Political Sociology – a Discussion Paper

The paper is dedicated to political sociology – its genealogy, status as a scientific discipline, its functions, agenda and methodological scope. The discussion of these issues is tuned towards didactic goals, facilitating students’ orienteering in the problematic, functions and requirements of political sociology as a part of political sciences. The paper consists of three parts. The first part, entitled „The origins and genaology of sociology political”, emphasizes historical continuity of reflection pertaining social conditions of politics. There, a project of scientist sociology and basing on its critiqs projects of Verstehen sociology and interpretative sociology are presented as well. It is also stressed that critical reflection over political relations and their social context involves an intermingling of emprical and normative aspects. The second part of the paper, enitled, „Debates and controversies pertaining contemporary political sociology”, outlines major axes differentiating positions taken by sociologists representing dominant methodological streams within this discipline of science nowadays. These axes are crystallized around a few issues that raise most controversies, incuding 1) an issue of institutional positioning of political sociology; 2) an issue of the subject matter of this discipline of science, and 3) an issue of the relationship between the discipline and its subject matter. The third part of the paper, entitled „An overview of major methodological conceptions and problems in contemporary political sociology”, discusses in some detail the main methodological approaches within the discipline as well as a tendency to broaden both the horizon of issues covered by contemporary political sociology and increase the scope of analytical approaches to research them. These tendencies are cliamed to result inter alia from empirical and theoretical insights provided by research into Europeanization and globalization. Subsequently, a basic structure of a course in political sociology is presented, leading analytical categories to be used while teaching the course are specified, and objectives inscribed in the university-level course of this discipline are listed

THE POLES AND THE SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM

The paper focuses on the involvement of Polish migrants in the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014. Based on the available evidence, it argues that political apathy and the alienation of migrants in their receiving countries should not be taken for granted. Exempli-fied by the active stance of the “Scottish” Poles, the paper demonstrates that the migrant groups’ political participation may depend on a country-specific nexus of factors to do with discursive construction of both their economic interests and civic belonging

Mezzogiorno - an Attempt of Re-Interpretation

Artykuł poświęcony jest dyskusji nad próbami reinterpretacji przyczyn i skutków stanu permanentnego niedorozwoju społeczno-gospodarczego regionów peryferyjnych w Europie na przykładzie włoskiego Mezzogiorno. Mezzogiorno, powszechnie przedstawiane jako monolityczny paradygmat nieudanej modernizacji, ulega dekonstrukcji poznawczej w obliczu dwutorowo biegnącego strumienia analiz i wypowiedzi. Ideologicznie nasycony dyskurs polityczny wywodzący się z separatystycznej północy wzmacnia i podkreśla obraz Południa jako bezprawnego konsumenta zasobów państwa włoskiego produkowanych na Północy. Odpowiedzią jest równie ideologicznie motywowany dyskurs elit akademickich i kulturowych Południa, którego celem jest wytworzenie nowego, pozytywnego obrazu Południa jako przestrzeni alternatywnej dla północnego egoizmu i materializmu, przestrzeni-pomostu między Europą a resztą nieatlantyckiego świata. W tym kontekście coraz silniej zaznacza swoja obecność dyskurs nauk społecznych, który w rozważaniach na temat warunków rozwoju społeczno-ekonomicznego regionów peryferyjnych rezygnuje z jednostronnego podejścia neoliberalnego, zwraca się natomiast ku wieloaspektowym analizom warunków instytucjonalnych jako pierwotnemu źródłu (wadliwej) dynamiki społeczno-ekonomicznej. Dyskusja wokół włoskiego Mezzogiorno moża stanowić przy tym użyteczny punkt orientacyjnych dla debaty nad modelem polityki prorozwojowej w Polsce, szczególnie w odniesieniu do regionów peryferyjnych i zacofanych.The article focuses on the discussion over attempts to re-interpret causes and effects of the state of permanent socio-economic under-development of peripheral regions in Europe invoking Italian Mezzogiorno as a case. Mezzogiorno widely held to be a monolith paradigm of unsuccessful modernization, is being cognitively deconstructed in the face of a two-way running stream of analyses and enunciations. Ideologically imbued political discourse originating in the separatist North reinforces and emphasizes an image of South as a lawless consumer of the Italian state’s resources produced in the North. As a response arises an equally ideologically motivated discourse of academic and cultural elites of the South, whose aims to produce a new, positive image of the South as a space alternative to northern egoism and materialism, a space bridging Europe and the rest of non-Atlantic world. In this context, a discourse of social sciences ever stronger marks its presence; considering conditions of socio-economic development of peripheral regions it forfeits a unidimensional neoliberal approach and instead turns to multidimensional analyses of institutional environment as a primary source of socio-economic dynamics. The debate surrounding Italian Mezzogiorno may constitute at the same time a useful vantage point for a debate over the Polish model of development, especially with regard to peripheral and backward regions in Poland

REGIONAL BRANDING – THE CASE OF LUBELSKIE VOIVODSHIP

The paper is dedicated to an aspect of territorial marketing which is called region branding. It focuses on the branding of the lubelskie voivodship. The Lubelskie is clas-sified in the public discourse as one of the „inherently backward” regions in Eastern Poland. As such, it has been subject to discursive stigmatization and institutional dis-crimination. Its case exemplifies processes of orientalism that were triggered in the country after the systemic change and – concerning the regions – reinforced after the institutionalization of new „big” regions in 1999. In the paper, the official strategy of branding Lubelskie is analyzed. The aim is to identify the ways in which the stigma of its „eastern backwardness” is treated in order to produce a new, positive and attractive image of this region to be promoted and sold as its competitive brand

Field, Habitus and Imago Regionis: An Alternative Approach to the Study of Region

Odnosząc się do polskiej regionalizacji z perspektywy integracji europejskiej i globalizacji, artykuł proponuje model analizy regionu oparty na myśli teoretycznej Pierre'a Bourdieu i Anssi Paasiego. Kluczowe kategorie modelu to region jako pole społeczne nowej generacji, wytwarzany w jego obrębie habitus regionalny oraz imago regionis nowa forma tożsamości regionalnej. Główny proces analizowany za pośrednictwem modelu to wielofazowa instytucjonalizacja regionu, w wyniku której zyskuje on swoistą tożsamość. Tożsamość ta funkcjonuje z jednej strony w wymiarze marketingu terytorialnego, z drugiej zaś wchodzi w interakcję ze wzorami mentalnymi i behawioralnymi w ramach regionalnego habitusu, warunkując potencjał adaptacyjny i innowacyjny regionalnej społeczności. Proponowane podejście z jednej strony pozwala ujmować region w perspektywie zmiany globalnej, z drugiej zaś strony zwraca uwagę na możliwość lokalnej modyfikacji warunków, w których się ona dokonuje. Podtrzymując znaczenie czynników społeczno-kulturowych w analizie regionu, jednocześnie umożliwia wyjście poza wąsko pojętą perspektywę tożsamości kulturowej, która dominuje w socjologicznie zorientowanych badaniach nad regionami.Referring to the Polish regionalization from the perspective of European integration and globalization, the paper proposes a model of regional analysis based on theoretical conceptions of Pierre Bourdieu and Anssi Paasi. Region as a social field of new generation, regional habitus constructed within it and an imago regionis as a new type of regional identity are the key concepts of the proposed model. Multi-stage institutionalization of region, which results in an idiosyncratic regional identity, is the main process analysed by means of the model. The identity functions on the one hand at the level of territorial marketing, on the other it interacts with mental and behavioural patterns constitutive of regional habitus, conditioning adaptive and innovative potential of regional communities. The proposed approach enables to see region in the perspective of global change on the one hand, while on the other, it draws attention to possibilities of local modification of the conditions, within which it is implemented. While it sustains the weight of socio-cultural factors in regional analyses, at the same time it makes it possible to reach beyond narrowly conceived perspective of cultural identity, dominant in sociologically minded studies of regions

EXPLORING WAYS TO USE THE LEARNING REGION CONCEPT IN POLAND

The paper explores some novel ways to use the concept of the learning region in Poland, following a change of the regional policy paradigm in the country. The concept of the learning region has been part of the European Union’s public policy resources since the early 1990s. Commonly, it is applied across EU Member States, including Poland, in the shape of regional innovation systems (RIS) and cluster-building instruments. It is argued in the paper that there are more ways to take advantage of this concept at the regional level, when focusing on the sphere of regional governance, which is related to the territorial approach recently introduced in the policy of local and regional development

Civil Society and New Modes of Governance in Poland

The paper is focused on the introduction and operation of a novel model of EU-induced structure of governance networks-composed of public administration, business and civil society actors. It takes up a case of institutional structures to manage EU structural funds in Poland. In particular, the role of social partners, i.e. representatives of non-governmental organizations in the European Regional Development Fund-related region-level and nation-level steering and monitoring committees is analyzed. Following a brief exposition of regionalization principles, arrangement for regional development policy in Poland and changes induced by the country’s accession to the EU, legal and institutional frameworks for the inclusion of social partners in the committees responsible for the programming, management and evaluation of the EuropeanRegional Development Fund are scrutinized. Empirical evidence of social partners’ participation in the proceedings of such selected committees is introduced and analyzed. Opportunities, challenges and dilemmas of civil society actors faced with new modes of governance are discussed