Karolina Mikołajewska

Jan Szczepański (1913-2004) was a Polish sociologist, who served as President of ISA from 1966 to 1970. He was the first person from the Eastern bloc to occupy this position. His publications appeared in many editions in Poland. His newspaper columns were also highly appreciated and widely discussed. He was not indifferent to public issues, and participated actively in political life, being a Member of the Parliament of the People’s...

It is not the first time that the condition of contemporary Polish academia adorns the pages of Global Dialogue. In GD 2.4 members of the Public Sociology Lab pointed to the neoliberal reforms of the Polish universities[1]. Over the last seven years the Polish system of higher education has undergone major changes, on the grounds that Polish academia must meet world-class standards. While the cause seems to be a noble one and...

With its lively debate on the status of sociology in an unequal world, Global Dialogue 2.2 was the first issue published in Polish. The local editorial team, working together in the student-organized Public Sociology Lab[1], decided to move the global discussion into a more local context. We organized a seminar devoted to the problems raised by Piotr Sztompka and his opponents, as seen from a Polish perspective. The...

In autumn 2011 we founded a student organization called the Public Sociology Lab (in Polish: Koło Naukowe Socjologii Publicznej) affiliated to the Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw. We are students attending undergraduate, graduate, as well as postgraduate courses, who were joined by a common interest in discovering public issues in private troubles, to use C. Wright Mills’ famous phrase. We want to pursue social inquiry that is...