Ekonomia dobra czy zła? Ekonomiczno-gospodarcze paradoksy współczesności

Economics plays important role in contemporary societies and shapes our thinking about fundamental aspects of everyday life. If that is the case, it is necessary to analyse economic theories from the axiological point of view. It does not only has theoretical importance but practical as well when we consider recent financial and economic crisis when economists were asked to explain how and why was it possible for the 21st century economy and economics to fail so seriously. The article reflects on these issues and presents examples of paradoxes in contemporary economics and economy which show that critical evaluation of what our societies consider true and right in terms of material reproduction and social well-being is necessary. It also asks about ‘good economics’ which will not only adequately describe and interprete real economic processes but also serve as the useful and effective tool for accomplishing economic and social – morally acceptable – development. In order to do this the article analyses and verifies foundations and assumptions of current economic theory. It engages the contribution of personalistic perspective and authors like John D. Mueller, Tomáš Sedláček, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, Gary S. Becker, Chantal Delsol and Grzegorz W. Kołodko who offer interesting arguments in the discussion about the proper shape of economics which will facilitate economic and human development as well

Economic Development and Social Development. Socio‑cultural Aspects of Fertility Changes and their Consequences

Thesis: Present‑day radical fertility changes are determined by socio‑cultural factors and will have consequences for the economy and its development potential. Current changes in the fertility rate in Poland are the subject of many discussions and arguments. It means that, among the challenges for researchers, firstly, they have to understand the background to this issue and identify the factors influencing procreative decisions. Secondly, they should demonstrate how population growth changes and will change society, and the economy in particular. Our paper analyzes the mentioned research problem by engaging tools from sociology and cultural studies to examine the influence of norms, values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours on the changing level of birth rate and its economic consequences for the current and future functioning of the social order. The purpose of the analyses is to deepen and compare the results of findings from such disciplines as demography, statistics and economics, and present them against a background of socio‑cultural transformations, which seem to be very important in the context of Polish females and males making procreative decisions. Additionally, the paper presents links between fertility and economic development, which often seem to be ignored or underestimated.The “Annales. Ethics in Economic Life” is affiliated and co-financed by the Faculty of Economics and Sociology of the University of Lodz

Consumer social responsibility

In our contemporary literature and academic discourse, we often see how popular the topic of corporate social responsibility is. It will be argued that another problem, tightly linked to this issue, and strongly influencing the business environment is the consumer behaviour. This second part of business relations is often associated rather with legal demands and customer protection. The purpose of my article is to show how consumer social responsibility can help not only the corporations but also those involved in the market exchange to contribute to the common good and improve quality of millions of transactions people make every day. To become real, this responsibility needs effort—courage to witness by expressing consumer’s opinion and education. The first aspect shows how important action is in revealing values and introducing ethics into everyday market activity, the second shows that emphasizing basic economic education and expecting thorough information from companies can help build and enhance consumer awareness. This article also attempts to demonstrate the contributions of Catholic Social Thought to the problem of social responsibility.Publication of English-language versions of the volumes of the "Annales. Ethics in Economic Life" financed through contract no. 501/1/P-DUN/2017 from the funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education devoted to the promotion of scholarship

For Better or Worse? The Common Crisis and Common Good

Crisis, sometimes associated with historically distant times or centrally planned economies, has turned out to be one of the main contemporary issues. Hence different systems like socialism and capitalism become similar in their inability to reply to expectations for a safe, peaceful and abundant life. It means that economic problems are more complex in their nature. Thorough analysis of the roots of different crises should therefore reach deeper than just economic explanations. This is the point where ethical and cultural explanations may be useful because they strive to explore the socio-cultural fabric at its foundations in the hierarchy of values and vision of human beings and society. When it comes to contemporary crisis the problem is twofold: firstly, there is the threat that the crisis will be treated inadequately and not realistically in consequence. Secondly, the roots ofthe crisis may not be diagnosed properly, which may lead to false ‘treatment’. This article is an attempt to highlight the above issues and analyse them in the context ofthe common good approach, which seems to offer valuable potential to understand the difficulties properly and offer a reasonable plan for recovery

Status of the Family within the Media Market. A Voice in the Discussion on Media Ethics

This article discusses the question of the presence of the category of the family in the media, which most often operate as commercial enterprises these days. At the same time the influence of media communication on the family is underlined. The analysis results in distinguishing between two ways of presenting and treating the family in media broadcasting. The first – objective – resembles the authentic nature and character of this basic social group, while the second – subjective – distorts the image and uses the category of the family as merely material for an producing media offer of any kind. Among other issues, stress is put on the business model of media enterprises, which seriously influences the social communication character of mass media, which results, for example, in the transformation of information into a commodity and the media public into customers

SOCIAL RECEPTION AND INCLUSION OF REFUGEES FROM UKRAINE

Our research aimed to study the ongoing phenomena of cross-border displacement of the Ukrainian population resulting from the Russian aggression that started on the 24th of February 2022. In the first stage of this research, we managed to get the opinions of over 500 refugees with a focus on their needs, concerns, plans, and expectations. Collected data also allowed a reconstruction of social-demographic profiles of fleeing Ukrainian refugees. The preliminary outcomes are presented in the report

Back to oikos nomos, Back to Reality… Materialistic Transformation of the Western Culture and Socio-Cultural Turn in Economics

Michał A. Michalski, Z powrotem do oikos nomos, z powrotem do rzeczywistości… Materialistyczna transformacja kultury Zachodu a zwrot społeczno-kulturowy w ekonomii [Back to oikos nomos, Back to Reality… Materialistic Transformation of the Western Culture and Socio-Cultural Turn in Economics] edited by W. Banach, M.A. Michalski, J. Sójka, „Człowiek i Społeczeństwo” vol. XLVI: Między Chinami a Zachodem. Pytanie o źródła chińskiego sukcesu gospodarczego [Between China and the West. An inquiry into the sources of the Chinese economic miracle], Poznań 2018, pp. 203–215, Adam Mickiewicz University. Faculty of Social Sciences Press. ISSN 0239-3271.In this article, I put forward the thesis that the current socio-economic situation is to a large extent caused by the changes that have taken place in Western culture over the last few centuries. This means that, to a large extent, the considerations discussed here refer to the perspective of economic culture. The reason for undertaking this issue is paradoxical situation of socio-economic stagnationand recourse in the contemporary West which has achieved unprecedented level of social, scientific and technological development.In order to explain this problem, the article proposes to analyse the process of materialisation of the Western culture which means that the materialistic point of view colonizes at the same time capitalist and socialist concepts and policies. It becomes evident e.g. in the prioritizing economic policy and economic development as the universal solution to all social challenges and marginalizing metaphysical aspects of human and social existence. According to the conclusion of the article it is necessary to understand the influence of materialisticpoint of view in order to rethink and analyse contemporary shape of Western culture and condition of Western civilization

Lost and Wasted Human Capital – How Transformations of Family, Socialization, and Population Control Influence Welfare and Well-Being

This paper analyzes the influence of the transformations of marriage and family on the human capital (HC) creation in contemporary Western societies. One of the basic assumptions included here is that these processes are connected with profound socio-cultural shifts that were initiated in the 20th century, and were manifested e.g. through the sexual revolution of the 1968

Happy Together or Happy Alone? The Tension between the Market and the Family in the Context of Culture

The article explores the interactions between the family and the market in the context of the happiness and tensions that exist between these two social institutions. The analysis undertaken here also stresses the importance of culture, understood as the norms, values and beliefs which are important for a wide range of actions and processes within a society, and treats it as a useful perspective for the explanation of complex socio economic phenomena. Firstly, the nature and mutual dependence of these two spheres is characterized in order to highlight that the desired social order cannot function without any of them. In this respect the article also aims to explain the role that the family plays in society and the happiness achieved by its members. At the same time, it is stressed that the proper functioning of society depends largely on the vision of a man that a given society accepts. By doing this, the limitations of the anthropological assumptions of the dominant neoclassical economics are indicated and discussed. Secondly, the article shows how the family dimension of human life – social in its nature – is intrinsically connected with the issue of happiness. It is important to stress this because to a large extent happiness in economics and different happiness indices seem to limit their analyses to subjective individual well-being. Finally, the article states that although market and family are to an extent complementary, the proper socio-cultural hierarchy and policies based on it should stress the priority of the latter. Evidence of different kinds for such a standpoint is subsequently presented. In the end, the categories of ‘social’ and ‘human’ capital and their correlation is engaged to improve understanding of the fact that a well-functioning family is a necessary condition for the development and long-term flourishing of the market