Suchergebnisse

This article analyzes two recently published books, by Agata Bachórz and Anna Horolets, on the travels of Polish tourists in countries of the former Soviet Union. These works point to the formation of a mature Polish school of research into discourse on niche tourism. They have been read as complementary analyses of an important social phenomenon which has not previously been studied: a fairly specific type of tourist travel toward the East (in the broad sense). Attention is called to the importance of such analyses for studying the identity of the Polish intelligentsia and further for understanding the significance of the notional East and West for Polish national identity in terms of the long duration.

This article presents a critique of classic applications of class analysis to Polish society. It argues from a Bourdieusian standpoint that class is subordinate to culture in shaping social relations in Poland. More specifically, Poland can be seen as a dual-stratification order, with the economic logic of class clashing continually with the logic of rank, which is defined in terms of cultural capital. These two models of logics appear to be in constant competition, which may also be related to the tension between economic and cultural elites. The latter is most clearly represented by the old intelligentsia, which is the only faction of the elite able to reproduce itself successfully and impose its logic of stratification and ideology on the entire society. The article also argues that class and rank logic can be seen as two dimensions of a social structure that are much more autonomous than in a typical western society. Within these two dimensions, there is a constant competition between different modes of framing and regulating respective hierarchies. In this internal competition of hierarchies, rank and class use each other to reinforce particular arguments. A sound class analysis must recognize these tensions and seek to reconstruct the process of confrontation between particular modes of logic and their internal visions, rather than arbitrarily embracing one form of logic as the privileged one.

Aleksander Lednicki and the fate of his milieu of the Polish community in Russia at the turn of the 20th cent. as a mirror of the transformations of the Polish field of powerThe paper deals with the phenomenon of waning memory of the Polish economic elite in the late Russian Empire. It is related to the disappearance of the memory of the liberal political movement of the Polish political scene before the First World War. Mechanisms of these processes of forgetting are related to the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, in particular it is argued that the liberal Polish elite of the Russian Empire could be defined as economic-capital-based elite. Its rivals, both socialists led by Piłsudski and National-Democrats led by Dmowski, classical intelligentsia figures, could be seen as leaders of the cultural capital-based elites. As it is argued, the intelligentsia was in many ways a benefactor of the Bolshevik Revolution, which deprived the Polish economic elite of most of their capitals and led to its political marginalization. In effect the intelligentsia was able to impose its values and social hierarchies on the modern Polish national identity, which ever since is defined in terms largely unrelated to the economic logic. These mechanisms privilege memory of the intellectual figures and freedom-fighters in the mainstream canons of Polish history. A closer look at the forgotten economic and political Polish elite of the late Russian Empire allows to point out to several arbitrary elements in the dominant readings of the Polish and Russian history in contemporary Poland. They are illustrated in the paper on the example of the biography of Aleksander Lednicki, a prominent politician and lawyer, leader of the Polish community in Moscow until 1918.

Aleksander Lednicki and the fate of his milieu of the Polish community in Russia at the turn of the 20th cent. as a mirror of the transformations of the Polish field of powerThe paper deals with the phenomenon of waning memory of the Polish economic elite in the late Russian Empire. It is related to the disappearance of the memory of the liberal political movement of the Polish political scene before the First World War. Mechanisms of these processes of forgetting are related to the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, in particular it is argued that the liberal Polish elite of the Russian Empire could be defined as economic-capital-based elite. Its rivals, both socialists led by Piłsudski and National-Democrats led by Dmowski, classical intelligentsia figures, could be seen as leaders of the cultural capital-based elites. As it is argued, the intelligentsia was in many ways a benefactor of the Bolshevik Revolution, which deprived the Polish economic elite of most of their capitals and led to its political marginalization. In effect the intelligentsia was able to impose its values and social hierarchies on the modern Polish national identity, which ever since is defined in terms largely unrelated to the economic logic. These mechanisms privilege memory of the intellectual figures and freedom-fighters in the mainstream canons of Polish history. A closer look at the forgotten economic and political Polish elite of the late Russian Empire allows to point out to several arbitrary elements in the dominant readings of the Polish and Russian history in contemporary Poland. They are illustrated in the paper on the example of the biography of Aleksander Lednicki, a prominent politician and lawyer, leader of the Polish community in Moscow until 1918.

In Poland, both corporate and civil society partners are engaged in many types of dialogue on public issues (public policies of the state). Those types largely correspond to the models of dialogue held in Western Europe. The author puts forward a claim that development of dialogue in Poland is hampered not by structural (legal and organisational) arrangements, but by its low level of advancement, at least in some dimensions. Its intensity is reduced by small amount of expertise circulating within its mechanisms, by imperfect methods of argument presentation, low level of mutual persuasion (confrontation) or limited access of social partners to participation in decision-making in the state (due to statist model of the state functioning). The application of dialogue mechanisms in public policies in Poland remains limited due to numerous barriers stemming from a variety of sources. They result from the way of functioning of some social life structures (statism and clientism) and political life institutions (strong politicisation), as well as from long term cultural factors (lack of the dialogue culture in the past).

The paper proposes a redefinition of the rules of critical sociology in the context of peripheral countries, among them Poland and also Russia and other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The proposed theoretical model refers to the notions of cultural and political capital as understood and defined by Pierre Bourdieu. The cultural capital in particular is believed to be the key and most stable dimension of inequality in Poland, as well as an important source of inequalities in other dimensions. It has been suggested that critical sociology of the Polish periphery should focus its interests precisely on this issue. At the same time the position that overlooks the cultural dimension of inequalities and treats interests defined in terms of culture as "irrational" is considered to be a manifestation of "Orientalism" and lack of respect for the important social resources of the population.