Urban consumption in the postmodern reality : the analysis of changes in the background of the structure of earlier city expenses

The main objective of the paper is to analyse the changes in structure of city expenses. It evolves according to changes of urban development goals, which reflects the hierarchy of needs of the city users. In this context the urban consumption illustrates firstly lasting of key urban functions, resulting of the unchanged, during centuries, role of cities in settlement and economic systems and secondly opportunism the forms of satisfying some needs. The research was based on comparative studies of urban life realities expressed in the share of selected categories of budgetary expenditures in analysed cities in the period of more than 100 years. This approach gives a chance to observe currently promoted postmodern features of urban consumption. Its specificity most often can be seen through the marks of pluralistic consumer society, which relativism and relentless pursuit of novelty, make cities the places, where new products are constantly created. Costs of those aspirations and transformations are paid by local authorities, leaving a trace in the structure of city expenses.