Polská sociologie – od „října“ do „června“ (1956–1989)

Based on a systematic study of Polish sociological literature produced in the period stretching between the elevation of Wladyslaw Gomulka to the post of the Party's first secretary in October 1956 to the first free elections in Poland in June 1989, the author of this article offers an account of the main dilemmas & the varieties of pluralism in Polish sociology during the state socialist era. The author claims that, with the exception of the Stalinist period, Polish sociologists always occupied diverse positions on 'government' & 'society', but this diversity yielded to change in response to a particular time. Generally, in 1956-1989 Polish sociology was something unique in comparison with sociology in other so-called people's democracies, as it had a considerably high status in the country & in the world, including the West. The author argues that Polish sociology did not have to undergo a revolution in 1989 & make the move from Marxist to bourgeois sociology, as since 1956 (or even earlier, since 1945) it had been undergoing continuous change & constant reform (in theoretical domain & concerning its division into sub-disciplines) & maintained a consistent level of diversity in various respects

Three Theoretical Frameworks to Local Community Analysis

W związku z rolą jaką przykładamy do analizy społeczności lokalnych w tworzeniu projektu zmian ustrojowych na poziomie państwa i narodu w artykule zwraca się uwagę na konieczność uwzględnienia trzech najważniejszych kontekstów teoretycznych jakie stanowić mogą źródło socjologicznej interpretacji danych gromadzonych w badaniach na poziomie lokalnym. Pierwsza z perspektyw jest ramą podmiotową, druga ramą ograniczonych utopii, natomiast trzecia ramą społecznych emocji. We wszystkich wymienionych perspektywach teoretycznych Autorka eksponuje konieczność traktowania społeczności lokalnej jako jednostki z jednej strony charakteryzującej się specyficznymi cechami, a z drugiej jako elementu szerszego układu społecznego w skład którego wchodzi. W artykule podkreśla się konieczność łączenia analiz lokalnych prowadzonych w polskiej socjologii z bardziej ogólnymi teoriami transformacji społeczeństwa polskiego. Za szczególnie przydatną w tym względzie uznaje autorka koncepcję krytycznej socjologii transformacji A. Rycharda.In relation to the meaning attributed to local communities analysis in creation of the plan of systemic changes at the level of the state and the nation, the authoress calls attention to three crucial theoretical contexts which may be a source of sociological interpretation of data collected in the local level research. The first perspective is the subjective framework, the second - the framework of limited utopias and the third - social emotions framework. In all theoretical perspectives mentioned the authoress exposes the necessity of local community as an entity characterized by specific features on the one hand and as an element of wider social system that is national (state) and European societies, on the other. She perceives the necessity of combining local analyses conducted within the Polish sociology with more general theories of transformation of the Polish society. A. Rychard's conception of critical sociology of transformation is claimed to be particularly useful to that purpose

Chitosan-Based Nanoparticles with Optimized Parameters for Targeted Delivery of a Specific Anticancer Drug—A Comprehensive Review

Chitosan is a positively charged polysaccharide obtained through chitin deacetylation. It belongs to a group of biodegradable, bioavailable, and non-toxic materials of natural origin; thus, it is a promising matrix for creating delivery systems of different active agents. Recently, much attention has been paid to nanodelivery systems as carriers to enable better bioavailability, and thus higher efficiency of the loaded drug. The present review is focused on the progress in chitosan-based nanoparticles for the targeted delivery of antitumor drugs. The paper discusses literature reports from the last three years in which chitosan nanoparticles were applied as carriers for active substances used in antitumor therapy and potential new drugs with anticancer properties. Special attention was paid to the different treatments applied to increase the therapeutic effectiveness and minimize the side effects of a specific active substance

Nation in Sociological Analyses

The author deals with the idea of nation as a category in scientific thinking concerned with the social reality. Only strictly sociological issues are discussed here. First, the category is analysed as present in the Grand Tradition of the world sociology of the 19th and 20th centuries; second, as present, to a greater degree, in the Grand Tradition of Polish sociologists. In the introductory part the author outlines the basic idea of the paper. It is stressed here that there exists no single sociological analysis that is binding to everybody, and consequently, there exists no single sociological concept of nation. In the second part entitled "Nation and world sociology", the author deals with the place occupied by the concept of nation in various sociologies and with their meaning as well. It is claimed that: 1) the category of nation has not been the basic, or especially important theoretical category of influential sociological orientations; 2) this category in the positivistic sociology of organistic type, as well as in the later outcomes, appears to be one of the several subtypes of society and therefore it is subordinate to the latter; 3) its place is at present, above all, in the historical sociology where such collective entities as society, state, class, etc. are of interest; 4) in contemporary analytical sociologies there is no place at all for the category of nation, since here the spatiotemporal dimension is neglected, the dimension without which, according to Znaniecki, a sociologist cannot decide whether a given social collectivity can be called a nation or not. According to the author, little interest paid by the sociological theoreticians results from the fact that they regarded the nation question as not being an important social problem. On the other hand, the early sociologies were influenced by the positivistic model of science, according to which nation belonged to the class of superstitions. Nation was, above all, thought of to be of no specific interest to sociology, since it could be placed within other branches of humanities. In the third part entitled "Nation and Polish sociology", the author claims that the use of the category of nation is specific to Polish sociology. It is also typical of this sociology to construct two models of reflections on nation: the cultural end the political one. The author explains also the meanings of the idea of nation. This category was dominant in the early sociologies until the 1920c. In the interwar period it gave place to the categories of society and culture and after the war in the early 1950c to the idea of social class. From the 1960c on it began to disappear from the scope of interest of empirical sociologists. Recently, however, one can notice a remarkable growth of interest in the category of nation and national problems in general. Moreover, Polish sociologists are nowadays interested in the difference between the state and the nation and the connection between nation and culture. Finally, in the forth part, the author dwells on the considerations concerning the future of Polish sociology. The renewed interest in the nation is due to: 1) the new generalisations resulting from the sociology of ethnic relations; 2) the wider exchange of ideas coming from history and political sciences; 3) the vivid interest in Polish sociologists like Ossowski and Znaniecki; 4) the world interest in historical sociology, especially in the theory of modernization; 5) the recent necessity of global knowledge about the afterwar Polish sociology

Instead of conclusion – the map of research possibilities

The article emphasizes the theoretical and methodological significance of such territorial brands research which take into account multidimensional links between the theory of society and the theory of culture. Such a perspective of research allows for greater integration of methodologies of various social and humanistic sciences, especially those that positively evaluate the binding of quantitative research methodologies to the methodology of qualitative research. This type of methodological integration should fit to the approaches to local borderland communities which emphasize their subjectivity and agency. The article postulates the research’s attitude which leads to building not only the brand’s construction but – similarly to the culture of memory – the brand culture. On the other hand, the research of the culture of brand engages in a critical analysis of imaginaries of capitalism in the local communities of late modernity.Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii, PAN WarszawaBabiński G. (2014), Pogranicze i transgraniczności wokół zagmatwania pojęć i zjawisk społecznych, [w:] Zielińska M, Trzop B. (red.) Transgraniczność w perspektywie socjologicznej. Pogranicza i centra współczesnej Europy, Zielona Góra.Bendixen P. (2001), Wprowadzenie do ekonomiki kultury i sztuki, Kraków.Berger B. (red.), (1994), Kultura przedsiębiorczości, Warszawa.Berger P.L. (1995), Rewolucja kapitalistyczna, Warszawa.Buchowski M. (2008), Antropologiczne kłopoty z multikulturalizmem, [w:] Mamzer H. (red.), Czy klęska wielokulturowości?, Poznań.Burszta W.J. (2008) ,Świat jako więzienie kultury, Pomyślenia, Warszawa.Chałupnik A., Dudzik W. (2010) Antropologia widowisk. Zagadnienia i wybór tekstów, Warszawa.Cyboran B. (2018), Animacja w systemie zależności instytucjonalnych. Uwarunkowania rozwoju animacji społeczno-kulturalnej na tle polskiej polityki kulturalnej po 1989 roku, Kraków.Czyżewski K. (2009), Czas animacji kultury, „Kultura Współczesna”, z. 4, s. 7-12.Douglas M. (2011), Jak myślą instytucje, Warszawa.Fiń A., Nijander-Dudzińska A. (2018), Przemyśl i Sanok – społeczno-kulturowa charakterystyka dwuetnicznych społeczności miejskich, „Pogranicze. Studia Społeczne”, nr 33.Gobe M. (2001), Emotional branding. The new paradigm for connecting brands to people, New York.Grad J. (red.) (2005) Karnawalizacja-tendencje ludyczne w kulturze współczesnej, Warszawa.Harrison L.E., Huntington S.P. (red.) (2003), Kultura ma znaczenie, Poznań.Kurczewska J. (2004) Robocze ideologie lokalności. Stare i nowe schematy, [w:] Kurczewska J. (red.), Oblicza lokalności: tradycja i współczesność, Warszawa.Kwiatkowski P. T. (2008), Pamięć zbiorowa społeczeństwa polskiego w okresie transformacji, Warszawa.Olins W. (2004), O marce, Warszawa.Wilkin J. (2016), Instytucje i kulturowe podstawy gospodarki, Warszawa.Kłoskowska A. (2005), Kultury narodowe u korzeni, Warszawa.Simon A. (2017), Competitive Identity. The New Brand Management for Nations Cities and Regions, London.Sadowski A. (2017), Pogranicza jako obszar i jako miejsce, [w:] Kurcz Z. (red.) Polskie pogranicza w okresie przemian, t. 4, Wrocław.Star W., Alonso W. (1983), Sociology of official statistics. Politics of number, New York.Turner V. (2005), Od rytuału do teatru, Warszawa.Wojakowski D. (2018), Wielokulturowe konteksty marki lokalnej, regionalnej i narodowej, „Pogranicze. Studia Społeczne”, nr 33.3319020

National leadership, experience and modernity

The aim of the article is to show how national leadership is articulated in modern and postmodern social experience and is rooted in current social and political reality. The author constructed types of national leadership and projected duties and entitlements for a national leader role. Th e aim is to present a flexible set of educational duties and entitlements, and not to present the coherent structure of ideas similar to systemic national ideology. On the basis of a national experience project the author presents the national leader role as sensitive to different types of knowledge

Jerzy Szacki 6 lutego 1929 – 25 października 2016

Jerzy Szacki 6 February 1929 – 25 October 201

Border Metaphors in the Polish Sociology of Borderlands

This paper treatises Polish sociology of borderlands (mostly Eastern) as the rich resources of metaphors of borders, especially national and political ones. It shows how these metaphors are linked to different sociological imagery-modern and postmodern. Its aim is to reconstruct analytical strategies and research projects from this sub-discipline, focusing on metaphors of borders. These strategies and projects are based on very different approaches to metaphors. The first operation is an instrument which the theoretician uses to reconstruct the theoretical typology of borders and borderlands. The second operation is a tool which the researcher uses to reflect more deeply on the empirical data concerning individual and collective reactions to borders and borderlands. The third operation is a narrative tool used by examinees who inhabit the borderlands. The paper provides a broad and intensive discussion of the functions of different metaphors about borders in relation to the different intellectual approaches to problems of borderlands and borders. It stresses the needs for equal treatment in Polish sociology of borderland problems of borderlands and problems of national borders. Especially emphasizes the positive functions of academic interest in borders metaphors in this scientific treatment. Generally speaking, this analyse enhances many links between sociology of borderlands and cultural anthropology and is closely connected to the question of where these intellectual operations on metaphors belong in the project of an interdisciplinary approach to borders and borderlands

Hybrid systems based on silica and halloysite for environmental and biomedical applications

Silica and halloysite are inorganic materials of great importance in various areas of industry. Inorganic-organic hybrid systems obtained on their basis allow for the expansion of potential applications to new directions and improve their properties in the context of possible applications. Silica is characterized by good selectivity and mechanical stability. It consists of siloxane and silanol functional groups that can be functionalized with different organic units. Halloysite is an aluminosilicate clay mineral with silica and alumina sheets. It is often characterized by tubular structure, and its internal and external surfaces can be easily functionalized. Two large areas of application for hybrid materials based on silica and halloysite are environmental protection and medicine. Herein, the exemplary materials dedicated to the adsorption of impurities and drug delivery systems are presented