Culture of Denunciation? On the Institution of Citizen Informing
Culture of Denunciation? On the Institution of Citizen Informing

Summary/Abstract: Denunciation as a social institution has a long history, which may be traced back tothe period of the First Republic of Poland. It flourished, despite the clearly pejorative social perception, in the annexation, occupation and Polish People’s Republicperiods. Currently, this phenomenon is undergoing significant transformations: withincreasing frequency, it is held up as a ‘civic duty’. Statistical data from recent yearsreveals that in Poland there has been an increasing number of letters, complaints,notifications to various official institutions, in which citizens report irregularities orunlawful acts of other people and companies. However, there is a lack of researchdirectly exploring the social context of contemporary denunciation. In this article, wewill present the findings of 2015 research on the contemporary Polish ‘culture ofdenunciation’ as a multidimensional construct entailing social knowledge of denunciation, the popular opinions, assessments and attitudes toward denunciation, and formalised or spontaneous behavioural patterns in situations involving denunciations.

• Details
• Contents