Variable fate of Polish sociology on the example of its leading representative of professor Józef Chałasiński Cover Image

Zmienne losy polskiej socjologii na przykładzie jej czołowego przedstawiciela profesora Józefa Chałasińskiego
Variable fate of Polish sociology on the example of its leading representative of professor Józef Chałasiński

Author(s): Włodzimierz Ważniewski
Subject(s): Education, Sociology, Social history, Recent History (1900 till today), Government/Political systems
Published by: Instytut Historii UwS

Summary/Abstract: Józef Chałasiński was one of significant organizers of learning in the Polish People’s Republic. He was considered a continuator of sociological thought of Florian Znaniecki. He organized the Łódź Sociological Center and after the end of the Second World War was a co- organizer of Łódź University. However, it was not organizational achievements but critical knowledge about the system of the command of science was a long-lasting output of the outstanding sociologist. J. Chałasiński worked out new research methods. He introduced the diary and autobiographic methods to the sociological research. He was a promoter of competitions for peasant and workers’ diaries. Based on them he worked out 4-volume work „Young generation of peasants” (1938) in which one presented shaping of social movements in the Polish countryside. He was a creator of the term „social promotion”. He studied the issues of education in communism and socialism systems. He was also interested in the North American culture. In the mid-fifties he openly criticized intervention of the state authorities in the Polish science for which he was then withdrawn from the main course of scientific activity. He became a symbol of fight for Polish sociological science development under lack of freedom in scientific activity conditions.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 179-187
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: Polish
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