Odczarowanie rynku? Socjologiczne refleksje o konsekwencjach globalnego kryzysu ekonomicznego w Polsce
“Disenchantment of the Market”? Sociological Reflections on the Consequences of the Global Economic Crisis in Poland

Summary/Abstract: The global economic crisis has contributed to the intensification of sociological and public debates on the limits of the free market, which poses anew the problem of alternatives to the neoliberal model of capitalism. However, in the case of Poland, these discussions have been much weaker and focused more on the cultural than the socio-economic dimension. This article examines the consequences of the global economic crisis through the lens of selected socio-economic changes in Poland. Its empirical basis is the author’s research on working-class milieus in Poland during the period 2002–2004, and his research on employment relations and trade union strategies during the period 2009–2012. It is argued that transformations in the sphere of work, such as the expansion of non-standard forms of employment, have mobilized potential debates on the ideas and discourses that question the ideas of self-regulating markets. Simultaneously, however, it is suggested that the deregulation of employment relations in Poland contributes to a situation whereby a “disenchantment of the market” does not lead to a collective mobilization in the workplace, but rather beyond it in the public sphere, using local resources of cultural resistance.

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