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In this paper, the author analyzes research results concerning visitors to the Museum of Warsaw. The creation of a new main exhibition at the museum was driven by a turn towards objects, which was a novelty in Poland. The study was conducted using the focus group interview method, with three groups: Polish students from Warsaw universities, Warsaw guides, and students from foreign countries who study at Warsaw universities. The paper presents what different visitors expect from the city museum and how those expectations correspond with the assumptions of the museum's curators. It also analyzes the role of emotions in experiencing a museum exhibition and the issue of the "authenticity" expected by visitors when they are in the museum. In addition, the author presents how visitors' expectations are divided between "knowledge" and "experience" categories and the consequences of this division for thinking about how the past is experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algorithms in information technology influence changes in contemporary organizations. They monitor business processes, support decision-making, and help to increase efficiency. The literature has described extensively the applications of algorithmic technology in new models of organizations but few studies have addressed the relationship between algorithms and organizational culture. This paper fills that niche by concentrating on black boxing to address the technological transparency in the algorithmic workplace. This paper uses the case study of the Amazon POZ 1 warehouse near Poznań, Poland. The findings show that algorithmic culture has a profound effect on how employees interact, how they see themselves at work, and how they perform their job responsibilities. As we show, algorithmic transparency influences not only employees' worklife but also the general positionality of the workforce in the wider political economy. We conclude by arguing in favor of greater algorithmic regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to study the role of books in the biographies of upwardly mobile academics from Poland. The interviewees, despite their working-class background, experienced a major change in their life--they managed to secure an academic post and by doing so, they broke the vicious circle of social reproduction against all the odds. Their biographies are thus examples of "wormholes" between different social classes. A careful analysis of the position of books and the library in these narratives brought the authors' attention to two interrelated findings. The first one supports Pierre Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital, by emphasizing that having books at home (objectified forms of cultural capital) leads to acquiring the embodied form of cultural capital (knowledge and competence), and, in the case of our interviewees, also its institutionalized form (advanced university diploma). Furthermore, books at home created what Bourdieu referred to as a "familiar relation to culture." On the other hand, the empirical material suggests that reading is not universally recognized as a beneficial activity, and--as such--can be a source of interclass tensions. The second main finding points to the role of local libraries and culture-club centres as places where social capital can be acquired by the people who cannot otherwise inherit it. This finding is especially important in the (post)socialist context, where the library was one of the symbols of widening participation in education. The authors argue that the decreasing number of such places poses a threat to upwardly mobile individuals, especially from rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study offers a sociological contribution to the literature on coping strategies on the labor market, with an explicit emphasis on the crisis context and the resulting job insecurity. The COVID-19 pandemic has narrowed employment opportunities and worsened working conditions for many individuals who, in response, needed to cope with the unfolding changes. Based on a qualitative dataset comprising 70 in-depth interviews collected in 2021 in Poland, this paper sheds light on the two main types of coping strategies, namely emotional and problem-solving coping. Juxtaposing coping strategies with age, we discuss how younger and older workers in Poland handle work uncertainty. The paper contributes new data on coping strategies in the context of work-lives and offers evidence on the coping processes emerging in response to the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is the perceived relation of language (Polish) and religion (Catholicism) to the Polish identity and whether and how these dimensions of identity are employed in interpreting processes of social integration and mobility in Lithuanian society by research participants at schools where Polish is the language of instruction. This paper argues that the native language (Polish) is seen as an important dimension of ethnic (Polish) identity while both majority (Lithuanian) and minority languages are seen as helpful instruments in the process of social inclusion and social mobility since they are perceived as dependent on the social context. Polish-language schools reaffirm the interrelation of the Catholic religion and the Polish identity in discursive and practical ways (via various cultural means). Nevertheless, religion, an essential dimension of Polish identity, does not come to the forefront when discussing social integration or mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sociology has been developing since the 1970s; however, it only recently became institutionalized in Poland with the establishment of a respective section in the Polish Sociological Association. We argue that environmental sociology in Poland and the broader area of Central and Eastern Europe has made an important contribution to international research on relations between humanity and nature in the Anthropocene. This paper presents the current state of the art in Polish environmental sociology and discusses future research questions. Our contribution is based on a literature review and the results of a workshop with Polish environmental sociologists. Future research areas discussed in this paper emerge from the following five main thematic domains: (I) social aspects of nature conservation; (II) environmental groups and movements; (III) sustainable development and the participation of local communities in rural and urban areas; (IV) environmental risks and threats and (V) and energy and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the neighborhood relations within late-socialist blocks of flats (LSBF) in contemporary Poland. LSBF were a response to the housing famine of the post-war years and were constructed with the ideas and tools provided by the followers of Le Corbusier's modernism. LSBF were part of latesocialist housing policy. They still constitute a very important element of the urban landscape and have served as a source of inspiration for subsequent development projects. This paper attempts to conceptualize neighborhoods in LSBF. It analyses the historical context of LSBF and presents the results of empirical studies conducted in three different-sized locations: a small town (Wronki), a large city (Poznan), and a metropolis and at the same time the country's capital (Warsaw). The paper employs comparative statistical analysis, considering variables that may affect neighborhood specificity. The results of our study indicate a relatively high degree of vitality in neighborhood ties among residents in LSBFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of research aimed at verifying Peter H. Kahn Jr.'s thesis on environmental generational amnesia. It was conducted in 2022 in a local community affected by environmental contamination. The settlement in Szopienice contained a non-ferrous metals plant, which operated for several decades and had negative impacts on the surrounding area. The consequences were particularly severe for local children, who suffered from lead poisoning. To verify Kahn's thesis, the researchers conducted 17 in-depth interviews with the inhabitants of Szopienice.During analysis of the interviews, the authors were mainly interested in the strategies the interviewees used to reduce the cognitive dissonance between the state of environmental contamination in Szopienice, as they remember it, and today's knowledge of the magnitude of environmental contamination. The theoretical framework for this analysis was the study of collective memory, with particular emphasis on exploring the concept of normality and with reference to the concepts of Alfred Schütz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As more and more societies are transforming into cashless economies, questions about the social nature of this transformation are arising. With this paper we present specific insights into the process of the institutionalization of cashlessness in Poland. The process is analyzed from the perspective of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). We advance the idea that the institutional field of cashlessness is emerging with similar pressures. In this field—as we argue using the concept of Powell and DiMaggio—SMEs experience a coercive institutional isomorphism. We show that the complex impact of interlocked social interactions, financial sanctions, narrations, values and norms are creating the matrix for SMEs’ decision whether to implement cashless payments into their business. The analysis is based on 74 individual in-depth interviews with SMEs owners. The paper is grounded in qualitative research design and the theory of neo-institutionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how an organization tries to restore trust after an organizational-level scandal by examining the trust repair process. The study adopts a qualitative research approach to analyze the case of the scandal at Temple University’s Fox School of Business concerning the submission of false data to the ranking body. This paper shows the importance of trust between education institutions and the society and how it is difficult to rebuild it after violation. While dealing with trust rebuilding at the organizational level, we should consider not only the prior reputation of the organization, but also appropriate timing of trust repair mechanisms and number of actors involved in the trust failure situation. This paper also presents the trust rebuilding actions in a novel institutional setting, that is, in case of the business school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interest in changing social ties in urban neighbourhoods has generated sociological debate for decades. This paper contributes to this debate by focusing on the relationship between community and neighbourhood formation in the development of an informal settlement. While informal urbanisation is widely researched, the attention is usually placed on urban planning and development rather than a socio-spatial aspect. Drawing on an ethnographic case study, this paper analyses the transformation of agricultural land to urban settlement following residents’ self-organisation in Mexico City. The case study shows how social ties developed alongside collaboration between residents, highlighting a relationship between the social and spatial processes. Collaborative processes from small neighbour groups to broader neighbourhood-wide projects that contributed to the delivery of basic services and urban infrastructure also enabled the formation of community support networks. The findings highlight the intertwined nature of community and neighbourhood formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terms "rural social movement" or "peasant movement" are used in many different senses and there is a need to systematize the theoretical concept of rural social movements (RSM) in the European, and especially post-communist context in order to understand the protest activity of agrarian communities. RSM have been present throughout the post-transition period in Poland, but the concept is applicable in other European contexts as well. This paper is an account of the origins and development of RSM in Poland. The focus is on Agrounia [Agrounion], understood as a social movement with distinct characteristics. Protest Event Analysis is used to collect information of rural protests in 2012-2022 and results are presented. Analyses indicate that there is a continuity in RSM goals, tactics and social base and Agrounia replicates the model adopted by Samoobrona [Self-Defence] in the 1990s. RSM are also considered as a political actors. They operate outside of the main established political blocs and avoid the cultural-historical cleavages determining Polish politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing 2018 European Social Survey data in a multilevel framework, the paper aims to estimate the effect of working for low pay on a wide range of political attitudes and to explain the attitudinal differences between the Central and Eastern European (CEE) and Western European regions based on their differing socioeconomic and political background. The results suggest that it is mainly the lower living standard of inhabitants together with widespread wage inequality and not the specific legacy of the communist regimes that undermine the individual's perception of influence on politics, political confidence and satisfaction with democracy in CEE. The results also indicate that working for low pay has a significant positive effect on the individual's trust in politicians, but the relationship is moderated by the country's economic development and is only significant in rich countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we set out to understand the housing pathways of older people who live in precarious prosperity in rural Romania. The stratum of precarious prosperity (Budowski et al. 2010) is a rather invisible and heterogenous social category whose household strategies and biographies are particularly understudied. Our purpose is to describe and explain micro-events in the housing histories of older Romanians belonging to this stratum and to understand agency in housing strategies in time and space. The data we use comes from a qualitative panel study conducted in a rural community in Romania. The results show that the housing pathways available to older people in the village studied are strongly embedded in family ties, intergenerational support, and co-residence housing strategies, as well as in housing policies that provide inadequate institutional support for meeting housing standards and increasing the quality of housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early 2020, the "new coronavirus", SARS-CoV-2, started one of the most significant health crises in the modern world. China was the initial source of the pandemic and the first country to deal with its broad consequences which, apart from medical concerns, included severe social and economic costs. The farreaching adverse outcomes of the pandemic meant a need for intensive educational campaigns, explaining the epidemiological aspects related to COVID-19. This paper studies Chinese materials educating children on health, and ways to protect against infection and further virus spread. It concentrates on cultural values, emotions, and means of expressions present in the analyzed resources. Among significant findings, notions of Confucian values, the Taoist vision of harmony, patriotic content, and nationalist ressentiment are identified. The study also recognizes unique forms of expression represented by metaphors, symbols, and specific local audiovisual themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the problem of the social output of the leisure running boom as a relatively durable phenomenon of nowadays global scope. The concept of the "social footprint" to describe the social consequences and impact of the phenomenon of interest, is proposed, developed and implemented. Analysis conducted is focused on Poland as an exemplary country under social, political and economic modernization. The first two decades of the 21st century constitute the time frame of the study performed. The collected and analyzed empirical data allow us to claim that the running boom contributed to the progress of Polish modernization in the form of reconstruction of social structure (macro-social level), generation of social capital, strengthening of the position of local government, modernization of rural and urban landscape in social and spatial dimension (mezzo-social level) and changes in gender roles (micro-social level). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dominant notion of gender identity in Poland has been strongly influenced by essentialist concepts of gender roles. Consequently, transgender youths and their parents often experience social stigmatization, with the latter having their parenting skills called into question by people in their surrounding social environment. This has caused self-accusation among many parents, which may have influenced their own attitudes towards their children’s gender identity. The following paper details the subsequent outcomes of a qualitative research study conducted in Poland among the parents of transgender youths. The results of this research show the attitudes of trans youths parents towards their children’s gender identity; the initial reactions to their children coming out; their personal feelings; the process of reframing and reworking their stances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Western world, the “Stonewall Inn riots” of 1969 represent a turning point in the history of LGBT (urban) rights claiming. They gave a contribution to a morphological transformation of the Western cities, where there has been a gradual “homo-colonization” of different metropolitan districts, through the creation of the so-called LGBT neighborhood. Adopting a territorial perspective, the paper aims to examine the levels of inclusion of sexual minorities in Europe and if they can imagine expansive possibilities for a life beyond the “gayborhood.” Examining the relationship among the level of social acceptance of gender and sexual minorities, their civil rights and the formation of LGBT communities in cities and the social functions they perform in Europe, the sociological analysis offers a classification of all European countries into 4 classes. The work concludes with some critical reflections through which the authors consider the implications of their findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our conceptual paper argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has created conditions for the constitution of a new historical generation in Mannheimian terms. Current attempts in the sociology of youth to reconcile structure and agency with the concept of generation provide good starting points for interpreting a historical event such as the COVID-19 pandemic. While generations are not to be understood as homogeneous groups, constituting events can be compared to an asteroid that changes the trajectory of each social group. Thus, the concept of asteroid-effect helps us to overcome oversimplifying generational interpretations and to examine the effects of generation-forming events with an eye on structural inequalities. Our study provides an overview of the classical generational theory of Mannheim in light of some contemporary approaches. Based upon existing information, we illustrate how the generation-forming events can be interpreted and how structural inequalities can be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the micro data of Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2017, this paper analyzes the logical relationship between intergenerational care, intergenerational support and subjective well-being of the elderly. The study found that intergenerational care can significantly enhance the subjective well-being of the elderly, and there are age and income heterogeneity. Further analysis found that there is a partial mediating effect of intergenerational support in the effect of intergenerational care on the subjective well-being of the elderly. Based on this, it is necessary to build an elderly care service system that is coordinated by home-based community institutions and combined with medical care and health care, vigorously develop an inclusive nursery service system, establish and improve the nursery policy and mechanism, and promote the professional and standardized development of infant care services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and effects of party identification in post-communist democracies have been an object of disputes, as the existing research does not lead to conclusive results. The present paper contributes to the discussion with analyses of four-fold typology of partisans (Rose, Mishler 1998), who either have a positive or negative party identification, or both, or none. We embed this typology in a contemporary Polish context. Using the PNES data for the 2005–2019 elections, we examine the proportions of each type of partisanship and their stability in time. We also verify what their determinants are and what their influence on electoral participation is. Our results demonstrate that positive and negative party identifications are of rational origin, although since 2015, expressive partisanship is also developing. We also prove that positive, negative, and combined motivations make Poles more prone to vote, contributing to the stability of democracy on a behavioral level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research I explore the effect of religious denomination and belonging on political participation in former communist countries of East Central Europe after the fall of communism. In the early 1990s, mostly as a response to forced secularization during communism, authors heralded a massive religious revival in the countries formerly belonging to the Eastern Bloc. In this paper I show that the re-discovery of God and church was not equally popular in all countries. Moreover, I explore the links between religious participation and political participation and I find no uniform transnational effect of denomination. Rather, the Eurobarometer survey data from the early 1990s suggests that the ways in which religious believing and belonging influence political participation at the beginning of democratization is context driven. Indeed, one of the strengths of this paper resides in my attempt to capture the religious context in post-communist Europe shortly after its collapse. I thus contribute to a better understanding of how religious and political involvement are intertwined during early transition in East Central Europe. In the conclusion, I advocate the need for adequately taking context into consideration, especially given its dynamic and multi-faceted nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with social memory research done by Polish and Czech sociologists. In Poland it started in the 1960s when an outline of a historical consciousness study was sketched by Nina Assorodobraj-Kula. Although her original concept was soon left out, a series of surveys was conducted. Recently memory has become a popular research field and numerous studies have been employing various research methods. In Czechoslovakia opinion polls on historical consciousness were conducted as early as in the 1940s, and recently a study has started in the Czech Republic that resembles and was probably influenced by earlier Polish survey research. In my paper I try to map Out the research done in the two countries in order to identify typical features of the local studies. It seems that in spite of a large quantity of studies published, the character of most of Polish and Czech works cm memory were purely descriptive, and any sociologically relevant problems started to be posed only recently. Therefore it may be suggested that although a certain common Polish and Czech tradition of memory research exists, it cannot be called sociological in any strict sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research studies on collective memory in Poland have long tradition and clear cultural perspective. The aim of the text is to show this research tradition, which is deeply associated with Durkheimian School legacy, very strong in Poland, both in prewar as well as in postwar period, especially in the work of Stefan Czarnowski, the only Polish member of this School. In this perspective the social memory is closely connected with culture and time. These two categories: culture and social time as important factors in collective memory studies conducted in Poland are object of the present paper. The paper is composed of three parts. In the first one author explains why relations between social memory, culture and social time are important for evaluation of the Polish research tradition. The second part concerns its cultural perspective and is dedicated to the works of Stefan Czarnowski, who started many years ago the cultural stream in Polish memory studies. The third part presents the idea of social time and relations between sociology of time and memory studies in Polish sociology. This specificity of the Polish research studies on collective memory is unknown today, especially for foreign researchers. This tradition is worthy to be recollected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tries to articulate some of the socio-cultural impacts of the globalization induced ICT [Information and Communication Technology] revolution in India from sociological view points. Having perceived the phenomenon within the framework of social stratification, the paper tries to deal with the, (i) emergence of a new class of capitalists and a new class of elite workforce that has come to be known as ICT/ knowledge workers, (along with its own sub-culture). (ii) Further, the paper tries to sociologically analyze the phenomenon of growing class consciousness among the knowledge workers in terms of being class in itself / class for itself as they displayed conscious resistance to unionize themselves. (iii) The paper also analyzes the phenomenon of embourgeoisement among the knowledge workers in terms of their cultural and social capitals. Thus, based on primary as well as secondary source observations, the paper is a study of India's Techno-Coolie and Cyber-Coolie, as a new class of elite technical workforce, the basis of its identity formation and its emerging sub-culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since sociology emerged as a scientific discipline, its founding fathers have stressed that modernisation will result in secularisation. The belief in the death of God' as a sine qua non condition for social progress has also been prevalent during the past 100 years and has resulted in the popularity of the secularisation thesis. In contrast this paper argues that religion has not disappeared in the Western World but is being transformed. It is argued that modern medicine reflects the religious heritage of Western culture: its ideology, myths, dogmas, symbols, beliefs, rituals, practices, hopes and fears. Even more, it is a form of secular religion. The analysis is based on functional, phenomenological and cultural approaches toward religion. The paper focuses on three components of the religion of health: 1) its general structure; 2) the morality of health and 3) the Church of medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reviews and parallels the thesis of disembedding-re-embedding of ideas, objects and practices in the translation paradigm (à Ia Scandinavian institutionalism) with the discussion of reinvention in the diffusion of innovations theory (as put forward by Everett M. Rogers). The main inquiry to be answered is the extent to which these two propositions might be taken as theoretical allomorphs of a generic treatment of the dialectics of circulation of ideas. The analysis of the two assumptions makes use of Djelic's (2008) classification of three main framing types within sociological studies of diffusion: diffusion as epidemiology, diffusion as encounter with embeddedness, and diffusion as mediation and construction. The main input of the article is that it shows that the re-invention hypothesis links the diffusion of innovations theory with the diffusion as encounter with embeddedness model, while the disembedding-re-embedding of ideas perspective associates the translation paradigm with the diffusion as mediation and construction model. The paper further discusses the dynamics as well as the theoretical implications of these theoretical affinities for the Scandinavian translation stream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent technological innovations (Web 2.0) in today's society mean that a major socio-anthropological change is occurring. On the net, audiences can experience new forms of participation, share information and entertainment practices, and establish new relationships. This paper describes the main characteristics of Web 2.0 with specific reference to the Italian context and categories of users who use social networks (and their motivations), using the latest national survey data. This paper analyzes changes in the identity and culture of consumption, which thanks to social media are today expressed according to the logic of experience and performance. Through social media, performative consumption represents one of the most suitable way to describe the multiple aspects of the contemporary consumer's identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the language of tradition and modernity has been the dominant idiom that has sought to capture the "essence" of both the Indian nation and the Indian woman. The salience of this discourse demands a critical enquiry to understand how this overarching and hegemonic idiom been accepted as an unproblematic given. India is often seen as a land of contrasts where tradition and modernity coexist-where Indian women are often showcased as emblematic of this coexistence. The paper seeks to look into the complex processes that lie beneath this easy description. It seeks to do so primarily: (i) by presenting a more historicized account of India's modernity from the vantage point of gender, offering a feminist critique of the public private divide which forms the theoretical hub of the modernization framework, and; (ii) by drawing attention to the centrality of gender in the nation state's political, developmental and cultural policies and its more recent shifts in a contemporary globalizing India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main focus of the paper is that caste system has always been resilient and dynamic due to its inner inconsistencies and contradictions on the one hand, and due to its interpenetration into economy, polity and culture on the other. The aim of this paper is to understand continuity and change in the caste system. Caste has engaged people, hence it has acquired a meta-legal approval. Caste has never been a simple ritual hierarchy because it has encompassed the entire matrix of socio-economic and political relations. It has been argued that there is a need to reconceptualize caste. Caste is no more simply a system of idea and values. More important is to see actual behaviour of the people vis-à-vis the role of caste as a system. Caste has become a matter of interpretation rather than substantialization. It refers to a purposive rationality. Its discrete use provides a description of the problems of Indian society, polity and economy. However, besides caste, there are new status groups, varied forms of social mobility, and structural processes of change and dominance. In such a situation, "family" and "individual" are emerging as agencies of reproduction of inequality/equality. Caste is becoming more of a state of mind of an individual. Contemporary changes have reshaped caste. The policy of reservations based on caste has kept it alive and vibrant. Protests against caste-based reservations have also contributed to the continuity of caste. Caste may be elusive for some who have distanced from their social and cultural roots, but for others, who continue to be there in villages and towns, caste is enduring, and it is there in practice in one way or other. At times, caste-based outbursts surface, though in everyday life, caste is not so visible as a means of social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses multidimensional aspects of identity formation in a European context, referring to Polish migrants' experiences of migration in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Its aim is to understand the dynamics inherent in the process of identity construction by exploring the incidence of multiple ethnic identities among Polish nationals. To this end, following theoretical consideration on a sense of belonging and boundary making mechanisms in contemporary societies, it examines the incidence of Polish, local, European and cosmopolitan identities among migrants. It then points out at contradictions between different layers of belonging and explores the situations in which they occur. The paper draws on the findings of a one year long ethnographic fieldwork and uses the results of participant observation and in-depth interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The point of departures of the paper is the theory of populist reason of Ernesto Laclau and some ideas from Mourning and Melancholia of Sigmund Freud. Author questions two established theses: (1) populism is a hollow and non-specified term as long as it is without reference to given postulates or political claims; (2) populism can be considered only on a rhetorical, not ideological level. Instead, author postulates that: (1) the difficulty of determining the populist discourse is not a transient ailment, only occasionally related to that phenomenon, but a quality built in social reality, permanent and irremovable; (2) the populist rhetoric is not solely an epiphenomenon that can be neglected in any serious analysis. On the contrary, there is a direct link between the two layers: the rhetorical and the conceptual. The reconfiguration of thinking about populism that author would like to advance should allow him to expect answers to a number of questions: (i) What are the relations between politics and populist politics? (ii) How and to what extent does populist logic alter the mechanisms governing politics? (iii) Is the depoliticisation of liberal democracy (the prevalence of administration over politics) a direct cause of the return of populism? In order to substantiate the thesis that populism is today's way of doing politics, author reconstruct the recent post-communist history of Poland above all the situation after Smoleńsk tragedy, when a Tupolev-154M aircraft of the Polish Air Force crashed near the city of Smoleiisk in Russia, killing all 96 people on board. This moment marks opening of a new stage of development of populism that author will refer in the paper as "mourning populism." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norbert Elias conceptualized social inequality as a result of shift in relative social forces of individuals in figurations, in which framework he also viewed the inequality between men and women. In this paper I examine the main thesis of what could be named Elias's gender sociology: firstly, men and women use different strategies in their striving for an increase in relative power depending on their social position, and secondly, one of the most effective strategies which may be successfully used by the weaker party in order to change the distribution of power between the sexes is redefining the arsenal of cultural weapons used in this struggle. The antagonism between men and women trying to draw as much power as possible to themselves in the zero-sum social game can become very fierce, especially if the use of physical violence is legitimized on a respective level of civilization. On the other hand, according to Elias's basic theoretical assumptions all individuals in a figuration are interrelated and interdependent, which restrains direct violence as well as suppresses radical liberation tendencies. This makes it easier for women to engage in strategies of coping with oppression on institutional, symbolic and proxemic level, which are discussed in the final part of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the concept of interlocking directorates in a context of possible misuse of power especially such as conflict of interest (COI). The paper presents some results of Current research made on interlocking directorates. Next it analyzes connections between this phenomenon and COl. One of a basic assumption for this paper is that COl is generally dangerous for a processes of industrial and market development of regions like CEE and therefore all phenomena COI-related (as interlocking directorates) must be well recognized by regional social sciences. The article will refer to such issues as threats to free market rules, violation of trust and formation of industrial elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust in political actors is currently low in all parts of Europe and the former Soviet Union. This paper proceeds by presenting recent evidence from the EU27 and the South Caucasus, and explores differences in levels of trust towards different political actors, between socio-demographic groups, and between countries. The differences are around generally low levels of trust. It is argued that this lack of trust needs to be set in the contexts of economic globalisation having widened inequalities while disempowering national politicians, and the absence of effective political checks on politicians' actions. Throughout the analysis, contrasts are drawn between the relatively mature democracies of the west and the new democracies of Eastern Europe. The paper concludes by suggesting why, in certain regions, trust has been most easily maintained or restored in relatively undemocratic political systems and actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to juxtapose the normative aspect of intergenerational solidarity with specific care practices against the backdrop of Poland's public debate on social expectations, costs and changes needed in the system of pensions and social benefits offered to elderly citizens (the systemic context of intergenerational solidarity). The paper presents grandparents' practices in offering care to their grandchildren and children's practices in supporting their elderly parents. Such practices originate not as much from the emotional aspect of intergenerational solidarity as from culture-defined expectations of specific age categories, reinforced by unavailability of public care institutions. The analysis, based on qualitative and quantitative data, finds that intergenerational solidarity in Poland is a source of multiple tensions (including gender-related ones). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper on European welfare regimes and policies presents common and shared features of the social development of the post-communist countries that are members of the EU today. This will provide a basis for an attempt to assess if there is a single regime for those countries that distinguishes them from the three classical (and later four) regimes of the Esping-Anderson classification, or if there is an affinity to one of those models en bloc, or if there is similarity to one of the regimes, but in a different way for each of the new EU members. This attempt will be made primarily on the example of Poland, but with salient references to other countries in the group. The basis of the thoughts presented here is that of a project on Diversity and Commonality in European Social Policies: The Forging of a European Social Model (Golinowska, Hengstenberg, żukowski 2009). Considerations and analysis done in the paper lead into conclusions that social policy development in the new member states is characterized by a one social model distinguishing them differently than according to the Esping-Andersen classification, in spite of a some differences in the outcome of the social policy being pursued. Similarities are mainly of an institutional character, resulting from both the similar past and the similar challenges connected with the systemic transformation towards the democratic system and market economy. In the future this specificity may fade and integration within the EU will cause a Europeanization of social policy of member states, but now this process is not sufficiently advanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper treatises Polish sociology of borderlands (mostly Eastern) as the rich resources of metaphors of borders, especially national and political ones. It shows how these metaphors are linked to different sociological imagery-modern and postmodern. Its aim is to reconstruct analytical strategies and research projects from this sub-discipline, focusing on metaphors of borders. These strategies and projects are based on very different approaches to metaphors. The first operation is an instrument which the theoretician uses to reconstruct the theoretical typology of borders and borderlands. The second operation is a tool which the researcher uses to reflect more deeply on the empirical data concerning individual and collective reactions to borders and borderlands. The third operation is a narrative tool used by examinees who inhabit the borderlands. The paper provides a broad and intensive discussion of the functions of different metaphors about borders in relation to the different intellectual approaches to problems of borderlands and borders. It stresses the needs for equal treatment in Polish sociology of borderland problems of borderlands and problems of national borders. Especially emphasizes the positive functions of academic interest in borders metaphors in this scientific treatment. Generally speaking, this analyse enhances many links between sociology of borderlands and cultural anthropology and is closely connected to the question of where these intellectual operations on metaphors belong in the project of an interdisciplinary approach to borders and borderlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intervenes in the Granovetter-Polanyi debate by reassessing the level of embeddedness of social and economic relations under conditions of systemic transition. Using panel data collected in Poland, this analysis examines this relationship for three distinct periods of transition: initial (1988-1993), advanced (1993-1998), and post-transitional (1998-2003). This paper shows that during transition from communism to capitalism economic relations tended to disembed from social relations, but this relationship remained significant; friendship ties were conductive to an individual upward mobility, economic well-being and entrepreneurial activity. In contrast to Polanyi's argument, however, entrepreneurship—the most marketable area of individual advancement—is found to exhibit the highest degree of social-economic embeddedness. These results do not directly support either Polanyi's or Granovetter's arguments, however they do accord with a neo-Polanyian argument, as advanced in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most fundamental issues in studies on voter turnout is its stability. The more stable citizens' attitudes and behaviours, the healthier and more predictable the democratic system. Knowledge why voting is stable/unstable helps to understand the whole puzzle of voter turnout. Thus the main purpose of this paper is to analyze the issue of voter turnout stability in a very specific context of Polish parliamentary and presidential elections of 2005, when citizens were called to the polling stations three times every two weeks. Polish National Election Study panel dataset gives a unique opportunity to examine this issue in a more in-depth manner. The main finding of the paper is that many Polish citizens are rather unstable, both in long-term and short-term perspective. And although majority of the electorate still behaves in a stable manner, the number of unstable citizens is quite high, and, what is even more alarming, it tends to increase, which can imply serious challenges to democratic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with different forms of political impact on the constitutional justice. The main subject of presentation is the analysis of recent Polish experiences which can help to identify better the threats to the independence of the constitutional justice in democratic space. The first part takes the effort to describe the specific phenomenon of political pressure exerted on the constitutional justice through indirect influence (so called "political mobbing"). The argumentation developed in the paper proves that even such indirect and sometimes subtle interferences from the political elite create the very danger for accountability of constitutional justice and have a negative impact on constitutional awareness of the society. The second part deals with typical reasons (ongoing in all constitutional courts) of inevitable "politization" of the constitutional review, first of all the political procedure of appointments of the judges and the political nature of constitutional cases. The thesis is defended through the analysis of Polish experiences which indicate that the presence of politics, inherent element of the constitutional justice, cannot be automatically identified with lack of the objective and independent judgments issued by the judges. Internal independence and formal external guarantees of. it allow us to avoid the pathological impact of politics. Two factors have a particularly great impact on the attitudes of judges and support them in fulfilling their responsibility: the continuity of jurisprudential lines, accumulation of constitutional experience (acquis constitutionnel) and the permanent dialogue between the constitutional courts and the international courts or among the constitutional courts in the European space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Similar to Poland, Ukraine started it~ media reform in early 90-s. However, different from Poland, media in Ukraine still did not become a true mediator between the authorities, the politicians and the society. This paper is a part of a bigger study which purpose was to compare news framing in Polish and Ukrainian press in 2003 from the perspective of its possible impact on people's engagement in public life. I traced the use of two news frames having a distinguished positive or negative impact on involvement, the attribution of responsibility and the powerlessness frame, in Ukrainian and Polish quality newspapers [Den' and Dzerkalo Tyzrna, Gazeza Wyborza, Rreczpospolita]. The paper concentrates on the Ukrainian media and analyses framing in the Ukrainian news. The results of the study presented here show that Polish newspapers more often enable citizens to participate in political decisions by critically scrutinizing the performance of their elected representatives in office. Different from them, Ukrainian news serve rather for concealment of the responsible policy-makers from public scrutiny, blurring the picture of political life and voicing public frustration with problems, which only contributes to the reproduction of people's helplessness and passivity in public life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The involvement of fathers in nurturing and raising children is regarded as one way of eroding cultural and social inequalities between genders. The aim of this paper is to determine whether there is genuinely an erosion of gender inequalities in those families where fathers contribute to child nurture in the early phases of a child's life, or whether the status quo is merely modified. It examines when gender equality is (or can be) achieved in families and what the relationship is between gender equality in the family and gender inequality in society. The paper is based on a qualitative study conducted in 2006, in which semi-structured interviews were used to capture the ways in which parents construct their parenting and non-parenting roles, and how they form and perceive their parenting and gender identity. To analyse this issue, the paper also goes beyond this one study and looks at findings from other research and studies related to this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of Australia and the cultural origins of its population are closely linked to the story of the migration of peoples from other continents. This paper includes an examination of opportunity and psychological costs of Polish migration to Melbourne (Australia) during the 1980s. Included are positive and negative experiences during the settlement process, as well as the outcomes and consequences of migration. Generally migrants have had a difficult time building a life for themselves in Australia due to a variety of reasons which will be discussed in this paper. The article also outlines Polish migrants opinions of multiculturalism in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper approaches the biggest constructional catastrophe in Polish history. Article focuses on conditions and causes of crises. Conditions refer to: biophysical factors, natural and technical ones, different institutional rules acting in variable spheres of life, as well as various characteristics of community. All of them create context of actions of human beings. Those conditions combined with intentional, rationally bounded and opportunistic individual, transform into causes of social events (positive and negative). Catastrophe in Chorzów-Katowice was a result of all of those elements mentioned above. New institutional approach used in this paper seems to be the most productive to explain and understand different social crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper from 1981 on the social functions of ‘Solidarity’ is re-published and commented from the 2006 perspective. In the original paper five pairs of the opposed functions were discussed: 1) activation vs. totalisation; 2) unification vs. polarization; 3) civilization of the opponent vs. demystification of the opponent; 4) non-egalitarian egalitarianisation; and 5) institutionalization of the change. In 2006 the author observes the continuing social function of the ‘Solidarity,’ again the conflicting way, as the positive myth that more and more serves as normative reference in current political debates, and as the real political actor that compromised itself through the active participation in politics. The significance of the old functions is discussed in reference to the complexity of non-egalitarian egalitarianism that seems to undermine the whole transformation since 1989 and went to the fore today. The value of the ‘dialectical functionalism’ is thus reasserted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the interpretation of the concept of conflict of interest by politicians and top state officials in Poland. It proposes a definition of the term "conflict of interest" and describes the history of related Polish legislation. Then it presents the famous 2002 case of a politically connected film producer trying to secure a bribe from a leading Warsaw daily in return for a favourable clauses in the then pending electronic media legislation. The analytical part of the paper reconstructs, on the basis of testimonies presented before a Parliamentary Investigating Commission, the "unorthodox" interpretations of conflict of interests. It shows that some politicians and officials do not understand this idea, while others interpret it depending on their particular interests. Many think that, due to the economic and social needs and due to the deficiencies of the political system, the cases of violating ethical norms should be treated with tolerance. Those failures to notice the issue of the conflict of interest show that they ignore the basis of the legitimisation of the liberal democratic state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the continuing influence of the Durkheimian tradition in the sociology of memory has left us with three negative legacies. The first weakness of the Durkheimian perspective is its neglect of the question how individual consciousness might relate to group memory and its exclusive focus on the collective nature of social consciousness. The second criticism of this tradition refers to its concern with the legitimising function of collective memory, seen as providing the temporal and cognitive map which ensures the group's identity and continuity. Its third negative legacy is its focus on the normative function of memory. The paper shows how three main weaknesses of the Durkheimian legacy can be overcome by the employment of the central notions of interactionism. It proposes that memory should be conceptualised as being intersubjectively constituted and that we should analyse the act of remembering as an interactive activity in which we interpret and assign meaning to past events. After discussing the role of remembering as an inherently creative and generative process in the construction of meaning, the paper explores the part memory plays in the construction of moral order. It concludes that the relationship of the past to values is essential but it only through assigning meanings to past events that the past may shape our principles of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from an understanding of civil society that combines the descriptive aspect of the concept with an analysis of the normative connotations it carries in public discourse, this paper discusses the current condition of civil society in Serbia against the backdrop of its tumultuous recent history. This backdrop is presented in the form of a brief overview of the enclaves of civil society in the socialist Yugoslavia and under the regime of Slobodan Milo&sbreve;ević. The prominent role of civil society in the momentous change of regime in 2000 is analyzed in more detail. The central part of the paper consists of a discussion of the current state of various civil society groups, organizations and initiatives in today's Serbia. In the concluding part, some theoretically controversial points are derived from this discussion and elaborated in three directions: a) a questioning of the "democratic assumption" of the normative notion of civil society, b) a redefinition of the usual opposition between civil society and state, and c) introduction of the role of the international factor in understanding sociologically the functioning of civil society in Serbia as a country in "belated transition." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examins the Bulgarian events from 1997 in the framework of the change of behavior. Using empirical evidence from the course of events in Bulgaria in 1997, the financial and political crisis, the break-in in Parliament, the analysis of slogans by sociolinguists and the study of student protests, etc. this paper argues that the January protests changed the waiting society into a pro-active society, which had clear demands and felt strong enough to achieve them. Proactive action was necessary to bring the course of re-forms closer to what was anticipated, and that was what happened on the streets of Bulgaria in January 1997. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]