbanization processes, macroeconomic losses of the public sector, an "urban sprawl," construction of housing estates without general and transportation services, or green areas. We require a reform of spatial economy whose objectives, scope and models are obvious. However, the main problems of spatial economy require political decisions first of all. That concerns especially assumption of the principle that public authorities decide of the changes in land use, limitation of the rights to use real estates, implementation of obligatory spatial planning, and substantive control of local planning that should carry out the objectives of the government's spatial economy. It is also necessary to implement modern economic instruments, with actual socialization of the planning and spatial economy processes conducted by public authorities. Housing policy is a central issue of such a reform, and the reform is a precondition of overcoming the housing sector's crisis in Poland.
Changes that have been occurring for a few years in the modern world as a result of the global economic crisis, cause doubts as to the possibility and correctness of implementation to economic practice of theoretical concepts suggested by economics. However, a belief prevails that in the case of macroeconomic phenomena the possibilities of empirical verification of developed theories will always be limited due to changeability and complexity of economic phenomena that are very difficult to isolate from other social phenomena. A multidisciplinary approach, and especially taking into consideration economic issues in connection with technical issues, is especially needed in so-called industry economics, including the wood industry economics. The issues of innovativeness, knowledge transfer and implementation of innovative scientific and research solutions in business sphere have an important place in this process. The fact that the wood industries are based on a natural raw material offered by forestry, which raw material is a national good to some extent, results in the situation where the whole society should express their opinion on the rationality of this raw material use. Such a possibility was offered by a foresight project concerning the Polish wood industry.