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It seems almost impossible today to deny the importance of the French Revolution in creating both the distinctively modern social world and sociology’s characteristic responses to it. This paper takes issue with various of the standard narrations of these matters. It aims at developing fresh thinking about what the Revolution was, and what roles it may, or may not have, played in generating subsequent social phenomena and the sociology tasked with comprehending them. The claim by Robert Nisbet that the roots of sociology especially lie in Conservative responses to the Revolution are critically assessed. The potential importance of Durkheim and de Tocqueville for creating new narrations of the connections between the Revolution and sociology are considered. The manners in which the Revolution has been invoked to construct concepts of “modernity” and dramatic historical breaks with the past are reflected upon.
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The French Revolution was central to the emergence of modern society, and by extension, modern social science. However, not only French scientists contributed to the invention of sociology, nor for that matter did sciences necessarily begin by emulating natural science. Instead, this paper argues for a different origin of sociology from the professional faculty of Law. This trajectory emerged in early nineteenth century Germany, not in emulation of the French Revolution, but as part of a broader conservative reaction to French rationalism and imperial hypocrisy. Understanding these origins not only help us better understand the familiar sociology of Max Weber, or even Marx and Durkheim who were trained in this legal scientific tradition; this historical understanding reveals an important relationship between sociology and the State as well as conservative politics.
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In what sense was the French Revolution exceptional – a moment of potential liberation both unique and uncertain? “Exceptionality” has a specific meaning in political philosophy, and, using this meaning as a departure point, this paper develops a specifically sociological typology of states of exception – enunciative, reciprocal, and structural – grounded in a Hegelian sociology of power. The schema is useful for parsing and interpreting several of Robespierre’s most important speeches during the Revolution. This analysis leads to retheorization of modernity in the French Revolution, with specific attention to the interpretation, in Paris, of the revolution in Saint Domingue.
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This paper argues for a political anthropological approach to the study of the French revolution. Looking at the revolution as a moment of liminality, it substantiates two interconnected points. The first is that a proper understanding of the revolutionary dynamic and its lasting effects have to engage closely with the transformation of the sacred and its relation to the existential void. Situated in post-Durkheimian sociology and post-Kantian philosophy, this argument advocates the methodological normalization of metaphysics, drawing attention to the fact that faith belongs to the symbolic, existential and representational realities of any political order, and hence also of its underlying knowledge systems. The second point argues that through the sacrifice of Louis XVI, the French revolution consecrated the ritual and existential sacrifice of the Christian Father. This historical experience is conceptualized as the people’s third body, and the new configuration of the sacred to which it gives birth is interpreted in terms of the liminal void. In this way, the French revolution is shown to constitute the transition from a political order of embodiment – participation in the divine, symbolized by the sacred royal body to a political order of bodies; participation in the liminal void, symbolized by the sacred empty place of the power of the modern democratic imagination.
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The essay takes off from current controversies about Communism, and on the relative weight of its cultural, political and economic components. The discussion then moves, in light of recent historical scholarship, to problems of conceptualizing the revolutionary process that gave rise to Soviet Communism. A strong emphasis is placed on the singularity of the Russian revolution, and on the limits to general theories of revolution. Hasegawa’s revised work on the February revolution of 1917 is discussed at some length, and his interpretation of that event as an interaction between popular and liberal forces is accepted. The following months saw the emergence of multiple revolutionary movements, but also the strengthening of an organization and an alternative leadership with a project different from the main currents of the revolution, but capable of conquering power through a selective mobilization of revolutionary forces. The presuppositions of Bolshevism are analyzed, as well as the implications of its victory. The essay finishes with reflections on Stalinism and its roots in the revolutionary process.
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The EU membership obliges each state to be responsible for the implementation of the Union law, i.e.transposition within the deadlines, harmonization and proper application within the national legal system.The directive is a binding legal act for the member states which it addresses with regard to the result to beachieved, while the national authorities remain competent regarding the form and means to obtain it.
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The long-standing debate about the proper role for Africa's traditional leaders in contemporary politics has intensified in the last two decades, as efforts to foster democratisation and decentralisation have brought competing claims to power and legitimacy to the fore, especially at the local level. Questions persist as to whether traditional authority and democratic governance are ultimately compatible or contradictory. Can the two be blended into viable and effective hybrid systems? Or do the potentially anti-democratic features of traditional systems present insurmountable obstacles to an acceptable model of integration? Survey data collected by the Afrobarometer indicate that Africans who live under these dual systems of authority do not draw as sharp a distinction between hereditary chiefs and elected local government officials as most analysts would expect. In fact, popular evaluations of selected and elected leaders are strongly and positively linked. They appear to be consistently shaped by each individual's 'leadership affect', and by an understanding of chiefs and elected officials as common players in a single, integrated political system, rather than as opponents in a sharply bifurcated one. Moreover, there is no evident conflict between supporting traditional leadership and being a committed and active democrat. Rather than finding themselves trapped between two competing spheres of political authority, Africans appear to have adapted to the hybridisation of their political institutions more seamlessly than many have anticipated or assumed.
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The author of the article attempts to understand the contemporary citizenship in the perspective of social rights. The theoretical framework is based on Thomas H. Marshall’s conception, which indicates the importance of social rights in the reduction of social inequalities. The article proposes two ways of understanding the essence of social rights. On the one hand, there are rights that guarantee a minimum standard “dignifed life”, on the other hand the ones that guarantee activity and resourcefulness, especially in a situation of social crisis. The article presents a typology of sources of rights and describes implementation of the rights in Poland on the example of people with disabilities.
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The author highlights three questions concerning the integration of Poland with the European Union: frstly, the attitude of the Catholic Church towards European integration; secondly, the attitude of the Poles to the integration with the European Union; thirdly, social and religious consequences of European integration for Poland. The conducted sociological analyses have disclosed the attitudes – not completely accurate but hopefully close to the real ones – of the Poles towards European integration, expected effects and some of the anxieties. European integration has given the Poles, especially the younger ones, a lot of chances, but it has brought new threats and challenges, unknown before the accession of Poland to the EU.
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The essence of social work is to care for another person, their good, support and help in solving life problems. However, the nature of aid is dependent on the social group’s perspectives to help, and thus the launch of an integrated system with its infrastructure, professional staff and the canon of rights and privileges. In the feld of social work with a child terminally ill, empowerment is increasingly used. There are two concepts to complement it: resilience, which facilitates the understanding of the mechanisms of positive adaptation of the small patient and its carers in the face of illness, and positive disintegration, aimed at sanctioning the rights and privileges of this social group (terminal patient and their carers). The personal situation of the patient limits them to experience fullness of life. These approaches may be useful in building a therapeutic-assistance relationship with a child in hospice care. However, their use in the practice of social work requires professionals to be mindful and to engage the child in a process of change that is directed towards improving the quality of life for them and their carers. In this paper, the authors focus on the role that the support system for terminally ill children has in the reinforcement approach. In their reflections, they present a model of consolidation architecture developed by them, whose key pillars form the basis of social work with a person in need of support and assistance. These pillars for professionals involved in clinical social work can be a source of thought in their professional day-to-day activities.
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The main objective of the paper is to identify the challenges and opportunities created by ageing population. The 20th century as well as the beginning of the 21st century are periods of great population changes in Europe and in the world, dynamics and direction of which raise concerns. For several decades now Europe has undergone population ageing. In the middle of the present century or so that process will be intensifed, which will result in a fundamental shift in the relationship between the youth and the elderly. Poland belongs to the countries where that change will be particularly drastic. The main purpose of the article is to answer the question of how the ageing population in Poland is going in the context of Europe and where we can fnd the social implications of the ageing populations today. Analyses show that ageing population is a multidimensional process, which sets a new context in many important areas.
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The aim of the article is to show the extent of migration threats among Polish people, to describe how they see these threats against other threats, how they view the migration crisis and the admission of immigrants and refugees. The article also refers to how the sense of threat has changed in recent years and which socio-demographic features signifcantly affected perception of these problems. The author of the article reviewed the CBOS surveys reports and the reports of other selected research centers from recent years, including the differences between Poles and other European nations in perception of migration phenomenon. During the analysis, attention was paid also to some methodological aspects of research.
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The aim of the article is to characterise the contemporary beekeeping in Poland as a phenomenon that stays between the rational economic activity and the activity that belongs to the spiritual sphere of life. The author presents the following questions: beekeeping as the agricultural profession that belongs to the farming sector, outlining the economic functions, formal framework for the organization of rearing and breeding of bees and the bee product distribution, the scale of production and the size of this branch in the national economy. The author also presents beekeeping as a phenomenon of culture and an element of broader social processes, starting with an analysis of the unprofessional movement of beekeeping, its range and character, ending with an analysis of the contemporary social movements focused on bee and beekeeping.
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For several years, border(lands) studies have been developing intensively in many disciplines, resulting in numerous publications and research projects as well as in a wide range of concepts and methods. Thus, borders are no longer perceived only as geographical lines separating states and communities, but also as polysemous spaces constructed in discourses, narratives around “us” and “them” and in everyday practices. Traditions of the Polish sociology of borderland can be dated back to the interwar period (Znaniecki, Chałasiński). Moreover, despite the fact that borders belonged to politically sensitive issues in the period of the People’s Republic of Poland, border research was conducted at that time. Recent socio-political events such as the migration crisis, Brexit, the rise of the right-wing conservative parties have triggered a newdebate on borders and their functions. This article aims to discuss the results of the scientifc debate on the issues of border and borderlands research and to develop a new research agenda in the light of contemporary socio-political and cultural changes.
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