Socjologia pracy w Polsce: Społeczno-gospodarcze i polityczne problemy instytucjonalizacji subdyscypliny
The sociology of work in Poland: The socio-economic and political problems of the institutionalisation of the subdiscipline

Summary/Abstract: The article addresses the problems of the relationship between the institutionalisation of the sociology of work, its political contexts and the problems of socio-economic development in Poland after World War II. The basis of the research is both source materials and narrative interviews with the doyens of the sociology of work in Poland. Their analysis leads us to make conclusions about the existence of universal (translocal, shared with “old” capitalist countries) and particular (local/ regional, partially shared with other state socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe) aspects of the development of the subdiscipline. The universal conditions included the relationship between the development of the sociology of work with the demands of industry on modern management methods, the significant role of inspirations from North American sociology and psychology of work, and the connection between the subdiscipline and the economic policies of the state. The particular features of the institutionalisation of sociology of work in Poland referred, in turn, to an increasing split between “real” and “apparent” science under conditions of state socialism, the limited presence of critical approaches, the tensions between academic sociology and plant sociology, as well as clear divisions within academic milieus that reflected attitudes towards the political-economic regime. The split between “real” and “apparent” science has accelerated the deinstitutionalisation of the subdiscipline, which began with the “carnival of Solidarity.” Deinstitutionalisation was additionally reinforced after 1989, due to the identification of the sociology of work with Marxism, the expansion of management sciences and the changes of the world of work itself, among others. However, the article argues that these tendencies are not irreversible, and we can observe the renaissance of interest in the sociology of work in contemporary Poland.

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