The author remembers the late Andrzej Kojder (1941–2021), a sociologist of law, student of Adam Podgórecki, and specialist in the works of Leon Petrażycki. He describes Kojder as a scholar, social activist, and person with whom he shared generational experiences. In addition to biographical information, the essay touches on the history of sociology at the University of Warsaw.
This article is a methodological commentary regarding surveys on attitudes in Poland to Jews and publications on that research. It is intended to help in interpreting survey results and to prevent conclusions being drawn on insufficient grounds. The article shows some of the problems with interpreting and determining the meaning of survey results. It analyses, in this light, the survey meaning of the word “Jew;” numerical questions and answers; questions about attitudes-like and dislike, closeness and distance; answers expressing belief in Jewish power; and questions and answers in international comparative studies.
The sociology of the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939) is presented as a tradition – a part of the heritage that is positively evaluated and transmitted from generation to generation. The tradition of sociology in Poland dates back to the partition period; it developed in the interwar period of independence and was tested during the Second World War and subsequently in communist times. The basic elements of the tradition are identified in the article and illustrated by the life and work of leading Polish sociologists of the pre-war period.
The paper outlines Polish studies of unemployment in the 1930s-at the times of the well-known study in Marienthal, Austria. They focused on living conditions, social life and psychological well being of the unemployed. They combined various methods and data: statistical data, institutional records, diaries and memoirs, family interviews, and sample surveys. Research started with simple descriptions of life style of the unemployed and ended with an elaborate empirical study, cross-country comparisons and theory of unemployment. The image of unemployment and its consequences was parallel to the Marienthal study results-unemployment caused not only poverty, but also apathy and disintegration of social life. The Marienthal study was known in Poland at the time and to some extent served as an inspiration. The case of Polish unemployment studies in 1930s shows how sociography transformed into sociology. It shows the birth of common method of social research in Central Europe that was so unexpectedly put to a holt by Nazism and the Second World War.
The article addresses a source rarely used by social researchers, namely the inscriptions on wayside crosses in rural settings. Crosses erected “in memory of” preserve social memory and forestall the natural process of oblivion. These inscriptions are the products of social reflection, and express collective representations and the collective opinion of the community. One can deduce the values most important to the community, and those most endangered, from the wording imprinted on the crosses. The preserved inscriptions are all the more valuable as a state of collective consciousness in rural communities has yet to be constructed on the basis of individual testimonies in the form of letters or diaries. The inscriptions on crosses in an area of the Lublin voivodeship, enriched with information gathered regarding the local context, constitute the article’s empirical basis.
Melvin L. Kohn is the author of well-known theory on the relationship between social class, work and personality, supported by sophisticated cross-national research. Kohn’s theory and research make a good example for the sociologists of how sociology should be done and cultivated. Here they are evaluated from the educational perspective.
The 1989–1981 Solidarity revolution took everybody by surprise: the political authorities, the democratic opposition and the observers of social life in Poland. It also took the sociologists by surprise. This essay tries to explain why Polish sociology did not forecast Solidarity. The author argues that the reason for this failure lies in the fact that the birth of Solidarity was a revolutionary, and therefore naturally unpredictable, event. It was also an unprecedented one. It was the first anti-totalitarian revolution. He also points out that major social conflict was unthinkable in the context of mainstream theories and did not fit into Polish sociologists’ ideas concerning their own society. He recognizes that the amazement which Solidarity evoked stimulated reflection which led to a deeper understanding of social process and the nature of prediction in sociology.
In 1899 and 1907, Polish patriotic circles contacted well-known European and American intellectuals and politicians, asking them to express themselves on the subject of independence for Poland, which was then divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria. Emile Durkheim responded to both requests. The present article comments on these mostly unknown texts by Durkheim. The replies sent by Ferdinand Tönnies, Vilfredo Pareto and other scholars in the social sciences are also briefly discussed.
Badania zespołu Samuela Stouffera nad armią amerykańską w czasie II wojny światowej i książka "The American Soldier" (1949–1950) odegrały ważną rolę w rozwoju i instytucjonalizacji empirycznych badań społecznych w Stanach Zjednoczonych i w innych krajach. W artykule opisano recepcję i wpływ tej książki na socjologię daleko od USA – w Polsce. Oprócz opisu historycznego artykuł zawiera także materiał do uogólniającej analizy dyfuzji idei socjologicznych.
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The study conducted by Samuel Stouffer and his team in the US Army during the World War II is generally considered to be a founding research of empirical sociology. The book "The American Soldier" (1949–1950) played a major role in the process of development and institutionalization of empirical social research. Joseph Ryan’s monograph Samuel Stouffer and the GI Survey (2013) analyzes the history and reception of this research and the book in the United States. This paper goes one small step further. It investigates the reception and impact of this book far away from the US: in Poland. Apart from its purely descriptive value, this paper provides an analysis of the diffusion of sociological innovation.
Podręczniki metodologii badań sondażowych uczą pobierać reprezentacyjne próby, układać pytania, zadawać je respondentom oraz zliczać i analizować odpowiedzi. Nie ma natomiast podręczników interpretacji odpowiedzi, określenia znaczenia uzyskanych wyników, odnoszenia ich do pojęć, które konstruują doświadczenie. Można się tego uczyć, analizując przypadki badań i interpretacji. W pracy pokazano problemy określania znaczenia wyników badań ankietowych. Wykorzystano prowadzone w Polsce w latach 1967–2011 badania nad postawami wobec Żydów. Rozważono kolejno znaczenie występującego w kwestionariuszach sondażowych słowa „Żydzi”, problemy z określaniem znaczenia pytań i odpowiedzi numerycznych, pytań o postawy – sympatię i niechęć, bliskość i dystans, odpowiedzi wyrażających przekonania o władzy Żydów oraz problem znaczenia pytań i odpowiedzi w międzykrajowych badaniach porównawczych.
EN
Handbooks of survey research methodology tell how to draw representative samples, formulate questions, ask respondents, and how to count and analyse answers. However, there are no handbooks that teach how to interpret answers, determine meaning of results, and relate them to concepts that construct experience. One can only learn it by studying cases and exemplars. The article addresses problems of determining meaning of survey research results. It uses research on attitudes toward Jews conducted in Poland in years 1967–2011. The author deals with the meaning of the word „Jews” used in questionnaires, analyses problems with determining meaning of questions and numeric answers, looks into questions concerning attitudes – sympathy and aversion, proximity and distance, discusses answers showing convictions about power of Jews and answers in cross-country survey research.