Series:Nauki społeczne

Discourses of discrimination and tolerance in the public space of contemporary Poland (values, attitudes, strategies)

Dyskursy dyskryminacji i tolerancji w przestrzeni publicznej współczesnej Polski (wartości, postawy, strategie)

Author(s): Bernadetta Ciesek / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: discrimination; tolerance; public space; Poland

The aim of the present dissertation is to indicate the aspects of discrimination and tolerance existing in Polish public space together with the attitudes, values, and ideologies associated with them. The methodological framework of the work is discourse analysis, also in its critically-oriented variant. The first part is directed at developing a suitable conceptualization of the key notion, such that would be the most appropriate for attaining the established goals. The author refers both to tradition as well as to the most recent findings of contemporary humanities, both in the field of linguistics as well as sociology and philosophy. The linguistic perspective encompasses the accomplishments of the so-called French and Anglo-American school. The author also discusses the Polish tradition of research into functional styles. Due to the fact that the understanding of the category of discourse in some, especially English- and French-language studies is in conflict with the idea of text as defined by Polish researchers, this key notion has been taken up in the part of the work devoted to theoretical and methodological considerations. Only an appropriate narration of text and discourse does allow for arriving at such a definition of discourse that has a cognitive value in the studies on social communication. The author of the present work, inspired by the writings of Michel Foucault, adopts a conception of discourse that draws together the achievements of Lublin’s ethnolinguistics, constructivist theory of the so-called second reality formulated by Michael Fleischer, and the paradigm of critical discourse analysis. It treats discourse as the highest unit of the language/communication structure of abstract nature and distinguishes this category from text, which is seen as a separate entity of material nature. The identification and description of gestures of exclusion and tolerance requires an introduction of the category of the Other, who is seen by the author as not belonging to the community of the Self, differing from them in terms of the outlook on life, the system of values, lifestyle, and religion. On the basis of the analysis of selected discourses, e.g. the feminist, nationalistic, national and right-wing, religious, and the discourse of “Tygodnik Powszechny” magazine, the author reconstructs the images of the Other functioning in them, the ways in which they have been profiled (as Aliens, Enemies, the Third), and the attitudes towards the Otherness manifested by discourse communities. The author also discusses the values and convictions associated with the discourse conceptualizations of the world and relationships with the Others, as well as describes the communication strategies of the subjects of the discourses under analysis. The author avoids an arbitrary classification of the discourses under analysis as representing either tolerance or exclusion, demonstrating that in nearly each of them both principles can be identified.

Mercy. An attempt at an interdisciplinary view

Miłosierdzie. Próba spojrzenia interdyscyplinarnego

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: mercy; merciful; sacrament of mercy

Oriental Encounters. Language, Society, Culture / Spotkania orientalistyczne. Język, społeczeństwo, kultura

Oriental Encounters. Language, Society, Culture / Spotkania orientalistyczne. Język, społeczeństwo, kultura

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Polish

Economic knowledge, work, entrepreneurship, consumption. Economic awareness of Polish students

Wiedza ekonomiczna, praca, przedsiębiorczość, konsumpcja. Świadomość ekonomiczna polskich studentów

Author(s): Urszula Swadźba,Rafał Cekiera,Monika Żak / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: economic knowledge; work; entrepreneurship; consumption; economic awareness; Polish students

Research into economic awareness is of high importance, especially as regards the young generation, who are at the stage of shaping their points of view. The knowledge thus gathered allows to evaluate social resources that students have at their disposal, and also to specify what kind of stimulating actions may be undertaken in order to develop the features conducive to the participation of the members of these communities in social and economic life. If young generation is to actively take part in it, then their economic knowledge, attitude to work, economic aspirations, mobility, entrepreneurship, attitudes to money, and the type of consumption are significant indicators of the possibilities that they have. The aim of the present book is to provide the answer to questions connected with economic awareness. The answer has been obtained through the analysis of sociological research conducted among Polish students. The research has been a part of a more general project carried out among university students of four partner countries, i.e. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. It has been conducted and financially supported by Visegrad Standard Grant: „The economic awareness of the young generation of Visegrad countries” no. 21420008. In the present book, the attention has been focused on young generation, i.e. Polish students, but the results are comparable to the results obtained in the other V4 countries. The conclusions reached from the study allow to recognize and compare significant qualities of Polish young people. They can provide the answer whether the young generation, and especially its avant‑garde, which are students, are able to meet the demands of the contemporary world, which exerts increasing pressure on them. The monograph first discusses theoretical assumptions of the research. It presents the definition and the concept of economic awareness and the methodology of the study conducted. Next, the demographic and social structure of subjects is characterized in terms of such aspects as sex and age of the students, the degree, type and subjects of study, as well as the place of residence. In the following chapters, the authors present, in accordance with the theoretical model of the research, such features as the system of values and the economic knowledge of the students, the value of work and its qualities, internal and external mobility to find employment, entrepreneurship, the value of money and savings, consumption, and the attitude towards wealth and poverty. Each chapter contains a short introduction and a summary. The authors perform cross‑section analyses, taking into consideration structural factors of Polish students. The results of the research are then compared with the results obtained for the students of the Visegrad countries. In the concluding chapter, the synthetic state of economic awareness of Polish students is outlined, and the typology of students is presented considering various elements of economic knowledge.

The Church in the public sphere: Natanek, Nergal, Boniecki. Selected case studies

Kościół w sferze publicznej: Natanek, Nergal, Boniecki. Wybrane studia przypadków

Author(s): Adam Warzecha / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Roman Catholic Church; Public Relations; PR; Critical Discourse Analysis; CDA; discourse; Natanek; Darski; Nergal; Boniecki

Relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the public sphere in Poland have played an important role in socio-political life since the dawn of our statehood. Recently, however, the Church’s situation has become more complex. Its social position, until recently almost unchallenged, gradually decreases. The book is an attempt to answer questions about the causes of this situation. Readers can learn from it about the Church’s functioning in the Polish public sphere, especially in terms of communications (how is the public relations’ social practice recontextualized in it) and discursive strategies utilized. The study employs Critical Public Relations (CPR), the original and interdisciplinary research method presented here for the first time, combining conceptual devices of Public Relations (PR) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It is used to analyze manifestations of communication semiosis of the PR-type established in the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. Through the said analysis, the answer is given to the question of how this semiosis materialized in the multiple “hard” Church social structures (institutions, posts, functions, strategies, procedures, etc.) and how it is operationalized in “soft”, impermanent, though specific and dynamic, communication events in which the Church took part. To this purpose, case studies of Rev. Piotr Natanek, Adam “Nergal” Darski and Rev. Adam Boniecki are carried out. They are considered representative due to the nature of the public debate accompanying them, as well as the quantity of available research material. The events in question are reenacted based on the corpus of texts and audiovisual records from 2007–2017, thoroughly analyzed using a process-oriented case-study method. Interdiscursive analysis facilitated precise identification of various discursive strategies (including semantic shifts, vague relationships, exclusion from discourse, scandal and viral communication), and above all, the struggle of these strategies for hegemony within and outside the Church organization. This indicates the applicability of the proposed analytical approach to future studies of various border areas in the humanities, especially when such interdisciplinarity poses a number of methodological concerns.

Oikology. A return

Oikologia. Powrót

Author(s): Tadeusz Sławek,Aleksandra Kunce / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: oikology; place; home; city; abiding;dwelling;

Why do we return to oikology?Firstly, because we believe that the where of the human and nonhuman existence has a fundamental meaning in ponderings on the dilemmas of the humanities. Oikology is a thinking that conjoins oikos and logos by emphasizing a specific correspondence between the two, as well as that which makes them different and separate. Language and practice of oikos and logos are not the same, thence a concept of home – developed by oikological thinking – would always be a home in translation. The centre of gravity of the oikological thinking ineluctably lies “a little further,” “always further on and on.” We are the ones who have left their home; the ones who have experienced the comforts and failures of rootedness and uprootedness. We are the ones who are gazing from the distance to make something clearer, yet also felt strongly as dearth, a break, a fall. Home – our own, as surroundings, region, community, maybe even Europe, and eventually the world – will be forever marked with this flaw and, perhaps, even the dark. Secondly, pondering upon the where restores to us the meanings once lost and concealed by the resemblance of places, while locality – along with its experiential dimension – restores placement to the human and thus makes one responsible for words and deeds. Place, which oikology keeps finding anew, is entangled with being out of the way, in the motion of distancing oneself from the centre and the hasty knowledge/power. It is a return to experiencing that which is close and distant at the same time. We recognise home in a place off the way, off the world, off the discourses, off the official cultural tract, off the launched mobility of people and things, yet also off the propaganda of stability and familiarity. Oikology invites us to loosen functional thinking and hasty household practices. Thirdly, oikology touches upon philosophy, literature, anthropology, maybe even politics, for it assumes that “home” is as much given to us as continually constructed. Hence it is assigned to us in order that we can face this challenge; it leads to our appreciation of the entanglement of home, place, city, wander and source. An encounter with the city, a spiritual dimension of a place, return to the source, a crack of the post-industrial space and weaving the motion with the permanence of things, as well as quest for the household lore in a particular space-time (Silesia, Europe, the world). Place comes to be out of an individual experience of the commonly available spaces and their critical reading. This critical impulse is indispensable, for the rhetoric of “home” practised in politics presents it as a set of commonplace, unquestioned, thus, in its own way, inconspicuous frames, where our life is located. Oikology makes an attempt to show how unapparent these frames are. Therefore, fourthly, oikology attempts to show how entangled the circumstances where our identity is being constructed in a place really are. Home is not viewed here as a permanent, tangible localisation, but it is an experience to gain, which cannot be neglected in any discussions on the human being. Oikology (the Silesian oikology included) thus leaves the human – be it the wandering or the settled one – with a chastising and alarming question to answer: Are you really so convinced that home has let you go into the world so easily? Has your home gone so easily from you, or so blithely let you go?

From the wife of a miner to a scientist The changes of the system of values and social roles of women in the post-industrial areas of Upper Silesia

Od żony górnika do naukowca. Zmiana systemu wartości i ról społecznych kobiet na terenach poprzemysłowych Górnego Śląska

Author(s): Urszula Swadźba,Monika Żak / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: wife of a miner; scientist; system of values; social roles of women; post-industrial areas of Upper Silesia

The problems associated with women were already discussed in works of theoretical and empirical cholarship. Among those works there are sociological works as well. They engage problems related to the inequality of genders, the access of women to the job market, the identity of women, the authority in the family and the juggling acts of combining professional roles with family roles. However, these problems where not discussed from the perspective of culture. Nowadays we are witnessing the weakening of the cultural model of pressure directed to women that they fulfil above all the role of a wife and a mother. The sociological research which is conducted indicates the continuing existence of barriers in the professional advancement of women and the problems associated with combining a number of social roles. Such a situation refers to women in Poland but it is especially so in reference to Silesia, for the roles of Silesian women change as well as the social context of performing many roles: the roles of wives, mothers and female employees. The milieu in which formerly the social roles of genders were strictly separated changes the way in which the roles of women and men are defined. The present monograph contains a discussion of the research conducted among women who inhabit the post-industrial areas of Upper Silesia. The work features opinions about the system of values, the interpretation of social roles – especially the role of a wife, mother and a female employee — and insight into the stereotypical division of the roles of women and men.

The educational opportunities for children and young people of the metropolitan districts of poverty in Siemianowice Śląskie. A research report

Szanse edukacyjne dzieci i młodzieży z obszarów wielkomiejskiej biedy w Siemianowicach Śląskich. Raport z badań

Author(s): Natalia Stępień-Lampa / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Siemianowice Śląskie.; education; educational opportunities

The work discusses the educational opportunities for children and young people who inhabit the areas of metropolitan poverty in Siemianowice Śląskie. The author refers to the social problems which occur in Siemianowice Śląskie in order to exemplify the problems of the cities of Upper Silesia. In the period of the People’s Republic of Poland, the cities of Upper Silesia experienced dynamic growth due to the investments in the field of heavy industry and the development of the mining of hard coal and metallurgy. However, the transformation of the political system and the restructuring of the industry resulted in recession and contributed to the occurrence of negative social phenomena. At the turn of the 21st century two principal enterprises were shut down in Siemianowice Śląskie, which resulted in the unemployment rate of almost 30%. Among the social problems which the city faced and continues to face there is also its poverty and spatial concentration. The author distinguished four areas of metropolitan poverty in Siemianowice Śląskie – in these areas a considerable part of the inhabitants is constituted by the recipients of temporal benefits granted by the public assistance system. The work contains a description of the educational opportunities for children and young people who inhabit and who are raised in the pauperised local community which may be divided into the aforementioned areas. In order to achieve this goal both theoretical and practical research was conducted. The author used inter alia an analysis of official documents and the survey conducted among the inhabitants of metropolitan poverty who raise their children until the latter reach the age of 18. The survey that was used was partially categorised in which the representatives of public institutions of local social assistance participated; there was also an expert-oriented survey whose respondents included school principals in whose precincts there ere streets of the areas of metropolitan poverty as well as a survey conducted among the third grade gimnazjum students. The work is intended for people interested in the problems of social policy including those whose particular interest involves the problems of educational opportunities as well as for the representatives of self-government authorities and the institutions of local social policy in Siemianowice Śląskie.

Avant-garde gender

Płeć awangardy

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: avant-garde gender

Discourses of visibility. Words and images

Dyskursy widzialności. Słowa a obrazy

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Contemporaneity is characterized by change consisting in the omnipresence of the image that has long lost its secondary status. It is impossible to understand the postmodern world without acknowledging the importance of iconic elements in communication, once dominated by the word. The conviction that only verbum shapes reality has become obsolete, as it is precisely the image that most easily affects our thinking, triggers emotions and builds memory. In a fast-paced civilization of rush, concise messages with condensed contents take the lead, and these often combine the visual with the verbal.A plethora of various domains show keen interest in visual-verbal messages: semiotics, anthropology of the image, sociology and photography studies, press studies, discourse studies, iconology, formalism, history of art, hermeneutics, philosophy and rhetorics, to mention a few that involve research into this liminal category. All of these have significant input that contributes to a full understanding of these complex phenomena. Consequently, we have invited representatives of various disciplines to share their academic insights. In this very volume we strive to present the richness of research possibilities stemming from the category of word and image in a number of distinct academic fields. Consequently, no single and uniform methodology or text formula have been adopted.The aim of this publication is to familiarize the reader with research perspectives combining the spheres of work and image and their functioning in the social disourse. The proposed areas of research encompass hipertexts, iconic-verbal installations, word and image in real and virtual space, internet memes, comic books, photography, poetry and visual literature, picture books, graphic and visual rendering of words, visual press genres, posters and reception of images in the corporeal dimension.We hope that the readers will be able to find a number of interesting aspects in the presented array of texts, which in turn will inspire further academic analyses. We invite the readers to participate in the debate on the overlapping of the spheres of words and images, the dynamics of iconic communication and their place within culture.

The economic awareness of the young generation of Visegrad countries. A comparative analysis

The economic awareness of the young generation of Visegrad countries. A comparative analysis

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Keywords: economic awareness; young generation; Visegrad countries

The fundamental questions on the interdependence of the economy and the economic awareness and the relationship between these two are not always easy. In general, they are formulated as if the two were separate systems that interact with each other. Some researchers treat each system as an independent variable and, depending on the views, explain economic phenomena by referencing both separately. Karl Marx regarded the economy as a factor influencing social awareness, whereas Max Weber regarded social awareness as an element influencing the economy. Who was right? It would be safest to say that there is an impact on both sides and that both human awareness affects the economy and the economy affects social awareness.The latter is part of a wider economic culture. The relationship between awareness and the economy is more often pointed out by sociologists than economists. This is primarily due to the fact that sociologists are the scholars more often involved in awareness and culture, i.e. the soft data. Economists in turn are trained in the use of quantitative data, which is not likely to awaken sensitivity to cultural data. The interests of both academic groups in terms of research concerning culture, including the awareness of economic societies, are revived when economic growth starts to accelerate in some countries or regions and the explanation for it is hard to conceive by turning to the known models. Only then does research on other factors, including cultural ones, begin to play an essential role.This issue was thus raised on the occasion of noting the economic success of countries of Southeast Asia, especially Japan, Thailand, and more recently China. Also, the rapid development of some regions of India (e.g. Bangalore) indicates a large share of cultural factors at work contributing to this success, including economic awareness. And finally, this problem is present in the analysis of the economic development of post-communist countries, whose development is irregular. These countries include the Visegrad countries – Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Future economic development of each country and its prosperity depends on the economic awareness of the members of its society. The Visegrad Group countries are struggling with the long term effects of their communist past, but on the other hand, through their membership in the European Union they are under constant influence of the free market economy and democracy. These circumstances affect the consciousness of the young generation that will build the future economy of these countries.

Toward nation-cracy. Authoritarian, totalitarian, and pro-fascist tendencies in the Polish political thought (1933‒1939) Nationalists – national radicals – national socialists

W kierunku nacjokracji. Tendencje autorytarne, totalistyczne i profaszystowskie w polskiej myśli politycznej (1933–1939): narodowcy – narodowi radykałowie – narodowi socjaliści

Author(s): Jarosław Tomasiewicz / Language(s): Polish

The 1930s were a time of triumphant totalitarianism. The Great Depression yielded disillusionment with democratic-liberal status quo and its critics were, in turn, invigorated by the examples of totalitarian states. Another phenomenon that appeared then consisted in the extremisms mutually propelling each other: political victories achieved by fascism prompted its opponents to embrace communism, and vice versa. Poland, having been squeezed between Hitler’s Third Reich and Stalin’s USSR, did not manage to escape those tendencies. Thus, it was only natural for the fascination with fascism to, first and foremost, have occurred in the broadly understood nationalist camp, whose supporters aimed at the nation-cracy, that is, securing political monopoly for the ethnic Poles. The conception perceiving national unity as one body (organic unity) entailed it to be hierarchically organized, which translated into authoritarian or even totalitarian structure of state organization. However, the evolution of nationalist political camp toward totalitarianism was marked by some reservations and inconsistency. In mainstream politics, totalitarian tendencies failed to gain momentum, for the National Party stopped halfway through. The party’s “youth”, who were dominant during that time, embarked on elaboration of “the third way”: in the sphere of values – Christianized “poly-nationalism” somewhere between national chauvinism and cosmopolitanism, in the sphere of economy – a state-regulated distributionism, between laissezfaireism and statism, and in terms of political system – a hierarchical organization between democratic liberalism and totalitarianism. Such was the ideology of the National Radical Camp ABC’s splitters. An entirely totalitarian agenda, in turn, had been drawn up by another faction of radically nationalist secessionists, namely the Falanga National Radical Movement (RNR-Falanga). The said political programme was designed as “totalitarian democracy” of sorts, which boiled down to a utopian attempt at identifying nation state with its people in accordance with the “organic unity” model: building the national consciousness of Poles was supposed to instigate a social movement which would outgrow the state structures. The said process would have been accompanied by an overall socio-economic overhaul introducing social homogeneity by totally subjugating economy to the state. Yet another group of splitters, namely the state-nationalist current, came up with similar conclusions. However, their links to the ruling Sanacja caused their more pronounced support for the top-down coercion, while remaining more conservative when it comes to social matters.The current which split from national camp prior to the First World War was the national workers’ movement. During the 1930s the National Socialists’ Party (PNS) emerged. Due to its prodemocracy programme, the said party was more akin to the national socialists of Czechoslovakia than Hitler’s ideology. Aside from PNS there were also other national socialist groups, which openly followed into NSDAP footsteps. Yet, national socialism operated at the margins of the Polish political scene, having no considerable impact on it.At the risk of some generalization, one may claim that fascism did not fall on fertile ground in Poland: the closer a given political group was to the totalitarian model, the less significant it appeared on the political scene. One may even claim that the significance was inversely proportional to the degree of radicalism. Although there occurred a quite broad interest in fascism, there were few orthodox fascists in Poland. Even sympathizers of fascist ideas observed them in their peculiar Polish way, distancing themselves from the movement’s negative aspects. It could be suspected that the weak embeddedness of fascism in Poland had two causes. The first one was individualistic and liberty-loving Polish mentality and political culture, going back to the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and only reaffirmed during the partitions. The second one was Poland’s civilizational underdevelopment, the result of which was insufficient state apparatus and infrastructure to implement the totalitarian model.

Positive diagnosis in resocialization. Diagnostic workshop of a practicing pedagogue

Diagnoza pozytywna w resocjalizacji. Warsztat diagnostyczny pedagoga praktyka

Author(s): Ewa Wysocka / Language(s): Polish

The present publication constitutes a theoretical, methodological and practical suggestion of an approach to resocializing diagnosis in a positive perspective. Departing from the theoretical tenets of positive diagnosis in resocialization and the established model of methodological cognition of a socially maladjusted individual, the author suggests a particular diagnostic workshop, possible to be employed in positive resocialization (creative, based on a salutogenetic model). This forms a basis for projecting resocializaing activities, which directly and primarily refer to the individual’s potential (creative resocialization; creative actions), and only additionally to its developmental deficits (resocialization in the traditional, pathogenetic perspective; corrective actions.)The publication constitutes a continuation of the monograph concerning positive diagnosis in resocialization, which was published in 2015 (Positive Diagnosis in Resocialization. A Theoretical and Methodological Model, University of Silesia Press). In both publications, the author undertook the challenge of creating a new theoretical and methodological model of diagnosis for the purpose of resocialization, as her starting point adopting particular anthropological premises concerning the nature of the human being, its development, upbringing and resocialization. Through the criticism of these premises, she adopted the model of “becoming” of an individual, typical to the humanistic, transgressive and, at the same time, personalizing approach. The fundamental premise here is the treatment of the developing individual as a “becoming” subject, a complex, multidimensional and integrated (bio-psycho-sociological, cultural and spiritual) entity, which always undertakes both adaptive and transgressive actions. This directly necessitates the acknowledgement of individualistic paradigm on every level of influence (diagnostic, methodological and social), and relating to that paradigm, which is particularly difficult in resocialization. In the subjective perspective upon an individual, it is assumed that it constitutes a developing subject, which is self-aware and reflexively “becoming,” and makes choices according to its own, self-discovered potential. The external influence and the pedagogic relation, though undoubtedly important, are only to support this development.The book is composed of two chapters. The first one is a recapitulation of the theoretical and methodological assumptions of a positive diagnosis in resocialization, enhanced with motifs unaddressed by the previous publication. The second chapter – in accordance with the adopted assumptions – contains the suggestions of particular models of diagnosis of the human qualities and potentials, which must be identified and utilized in the process of internal change or the process of supporting the individual’s development.The first chapter presents the critique of the anthropological approaches to the nature of the human being, its becoming, upbringing and resocialization (pedagogical engineering, permissivism in upbringing, pedagogical personalism). The cognitive model is grounded within a positive approach, typical to a humanistic and transgressive approach.The second chapter is more practical in character, but it accentuates the methodological grounds for the presented models of diagnosis (the principles and procedures for creating diagnostic tools): a) personality in the cognitive approach mainly, b) creative potential of an individual, which directly dictates the nature of the process of “becoming” of a human being.The particular methodological and practical value of the publication resides in the presentation of diagnosis of concrete cases through the use of selected theoretical and methodological models (and the diagnostic tools constructed on their basis). These cases may simultaneously serve as examples of formulating diagnosis (diagnostic descriptions and interpretations) performed on the grounds of other diagnostic tools, characterized in the publication in lesser detail.The presented theoretical and methodological positive approach to diagnosis for the purpose of resocialization, together with its exemplification and concretization in the form of model solutions in the area of diagnostic conduct, appears essential for the development of theoretical, methodological and diagnostic awareness amongst both theoreticians and practitioners of education and re-education. The positive approach in resocialization necessitates an interdisciplinary treatment of the subject of diagnosis (the qualities and features of an individual), which results from the complex, multidimensional and integrated nature of the human individual, and from the complexity of the mechanisms of the process of becoming and internal change. The cognitive concept of a human being is accentuated here. It integrates the model of cognition and individualizes its process, relating it to the main mechanism of “becoming,” which is the way in which the individual being perceives itself and the world in which it develops.The primary paradigm in the positive approach to the resocializing diagnosis suggested by the author is thus constituted by the assumptions of positive and transgressive psychology, the ideas of salutogenesis and resilience. They form the basis for positive resocialization, which, in turn, necessitates the focus on selfcreation and creative resocialization, relating to the identified and particular potentials of an individual (positive diagnosis).

Contemporary Family – Comparative Perspective

Contemporary Family – Comparative Perspective

Author(s): / Language(s): English

Re-packaging the heritage. The past as a projection of reality – silesian cases

Przepakować dziedzictwo. Przeszłość jako projekcja rzeczywistości – przypadki śląskie

Author(s): Kinga Czerwińska / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: heritage; radition and identity; cultural tourism;Upper Silesia;

Heritage is currently one of the most exploited terms in the discourse upon the relationships between the past and the present. What is the consequence of the widespread use of this term is the fact that the semantic content of the term is a complex, multi-layered construction. In its extent, heritage includes a collection of cultural resources wherein the differences between high culture and popular culture are bridged, whereas its depositaries, according to the needs of the moment, choose those of its layers that have the capability for satisfying their emerging expectations. Heritage may be talked about in the following categories: value, weight or commodity, while each of these images evokes different attitudes towards the existing reality – an attempt to preserve it, an escape to modernity, or consumerism focused on here and now. The selection process, and thus the selection of heritage resources, is extremely dynamic and difficult to predict, since it expresses the relationship of generations to the previous generations and to what they had developed. The relationship, in turn, depends on many factors that clash with each other because of the influence of the factors determining the contemporary world, such as: globalism, consumerism or technocracy. This work is a problem monograph in which I have made an attempt to address the issue of cultural heritage and its functioning in the process of transformations that Poland has been experiencing after 1989. Maybe it is not a monograph in the traditional sense, but it is a coherent whole that is cemented by the desire to find the mechanisms of the functioning of cultural heritage in contemporary everyday life. Particular chapters have been devoted to the analysis of the forms and content of the activities in the field of cultural animation, design and tourism, wherein the material and intangible cultural heritage of Upper Silesia constitutes the axis. The examples conducive to deliberating on the contemporary role of the resources of the achievements of the past generations are related to activities concerning the ways of participating in culture, which are based on the cultural heritage rooted in the region (such as folk outfit), but also on the heritage that have been mediated from culturally different environments, and that is only just becoming Silesian.The analysis of social practices is a starting point for initiating further considerations regarding the roles of the undertaken actions in shaping the identity, in satisfying the need for the identification with the given cultural landscape, or with emotions that are evoked by the activities and that accompany the participants and authors of these activities.This is a theoretical and empirical study, wherein Upper Silesia – a heterogeneous, diverse and contrasting terrain, constitutes the area of research exploration. Here, cultural heritage is continuously one of the most vital emblems of identity for the residents of both urban and industrial areas, as well as of villages located around post-industrial centres and those settled in the Silesian Beskid. This fact is also of great importance for the character of Upper Silesia, which has been formed as a socio-cultural borderland. The merger of various, often ethnically and culturally diverse elements, which is taking place within the borderland, determines the process of building the individual and collective identity and influences the perception of the past and the future of the region. The empirical material and its interpretation refer to the specific places and contexts of Upper Silesia, however I have attempted to present the illustrated here phenomena within the framework of a broader theoretical discourse on the role of tradition / cultural heritage in modern times.This work is the first study of the type that presents the material and intangible cultural heritage of Upper Silesia. It is comprised in a broad perspective that consists of the presentation of numerous examples of social practices, enriched by anthropological analysis. In my opinion, this procedure has enabled revealing the complexity of the relationships between the past and the present and their strong impact on the creation of the contemporary Silesian cultural landscape.

Religiousness and Lifestyles. A Sociological Study of Slovak Families

Religiousness and Lifestyles. A Sociological Study of Slovak Families

Author(s): Wojciech Świątkiewicz,Andrzej Górny,Katarzyna Juszczyk-Frelkiewicz / Language(s): English

Keywords: sociology; family relations; intergenerational relations;religion;

The book presents selected results of the sociological research conducted in the years 2013-2015 by a Polish-Slovak team of sociologists associated with the Faculty of Sociology of the Department of Philosophy of the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. Empirical research was realised within the framework of a grant provided by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovakia and the Visegrád Fund. The main research goal was to analyse the cultural models of intergenerational relations in selected categories of families which takes into consideration their religious affiliations and attitudes, as well as the problems associated with cohabitation treated as a manifestation of the lifestyle of modern families in Slovakia.

Psycho-social and environmental contexts of health and disease

Psychospołeczne i środowiskowe konteksty zdrowia i choroby

Author(s): Katarzyna Borzucka-Sitkiewicz / Language(s): Polish

Issues of health and disease have long ago crossed the boundaries of medicine and become the object of pedagogical, psychological, sociological and anthropological analyses. The following monograph, a multi-authored work with interdisciplinary implications, adopts primarily a pedagogical perspective and is divided into two essential parts. Part one relates to the psycho-social contexts of health and disease, presenting them from a subjective perspective and focusing on the individual. Part two contains references to a slightly more objectified aspect of health and disease and their cultural and structural contexts. The matters discussed in all of the articles are mutually complementary and show a complicated mosaic of issues concerning health and disease from many different, often multi-aspectual, points of view. Therefore, this publication is aimed at a wide audience of educationalists, teachers, sociologists, doctors and students of these disciplines.

Socio-Cultural and Linguistic Aspects of Roma Education

Socio-Cultural and Linguistic Aspects of Roma Education

Author(s): Hristo Kyuchukov / Language(s): English

Keywords: Roma; education; culture; psycholinguistics

The book is the first attempt in Europe within the last 20 years to bring knowledge about the Roma educational issues of preschool and primary school children. It is structured in three parts: History of Roma education, Romani psycholinguistics and Roma Holocaust education. The first part of the book deals with the educational issues of Roma and its development during the last 20 years in Europe. Here the author presents some insight? views and understandings? of Roma education, development of the Roma school mediators and a review of the introduction of Romani language education in Bulgaria. The second part discusses mainly the issues of language education of Roma children – the acquisition of Romani and the issues of second language learning by Roma children. The third part presents the issues of Roma holocaust education as a part of the history education of Roma children.The socio-cultural and linguistic issues are important for Roma children education and with the new ideas the book can be very helpful for students in the field of intercultural education, educational psychology and social work.

Stadiums of the World. Between Gemenischaft and Gesellschaft

Stadiony świata (pomiędzy Gemeinschaft i Gesellschaft)

Author(s): Krzysztof Łęcki / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: community; organisation; individualism, values;social change;

The study “Stadiums of the World. Between Gemenischaft and Gesellschaft” attempts to present a multidimensional picture of the social and culture changes that characterise the microcosm of modern football as part of the postmodern world. Referring metaphorically to the classic categories of Ferdinand Tönens (Gemeinschaft – community, tradition, personal loyalty versus Gesellschaft – joint stock company, contract, material benefits) the author tries to outline a paradigmatic framework (as understood by S. Huntington), which offers a slightly deeper analysis of the events and phenomena of the football universe. The methodology adopted in the paper refers mainly to Erving Goffman’s concept, which allows for an unconventional justification of the choice of the analysed materials and research sample.

Social life as a process of practice

Życie społeczne jako proces praktyki

Author(s): Andrzej Niesporek / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: practice; system; society; constructivism;sociology;

The book focuses on the fundamental issues of sociological theory, including sociological un-derstanding of the concept of society and social life. The main theoretical perspective of this work is rooted in the idea of the process of social practice formulated in works of Georg Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as in the different ways of interpreting Marx's thoughts in this regard. It reinterprets the concept of practice in the perspective of systemic thinking, including, chaos theory, the idea of autopoietic systems and Niklas Luhmann's theory of the social system, as an example of the sociological application of the idea of autopoietic system. Consequently, it pro-poses a certain understanding of the process of practice as a philosophical and social category.The book focuses on the fundamental issues of sociological theory, including sociological un-derstanding of the concept of society and social life. The main theoretical perspective of this work is rooted in the idea of the process of social practice formulated in works of Georg Hegel and Karl Marx, as well as in the different ways of interpreting Marx's thoughts in this regard. It reinterprets the concept of practice in the perspective of systemic thinking, including, chaos theory, the idea of autopoietic systems and Niklas Luhmann's theory of the social system, as an example of the sociological application of the idea of autopoietic system. Consequently, it pro-poses a certain understanding of the process of practice as a philosophical and social category.