The Impact of the Economic Transition in Poland on Vulnerable Populations

The economic changes that began with the fall of communism in 1989 have helped Poland to establish one of the strongest economies in Eastern Europe today. Not all parts of society have benefited equally from the positive economic picture however. Those who are unemployed, living on a pension, single parents, or residents of rural communities are at risk of living in poverty in Polands new economic environment. This paper assesses the views of people in these four groups in terms of their perceived need for basic necessities (money for food, rent, and medicine) and for luxury activities (culture, relaxation, and education). The findings have implications for social welfare policies and services in Poland.The authors wish to thank Kazimierz M. Slomczynski for use of the POLPAN data.     

Contending Stories: Narrative in Social Movements

Study of stories and storytelling in social movements can contribute to our understanding of recruitment that takes place outside formal movement organizations; social movement organizations' ability to withstand strategic setbacks; and movements' impacts on mainstream politics. This paper draws on several cases to illuminate the yields of such study and to provide alternatives to the overbroad, uncritical, and astructural understandings of narrative evident in some recent writings. It also urges attention to the role of literary devices in sociological analyses of collective action.     

Women's Employment in Transition, 1992–4: the Case of Poland

Since the early 1990s the Polish economy has, in the move towards a market economy, undergone substantial economic reforms which resulted initially in a severe recession and notably in widespread unemployment. In a country where women have traditionally played a major role in the workforce it is pertinent to ask how their role has been affected during the early years of transition to a market economy, what factors explain this, and what their employment prospects are likely to be in a free market economy. After sketching the key features of women's employment in Poland pre-transition the article then addresses these questions using data drawn mainly from the Labour Force Surveys of 1992 and 1994. It finds that women's labour market position has been changing and in 1994 could be said to be mixed: while on the one hand it seems to be deteriorating (rising rates of inactivity and unemployment, the feminization of part-time work), on the other women seem to have been relatively protected from the worst effects of marketization and are in a better position than men according to some unemployment indicators. Prospects for women's employment under a free market economy also appear to be mixed, with much depending on whether the Polish government introduces a framework of national measures to support and encourage women who enter into paid employment.     

NGOs and Their Vulnerabilities During the Time of Transition: The Case of Poland

This paper focuses on the development of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Poland, as a case study of the sector's development in the Central and Eastern European countries of transition. It is argued that, in this situation, the development and growth of the NGO sector though shaped, as in the West, by a set of legislative, political, economic, cultural, and historical forces, nevertheless is circumscribed by the specific conditions of political transformation. The nature of and the power with which legislative, fiscal, or organizational forces condition the development of the sector varies according to the scale at which they operate (local, national, or international). Moreover, it is argued that the position of NGOs is significantly regulated by the state's political ideology, and the formative and evolving character of the latter translates into instability in states' actions vis-à-vis the nonprofit sector.     

From the Editor: Contending with the Power of Words

Sociological Forum -     

Reflections on the Via Baltica Campaign in Poland

Years of NGO campaigning resulted in the withdrawal of consent for the Via Baltica road to be routed through Bialystok, north-east Poland. In light of the current revision of the Trans-European Transport Network and ongoing environmental campaigns against infrastructure development in Central and Eastern Europe, this profile piece reflects on the Via Baltica campaign in Poland. It identifies three factors crucial to its success: multi-level collaboration, framing of the campaign and the use of both ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ tactics. It argues that in combining these elements, NGOs were not only able to ensure success in the case of the Via Baltica but also set a precedent for future environmental campaigns in the region.     

My Views on Gender Issues in China

I once believed that gender discrimination was not a major issue in China, compared with many other countries. With so many other problems demanding urgent solutions (e.g. poverty, environmental pollution), working on gender issues was like gilding the lily—it was simply a luxury for China at the present stage. My failure to realize the seriousness of the gender problem China derived from at least two aspects. First, Chinese traditional culture emphasizes balance of yin     

Place Effects on Environmental Views

How people respond to questions involving the environment depends partly on individual characteristics. Characteristics such as age, gender, education, and ideology constitute the well‐studied “social bases of environmental concern,” which have been explained in terms of cohort effects or of cognitive and cultural factors related to social position. It seems likely that people's environmental views depend not only on personal characteristics but also on their social and physical environments. This hypothesis has been more difficult to test, however. Using data from surveys in 19 rural U.S. counties, we apply mixed‐effects modeling to investigate simple place effects with respect to locally focused environmental views. We find evidence for two kinds of place effects. Net of individual characteristics, specific place characteristics have the expected effect on related environmental views. Local changes are related to attitudes about regulation and growth. For example, respondents more often perceive rapid development as a problem, and favor environmental rules that restrict development, in rural counties with growing populations. Moreover, they favor conserving resources for the future rather than using them now to create jobs in counties that have low unemployment. After we controlled for county growth, unemployment and jobs in resource‐based industries, and individual social‐position and ideological factors, there remains significant place‐to‐place variation in mean levels of environmental concern. Even with both kinds of place effects in the models, the individual‐level predictors of environmental concern follow patterns expected from previous research. Concern increases with education among Democrats, whereas among Republicans, the relationship is attenuated or reversed. The interaction marks reframing of environmental questions as political wedge issues, through nominally scientific counterarguments aimed at educated, ideologically receptive audiences.     

The Changing Catholicism in Poland

Abstract

When Slavic first began to be studied, it was noticed that several common Indo-European (IE) roots appeared to be lacking, one of which is conventionally believed to be IE *k’uō(n)/k’un- ‘dog.’ Recently, however, it has been the subject of two papers, relating it respectively to Slavic *pьsъ (Hamp 1980), and Slavic *zvon- (Holzer 1991). Hamp proposes that IE *k’uō(n)/k’un- is, in fact, originally derived from IE *pek’u-‘cattle.’ According to such a reconstruction, *k’uō(n)/k’un- would be derived from *pk’uō(n)/pk’un-, a zero-grade of *pek’u-ō(n)/pek’un-, with little semantic difficulty. Meanwhile, Holzer presents a fairly convincing case for a root *zvo-/zvon- ‘dog’ in Common Slavic (< IE *k’uō(n)/k’un-), where the voicing in the initial *z- may be treated as the result of borrowing within his Temematisch framework (< *svo- dog, cf. Lithuanian ?uo - id.). The root *zvon- in Slavic is normally associated with sounds, especially ringing. Holzer includes a comprehensive survey of the semantic issues. Hamp and Holzer are by no means mutually exclusive. Coming down firmly on the side of one or the other is difficult; my own preference would be for a theory that would incorporate them both. Such a theory is developed in this paper.     

Contending masculinities: the gendered (re) negotiation of colonial hierarchy in the United Nations debates on decolonization

The emergence of legal decolonization in the mid-twentieth century, as evidenced by the 1960 United Nations Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, is often understood through the lens of race and the disruption of racial hierarchy. If we take seriously the transnational feminist contention that the colonial racial order was also gendered, however, how might this perspective shift our understanding of decolonization? In this article, I explore the debates on decolonization that take place in the UN General Assembly from 1946–1960 that lead to the 1960 Declaration from a transnational feminist perspective to answer this question. Specifically, I use comparative historical and discourse methods of analysis to explore how colonialists and anti-colonialists negotiate the onset of legal decolonization, focusing especially on how colonialist hierarchies of race, culture, and gender are addressed in these debates. I argue that, on the one hand, colonialists rely on a paternalist masculinity to legitimate their rule (i.e., our dependencies require our rule the way a child requires a father). In response, anti-colonialists reply with a resistance masculinity (i.e., “colonialism is emasculating;” “decolonization is necessary for a return of masculine dignity”). I argue that decolonization in the United Nations transpires via contentions among differentially racialized masculinities. Ultimately, a transnational feminist perspective that centers the intersection of race and gender offers a richer analysis than a perspective that examines race alone.