Regional peculiarities in the functioning and perception of old noble traditions among Polish students Cover Image

Regionalne osobliwości postrzegania i podtrzymywania tradycji postszlacheckich przez studentów polskich
Regional peculiarities in the functioning and perception of old noble traditions among Polish students

Author(s): Tomasz Jerzyński, Rafał Smoczyński , Tomasz Zarycki
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Geography, Regional studies
Published by: EUROREG - Uniwersytet Warszawski, Regional Studies Association - Sekcja Polska
Keywords: nobility; aristocracy; landowners; intelligentsia; cultural capital; social capital

Summary/Abstract: The paper attempts to analyze the intensity and regional differentiation of uses of the noble heritage and its social reception. It is based on a survey conducted on representative groups of students in the Kraków, Poznań, and Warsaw urban areas. The key question of the study was the scale and reception of the milieu of the direct heirs of the landowning and aristocratic elites in the three main Polish cities. The results point to the largest presence of that group in Warsaw, which may be seen as a paradoxical finding given the image of Warsaw as the most socially open city, with the highest rate of social advance based on meritocratic principles. The paper proposes two interpretations of that phenomenon, in particular one based on the crucial role of the cultural capital in the former Russian zone of the 19th-century Poland. It is also related to the fact that the results point to successful integration of the old feudal elites in the modern intelligentsia elite.

  • Issue Year: 17/2016
  • Issue No: 63
  • Page Range: 129-154
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: Polish