“Urbanology” — the term used in the title of the book Towards urbanology by the architect Stanisław Lose from Wrocław — refers to his idea of “afield of knowledge whose main subject is aman in an urbanised world”. Therefore urbanology is opposed to urbanistics, which — according to Lose — is more interested in economy, transportation or spatial planning than in people. The author of Towards urbanology strongly appreciates the medieval model of town — and its more freedom-oriented, and creativity-oriented, continuation in later ages. The author is also very impressed by the historical role of christianity as the cultural integrator of urban societies. But Lose’s book is only apretext for briefly describing the contemporary history of the traditionalist current in urbanism and enthusiastic opinions about the Middle Ages expressed by such different authors as René Guénon, Peter Kropotkin or G.K. Chesterton. Nowadays the so-called neomedivalism tries to interpret the current cultural, political and administrative diversity of Europe as anew version of the multi-level and polycentric order associated with the Middle Ages. But neomedievalism and urbanistic traditionalism raise some questions — for example those about the limits of being inspired by the Middle Ages, about the economy of the neomedieval model of town or about the relationship between the notion of the so-called living tradition in urbanism and architecture on the one hand — and historical styles on the other.
Stanisław Pietraszko, the founder of the Wrocław school of cultural studies, argued that, while a part of the humanities might be roughly described as a quest for knowledge, there is also a different style of humanistic inquiry which he called the non-cognitive humanities, characterized as expressive, creative and valuative, nevertheless requiring knowledge about the human world. Normative poetics and religious texts are the examples of this kind of the humanities. Not long before his death, Pietraszko managed only to sketch this idea without giving any hints on how to practice or study the non-cognitive humanities. This paper attempts to apply Pietraszko’s concept in order to analyse Zygmunt Bauman’s Culture as Praxis and its ideological context. Bauman, openly declaring himself a socialist, encourages us to liberate ourselves from various social oppressions. The ultimate goal of his work is not only to state what the world is but to evaluate and, following Marx, to change it. In this respect Bauman’s writings’ affinity to the non-cognitive humanities seems rather indisputable. Moreover, this text deals with more general questions on the non-cognitive humanities, their relations to culture and the possible future directions in research on this topic.
Is there a Polish equivalent of post-developmentalism, which is a concept amongst development theories and practices contesting the whole idea of development in favour of the return to local traditions? How might it be expressed and what are examples of its possible usage? Is it possible for the analysis of urban myths and narratives to be translated into a development policy? What are new theoretical challenges of post-developmentalism? The paper explores these issues employing the example of three projects undertaken in Wrocław and Lower Silesia: Wrocław 2036/56 Social Foresight, the Wrocław 2030 Strategy and the City Reading. Two were conducted as a part of the European Capital of Culture 2016 celebrations. At the same time, the paper notes expressions of the cultural turn in Polish discussions on development. The article also draws attention to the eclecticism of the newest development strategies in the big Polish cities, which may be an indicator of a crisis in thinking about future – evidenced by the lack of bold visions.