Researching Prison - a Sociological Analysis of Social System

The assumption that society is a complex system is a common and trivial in sociology. Most of the great sociological theories treat society as a complex system explicitly or implicitly. Because social system is always multidimensional it is easier to build such a theory than to apply it to practice. Therefore, it is still not fully explored issue, especially when theory meets empirical data. The aim of this article is to examine the complexity of a social system on the example of prison. The main issues discussed here are: the interplay of elements of the system and its consequences, dynamics of social process, influence of social change and interdependence of microsystem and macrosystem. The article presents the sociological perspective on social system

Researching Prison - a Sociological Analysis of Social System

The assumption that society is a complex system is a common and trivial in sociology. Most of the great sociological theories treat society as a complex system explicitly or implicitly. Because social system is always multidimensional it is easier to build such a theory than to apply it to practice. Therefore, it is still not fully explored issue, especially when theory meets empirical data. The aim of this article is to examine the complexity of a social system on the example of prison. The main issues discussed here are: the interplay of elements of the system and its consequences, dynamics of social process, influence of social change and interdependence of microsystem and macrosystem. The article presents the sociological perspective on social system

Collective memory of city inhabitants. The study of collective memory research

Badania przeprowadzono w latach 2012−2014, na próbie mieszkańców Wrocławia oraz na próbie elit, studentów i uczniów szkół średnich, klas maturalnych. Badania prowadzono w zespole osób: P. Czajkowski, S. Kłopot, B. Pabjan, M. Zuber.Badania pamięci zbiorowej są wielodyscyplinarne, w badaniach społecznych pamięci dominuje podejście jakościowe. Inną cechą tego nurtu badań jest przewaga refleksji teoretycznej nad metodologiczną. Artykuł jest próbą wypełnienia tej luki − analizuje możliwości i ograniczenia badań pamięci zbiorowej i specyfikę badania pamięci zbiorowej mieszkańców miasta. Dyskutowane są wybrane przykłady (z badań własnych) ilustrujące takie kwestie, jak: funkcje pomiaru ilościowego w badaniu pamięci zbiorowej, zastosowanie fotografii w analizie odbioru przestrzeni miejskiej, badanie zbiorowej recepcji przeszłości miasta i wykorzystanie eksperymentu naturalnego do badań.The research on collective memory has few important charactersitics: it is regarded as an mulitdisciplinary field, it is dominated by the qualitative approach, there is relatively well developed theoretical analysis but less methodological reflections. The paper attempts to fill this gap by analysing the selected issues of quantitative research on collective memory and the specificity of researching the collective memory of local city community. The paper discusses the selected examples (from author’s research) illustrating such issues as the effects of quantitative measurement to understand how the collective memory is formed, the use of photographs to examine the reception of the urban space, the study of reception of the city history and the application of the natural experiment to survey techniques.Publikacja finansowana ze środków Wydziału Nauk Społecznych Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badań empirycznych przeprowadzonych w ramach międzynarodowego projektu badawczego “The Memory of vanished populations” sfinansowanego przez The Swedish Bank Tercennary Foundation i prowadzonego we współpracy z Uniwersytetem w Lund

The collective memory of a city. The case of Wrocław

 The collective memory of a city. The case of WrocławA city’s collective memory is the image of its past shared by its population. Th is image is an interesting element of the city’s identity. The specificity of Wrocław lies in the fact that this former German city was settled by a Polish population. This historical context makes Wrocław an intersting case study to analyse the process of forming the collective memory of a city. This study tries to answer the questions: what is the memory of a city and how the collective memory of a city is formed? How urban space creates the collective memory of a city? What is the role of social practices for the formation of the collective memory of a city? Moreover, issues specific to Wrocław are analyzed. Multiculturalism has become the official city image but is this image reflected in popular memory? What is the collective memory of Wrocław? The article is based on an empirical study that has been conducted on a sample of city residents 547. The collective memory of a city. The case of WrocławA city’s collective memory is the image of its past shared by its population. Th is image is an interesting element of the city’s identity. The specificity of Wrocław lies in the fact that this former German city was settled by a Polish population. This historical context makes Wrocław an intersting case study to analyse the process of forming the collective memory of a city. This study tries to answer the questions: what is the memory of a city and how the collective memory of a city is formed? How urban space creates the collective memory of a city? What is the role of social practices for the formation of the collective memory of a city? Moreover, issues specific to Wrocław are analyzed. Multiculturalism has become the official city image but is this image reflected in popular memory? What is the collective memory of Wrocław? The article is based on an empirical study that has been conducted on a sample of city residents 547

Przekonania ontologiczno-epistemologiczne naukowców a społeczne uwarunkowania nauki

Scientists’ ontological and epistemological beliefs versus social conditions of scienceThe paper examines the content of epistemic and ontological beliefs among scientists. I take the assumption of the sociology of knowledge that the notion of objectivity is culturally and socially shared and what we believe the truth is depends on the collectively shared socio-cultural cognitive convention. Scientific knowledge is socially and culturally rooted and the notion of truth and objectivity must be treated as expressions of the patterns of culture.This applies also to science and scientific knowledge. The paper provides the results of empirical research which suggest that while the majority of the examined sample adopts views of realists and regards science as objective and trustworthy knowledge, there is still a substantial minority who holds sceptical views on scientific knowledge and cognition. The field in science influences the beliefs in objectivity: those who work in experimental field are more sceptical, whereas those who are theorists are less doubtful about the objectivity of science. Interestingly, the majority of scientists in the sample acknowledges the influence of social factors on scientific knowledge, and yet it does not alter their beliefs in the objectivity of science. The notion of “the thinking-style” introduced by Ludwik Fleck is used to explain the differentiation in epistemic and ontological beliefs about science. It comprises socially accepted schemes of explanation and types of reasoning which are typical for a particular field of science.Scientists’ ontological and epistemological beliefs versus social conditions of scienceThe paper examines the content of epistemic and ontological beliefs among scientists. I take the assumption of the sociology of knowledge that the notion of objectivity is culturally and socially shared and what we believe the truth is depends on the collectively shared socio-cultural cognitive convention. Scientific knowledge is socially and culturally rooted and the notion of truth and objectivity must be treated as expressions of the patterns of culture.This applies also to science and scientific knowledge. The paper provides the results of empirical research which suggest that while the majority of the examined sample adopts views of realists and regards science as objective and trustworthy knowledge, there is still a substantial minority who holds sceptical views on scientific knowledge and cognition. The field in science influences the beliefs in objectivity: those who work in experimental field are more sceptical, whereas those who are theorists are less doubtful about the objectivity of science. Interestingly, the majority of scientists in the sample acknowledges the influence of social factors on scientific knowledge, and yet it does not alter their beliefs in the objectivity of science. The notion of “the thinking-style” introduced by Ludwik Fleck is used to explain the differentiation in epistemic and ontological beliefs about science. It comprises socially accepted schemes of explanation and types of reasoning which are typical for a particular field of science

Researching Prison - a Sociological Analysis of Social System

The assumption that society is a complex system is a common and trivial in sociology. Most of the great sociological theories treat society as a complex system explicitly or implicitly. Because social system is always multidimensional it is easier to build such a theory than to apply it to practice. Therefore, it is still not fully explored issue, especially when theory meets empirical data. The aim of this article is to examine the complexity of a social system on the example of prison. The main issues discussed here are: the interplay of elements of the system and its consequences, dynamics of social process, influence of social change and interdependence of microsystem and macrosystem. The article presents the sociological perspective on social system.social system, complex system, interdependence, social relations, prison

Estimation of the Severeness Rate, Death Rate, Household Attack Rate and the Total Number of COVID-19 Cases Based on 16 115 Polish Surveillance Records

Background: Estimating the actual number of COVID-19 infections is crucial for steering through the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. It is, however, notoriously difficult, as many cases have no or only mild symptoms. Surveillance data for in-household secondary infections offers unbiased samples for COVID-19 prevalence estimation. Methods: We analyse 16 115 Polish surveillance records to obtain key figures of the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose conservative upper and lower bound estimators for the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections. Further, we estimate age-dependent bounds on the severe case rate, death rate, and the in-household attack rate. Results: By maximum likelihood estimates, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Poland as of July 22nd, 2020, is at most around 13 times larger and at least 1.6 times larger than the recorded number. The lower bound on the severeness rate ranges between 0.2% for the 0–39 year-old to 5.7% for older than 80, while the upper bound is between 2.6% and 34.1%. The lower bound on the death rate is between 0.04% for the age group 40–59 to 1.34% for the oldest. Overall, the severeness and death rates grow exponentially with age. The in-household attack ratio is 8.18% for the youngest group and 16.88% for the oldest. Conclusions: The proposed approach derives highly relevant figures on the COVID-19 pandemic from routine surveillance data, under assumption that household members of detected infected are tested and all severe cases are diagnosed.MedRxiv</p