50th anniversary of the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University

Krakow, February 18, 2020

February 18, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

Exactly half a century ago, by the decision of the Minister of Education and Higher Education, by order on the organizational structure of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University was established at the then Faculty of Philosophy and History - it was created by merging the Department of General Ethnography and Sociology and the Department of Sociology and Demography. Its first Director was Professor Władysław Kwaśniewicz, who held this position for two terms (in the years 1970-1978). In the following years, the directors were: Professor Piotr Sztompka, Professor Andrzej K. Paluch, Professor Tadeusz Borkowski, Professor Zdzisław Mach, Professor Krzysztof Frysztacki, Professor Marian Niezgoda, Professor Marek Kucia and (now) Professor Marcin Lubaś.

Over the past half century, the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University has been developing dynamically, constantly enriching the educational offer responding to the needs and expectations of the changing world, implementing important scientific and research projects, educating young people in the spirit of responsibility, openness to the world and world-wide diversity, and preparing them to be active in the labor market and in the social world, developing cooperation with the local community and numerous partners in the international network.

Today, the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University is one of the leading sociological centers in Poland. An open and modern place. Each year, we host scientists, researchers and practitioners from many countries in Europe and the world, students and doctoral students studying here under national and international educational programs, participants of scientific conferences, seminars and training courses.

We are a community of students, PhD students, employees who share a constant interest in the world, willingness to act, sociological imagination and, above all, passion!

Emphasizing the significant achievements of the past decades, today we undertake the commitment of further development for our Institute, the local community and the world of science. Remembering our history and thinking about the future, today we begin the celebration of the Jubilee of our Institute of Sociology.

We send heartfelt greetings to all people associated with the Institute over the years!

50 years on Grodzka Street

Exactly fifty years ago, at the turn of August and September 1971, our sociology moved to Grodzka Street. In a practical sense, the then MA in Sociology Marian Niezgoda was responsible - he did bravely.

First a few details from that time. We moved (I signal "we", as I personally was between the third and fourth years of my studies) from the previous two very small premises. One of them was located on the second floor at ul. Straszewskiego 27, there was also the "headquarters". The second, on the first floor at ul. Gołębia 14. Imagine that our current rooms mean a multiplication (at least six times) of the surfaces added to each other. This already shows how modest those earlier conditions were.

Of course, our past fifty years on Grodzka Street were filled with various cases and events. Let me mention three in a completely free, actually chaotic way.

First, first, the director's office was in room 52, and the secretary's office in room 51. It was not until some time later that there was an exchange that settled the order that still existed.

Secondly, a unique "set design" during the famous 1980/81 carnival. Numerous posters, statements, certificates of all kinds. The walls of the Institute were literally flooded with them. Neither before nor after anything like that was and probably will not be. I stopped by us a few days ago; this, so to speak, dignified emptiness.

Thirdly, a few years later (I do not remember the exact date, but probably still in the first half of the 1980s) a serious fire broke out, which destroyed a large part of the enfilade, mainly the present seat of the Department of Applied Sociology and Social Work. Fortunately, no one suffered any health damage and the losses were slowly removed.

The Institute is, above all, people. Consequently, let me remind you of a very interesting and still needed article by Professor Andrzej Paluch, with the most obvious title: "Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University" (Scientific Papers of the Jagiellonian University, Papers of Sociology, issue 13, 1989). I would like to emphasize with great appreciation that Andrzej in a very meticulous and accurate manner indicated, among others, dozens of people, variously, even briefly, associated with our institution. He has done something that uniquely contributes to our history.

Would anyone, after many years, be ready to take on a similar task? Points for this shouldn't be expected, but it's not all that is about it, it's also worth it

I cordially greet you and wish you good luck in the very upcoming new academic year!

Krzysztof Frysztcki

Professor Kazimierz Dobrowolski (1894 - 1987) - full professor of sociology and ethnography at the Jagiellonian University and full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His scientific activity is located in the field of sociology and ethnology. Until 1965, he headed the Department of Sociology and Ethnology of the Jagiellonian University, which in 1970 became one of the two scientific institutions that created the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University.

He was the creator of the so-called integral method. His disciples include, among others, Professor Władysław Kwaśniewicz (the first director of the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University, died in 2004) and Professor Piotr Sztompka.

Professor Kazimierz Dobrowolski was one of those arrested on November 6, 1939 during the Aktion gegen Universitäts-Professoren, commonly known as Sonderaktion Krakau.

The head of the Main Department of Population and Social Welfare of the General Government, Dr. Fritz Arlt, proposed to the three arrested scientists: Jerzy Smoleński, Kazimierz Stołyhwa and Kazimierz Dobrowolski, dismissal in exchange for signing a declaration of non-political activity and probably consenting to work for the benefit of the Germans. They all refused to.¹

Professor Dobrowolski was imprisoned in the concentration camp in Sachsenhausen near Berlin, from which he was released on February 8, 1940. He returned to Krakow, where he conducted a secret university seminar. After the war, he returned to work at the Jagiellonian University.

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¹ I. Paczyńska, Krakowski i wrocławski etap Sonderaktion Krakau, Alma Mater. Miesięcznik Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, special issue 188, November 2016.

Professor Paweł Rybicki (1902 - 1988) - sociologist, historian of science. The author of publications such as: Aristotle. Beginnings and foundations of the science of society, Urban society, Structure of the social world.

He headed the Department of Sociology and Demography of the Jagiellonian University, and then the Department of General Sociology at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University.

Professor Andrzej Waligórski - anthropologist, linguist, student of Bronisław Malinowski. He conducted field research in Kenya, East Africa, where he studied Luo primitive society.

The author of publications such as The Anthropological Concept of Man (1973), Studies on the Territorial and Family Ties of the East African Luo Tribe (1963), Implications of Theoretical and Ethnographic Field Studies (1969).

He headed the Department of Sociology of Culture and Education at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University.

Professor Wanda Czarkowska (1911 - 1992) - philosopher, sociologist, demographer. From 1968 employed as a senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Demography, from 1973 head of the Demographic Laboratory at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University.

The author of publications such as: Types of age structures of the population of the Krakow region (Ossolineum, 1968), Demographic forecasts - selected issues (Ossolineum 1974). In the years 1976-1979 she was the Deputy Director of the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University.

A graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University (she obtained her MA in Philosophy in 1934). Until the outbreak of World War II, and in the post-war period (until 1948), she taught mathematics at the Adam Mickiewicz Secondary School in Krakow. In the years 1939-1945 she was actively involved in didactic work in 4 secret teaching centers in Krakow.

In the years 1948-1968, as the leader of demography teams, successively in: the Regional Office of the Central Planning Office, the Provincial Economic Planning Commission and the Regional Planning Department, she participated in the work of nationwide commissions developing forecasting and planning methods in demography, and in the years 1965-68 she acted as chairwoman of a team of experts in the field of demography and employment in the Planning Committee of the Council of Ministers. From the 1954/55 academic year, she conducted classes in demography at the Pedagogical University in Krakow and at the Krakow University of Technology, and from 1965/66 - at the Department of Sociology and Demography of the Jagiellonian University.

In 1965 she obtained a doctorate in humanities at the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the Jagiellonian University. Her doctoral dissertation, written under the supervision of prof. Paweł Rybicki, was the basis for the monograph published in print - "Types of age structures of the population of the Krakow region" (Ossolineum, 1968). In 1968, she became a full-time employee of the Jagiellonian University as a senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Demography. In 1973 she became the head of the Demographic Laboratory at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University. She obtained the postdoctoral degree in demography (habilitation thesis entitled Demographic forecasts - selected issues ~ Ossolineum 1974) in 1975. In the years 1976-1979 (until retirement) she was the deputy director of the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University.

She was a nationally recognized demographer, member of the Committee on Demographic Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as an outstanding teacher. Her knowledge and teaching skills are largely due to the high position of the demography department at the sociological studies at the Jagiellonian University. She was also, which should be especially emphasized, an unquestionable moral authority, both for the employees of the Institute of Sociology and for students.

Professor Władysław Kwaśniewicz (1926 - 2004) -  the founder of the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University, in the years 1970-1978 he was the Director of the Institute.

A student of Professor Kazimierz Dobrowolski, he developed research on the border of sociology and ethnology, focusing primarily on the issues of transformations in rural areas. He promoted about 250 MA and thirteen Doctors. Eight of his pupils obtained the degree of habilitated Doctor. He sat in the authorities, incl. Polish Folklore Society, Polish Sociological Society and the Committee of Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has published over 120 scientific papers.

Professor Andrzej Paluch (1944 - 2006) - sociologist and social anthropologist, founder of the Department of Social Anthropology at the Jagiellonian University, in 1988-90 Director of the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University.

Professor Jacek Szmatka (1950 - 2001) - sociologist, specialist in the field of microsociology, theory and research of experimental group processes and general methodology of social sciences. The founder and Head of the Laboratory of Microsociology, which in 1996 was transformed into the Department of Group Processes Research at the Jagiellonian University.

He lectured, among others at State University of New York, Stanford University, University of Washington, University of South Carolina

The author of over 60 articles (mainly in English) and co-author and co-editor of Polish and foreign publications.

Professor Andrzej Flis (1953 - 2009) - sociologist, long-term employee of the Institute of Sociology at the Jagiellonian University, founder and head of the Department of Comparative Civilization Studies at the Jagiellonian University.

His research interests concerned a wide range of issues - the sociology of culture, the theory of civilization, the history of early Christianity, the history of European civilization and cultural changes taking place within it, as well as the specificity of the cultures of the Far East.

The author of, among others, books such as The Antinomies of the Great Vision. A Critique of Marx's Theory of History (1990), Christianity and Europe: Studies in the History of Western Civilization (2001), Forgotten Brothers: The Dying World of Middle Eastern Christians (2004, with B. Kowalska).

Professor Zygmunt Seręga (d. 2014) - focused his research on local development issues. A pioneer of research on the sociological aspects of tourism. In the 1980s, he co-authored (together with Lucjan Kocik) a research program on changes in farming families in southern Poland.

A long-time lecturer in the field of sociology of tourism both at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University and in the field of geography at the Jagiellonian University. The author of a fundamental work on the factors of local development, published by the Jagiellonian University Publishing House in 1993, in which the extended case method was applied.

Selected book publications

• Młode pokolenie wsi III Rzeczypospolitej. Aspiracje życiowe w przeddzień integracji z Unią Europejską, Instytut Spraw Publicznych, Warszawa 2003 (with K. Gorlach, Z. Drąg).
• Czynniki rozwoju lokalnego. Studium socjologiczne wybranych społeczności wiejskich, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków 1993.
• Chłopi we współczesnej Polsce: Przedmiot czy podmiot procesów społecznych? PWN, Kraków 1991 (with K. Gorlach).
• Problemy funkcjonowania gospodarstw indywidualnych w warunkach wysokotowarowej produkcji rolnej. Studium socjologiczne gminy Głogówek, Opole 1985 (with L. Kocik).
• Konflikty społeczne w Polsce w okresie zmian systemowych, Wyd. WSP, Rzeszów 2000, T. I i II (with M.Malikowski).
• Oblicza społeczeństwa, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków 1996 (with K. Gorlach).
• Family farming in the contemporary world. East-West comparisons, Kraków 1995 (with K. Gorlach).
• Wieś polska w procesach transformacji ustrojowej, Kraków 1993, Uniwersytet Jagielloński (with K. Gorlach).

Professor Lucjan Kocik - focused his research on rural areas. They concern the transformation of farming families and local communities. In the first half of the 1980s, he conducted (together with Zygmunt Seręga) a research program on the transformation of family farms in selected rural communities in southern Poland. Scholarship holder of the American Council of Learned Societies, conducting a research program on farmers of Polish descent in Wisconsin (USA).

Author of many works on the transformation of farming families and a textbook on family sociology, published in 2006 by the Krakow Educational Society.

Selected publications

• Rodzina w obliczu wartości i wzorów życia ponowoczesnego świata, Kraków: Krakowskie Towarzystwo Edukacyjne 2006.
• Wzory małżeństwa i rodziny. Od tradycyjnej jednorodności do współczesnych skrajności, Kraków: Acta Academiae Modrevianae 2002.
• Trauma i eurosceptyzm polskiej wsi, Kraków: Universitas 2001.
• Między przyrodą, zagrodą i społeczeństwem. Społeczno - kulturowe problemy ekologii wsi i rolnictwa, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego 2000.
• Rodzina – Społeczeństwo – ład moralny, Kraków: TUL, Vol. 3, 1993.
• Polski farmer w Ameryce. Studium przypadku stanu Wisconsin w USA, Kraków: Ossolineum 1990.
• Rodzina chłopska w procesie modernizowania się wsi polskiej, Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński 1986.
• Badania rodziny chłopskiej jako element kształtowania polityki społecznej w Makroregionie Południowo – Wschodnim, Kraków: PAN 1985.
• [together with:] Zygmunt Seręga, Problemy funkcjonowania gospodarstw indywidualnych w warunkach wysokotowarowej produkcji rolnej. Studium socjologiczne gminy Głogówek, Opole: Instytut Śląski w Opolu 1985.
• Przeobrażenia funkcji współczesnej rodziny wiejskiej, Kraków: Ossolineum 1976.