Institutional constraints and creative solutions: Civil society in Poland in comparative perspective

Kerstin Jacobsson, Professor, sociolog, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper, Södertörns högskola, projektledare.

Jolanta Aidukaite, Docent, sociolog, Mykolas Romeris-universitetet, Litauen.

Renata Hryciuk, Fil dr, socialantropolog, Polska Vetenskapsakademin och Warsawa universitet, Polen.

Elzbieta Korolczuk, Fil dr, sociolog, Polska Vetenskapsakademin och Södertörns högskola.

Dominika Polanska, Fil dr, sociolog, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper, Södertörns högskola.

Steven Saxonberg, Professor, sociolog, Mazaryk-universitetet, Tjeckien.

 

Projektbeskrivning

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Projektet studerar förutsättningarna för civilsamhällelig mobilisering och kollektiva påverkansstrategier i Polen, men sätter också Polen i perspektiv genom jämförelser med några av dess grannländer: Tjeckien, Litauen och Sverige.

Projektet inbegriper bl.a. fallstudier av urbana rörelser och mobiliseringar kring boendefrågor, mobiliseringar kring föräldraskap, samt miljö- och djurrättsaktivism.

Vi vill problematisera bilden av det svaga civilsamhället i Polen och andra postkommunistiska länder. En utgångspunkt är att civilsamhället i denna samhällskontext fungerar delvis annorlunda än i Västeuropa men vår tes är att det är mer dynamiskt än tidigare forskning brukar hävda. Att kartlägga denna dynamik är en av projektets målsättningar.

Mer precist är projektets syfte att genom kvalitativa fallstudier av medborgerliga mobiliseringar och sociala rörelser studera och jämföra förutsättningarna för civilsamhällelig mobilisering, kollektiva påverkansstrategier och deras resultat, dvs. framgångar eller misslyckande. De kollektiva handlingsformerna analyseras i relation till det omgivande samhället och rådande ekonomiska, politiska, juridiska, sociala och kulturella förhållanden. En gemensam tematik i delstudierna är hur gränsen mellan offentligt och privat förhandlas i civilsamhället och vad detta betyder för möjligheterna till kollektivt handlande.

Project description

The project examines the conditions for mobilization of civil society and for collective action strategies in Poland. Poland is also put in perspective by comparisons with some of its neighboring countries: the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Sweden.

The project includes among other things studies of urban movements and mobilizations around housing issues, mobilizations around parenthood, but also environmental and animal rights activism.

We would like to problematize the conventional view of the weak civil society in Poland and other post-communist societies. One of our points of departure is that civil society in this context partly works in a different manner than in Western Europe but our hypothesis is that it is more dynamic than previous research states. One of our goals in this project is to capture this dynamic.

More specifically, the aim of the project is to study and compare the conditions for mobilization of civil society, collective action strategies and their outcomes, that is, their successes and failures, by conducting qualitative case studies of civil mobilizations and social movements. The forms of collective action are analyzed in relation to the surrounding society and the prevalent economic, political, juridical, social and cultural conditions. A common theme in the sub-projects is how the divide between public and private is negotiated in civil society and what implications it has for the opportunities for collective action.

Books

Hryciuk, R. & E. Korolczuk (eds) (2012) Pożegnanie z Matką Polką? [Farewell to the Polish Mother?] Warsaw: Warsaw University Press.

Hryciuk R. & E. Korolczuk (eds) (2014) Niebezpieczne związki. Macierzyństwo, ojcostwo i polityka [Dangerous Liaisons. Motherhood, Fatherhood and Politics. Dangerous Liaisons. Warsaw: Warsaw University Press.

Fabian, K. and E. Korolczuk (eds) (in press) Rebellious Parents. Parental Movements in CEE and Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Jacobsson, K. (ed) (2015) Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.

Jacobsson and E. Korolczuk (eds) (work in progress) The Challenge of Collective Action. New Perspectives on Civil Society and Social Activism in Contemporary Poland. Book manuscript.

Jacobsson, K. and S. Saxonberg (eds) (2015) Social Movements in Post-communist Europe and Russia. London: Routledge.[Based on a special issue of East European Politics]

Jacobsson, K. and S. Saxonberg (eds) (2013) Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.

Editorship of Special issues of peer-reviewed journals

Jacobsson, K. and S. Saxonberg (eds) (2012) Symposium section on ’A New Look at Social Movements and Civil Society in Post-Communist Russia and Poland’, East European Politics, nr 4 2012.

Peer-reviewed articles

Aidukaite, J. (2013) ‘Community Mobilizations around Housing and Local Environment: Insights into the Case of Vilnius’, Sociologija. Mintis ir veiksmas 1 (32): 136-151. http://www.vu.lt/leidyba/dokumentai/zurnalai/SOCIOLOGIJA/Sociologija.%20Mintis%20ir%20veiksmas%20%202013%20132/136-151.pdf

Aidukaite, J. (2014) “Housing policy regime in Lithuania: towards liberalization and marketization”, GeoJournal: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-014-9529-y

Jacobsson, K. (2012) “Fragmentation of the collective action space: The animal rights movement in Poland”, East European Politics, 28(4), 353-370.

Jacobsson, K. and S. Saxonberg (2012) Introduction: A New Look at Social Movements and Civil Society in Postcommunist Europe and Russia, East European Politics, 28(4), 329-331.

Korolczuk, E. and S. Saxonberg (2014) “Strategies of contentious action: a comparative analysis of the women’s movements in Poland and the Czech Republic”, European Societies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2014.977321

Korolczuk, E. (2014) “Ruchy społeczne a płeć – perspektywa intersekcjonalna. Kongres Kobiet i ruch na rzecz przywrócenia Funduszu Alimentacyjnego” [Social movements and gender – intersectional analysis. The Congress of Women and the Alimony Fund movement], Kultura i społeczeństwo, 1, 97-120.

Korolczuk, E. (2014) “Terms of Engagement. Re-Defining Identity and Infertility On-line”, Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, 6 (22): 431-449.

Korolczuk, E. (2013) “IVF as a threat to the nation. The debate on assisted reproduction in contemporary Poland”, Gendernyi Zhurnal Ya, 3 (34), 33-36.

Korolczuk, E. (2014) ”Promoting civil society in Poland: Gendered results of institutional changes”, Voluntas, Vol. 25, nr 4, 949-967.

Polanska, D.V. (2013) Gated housing as a reflection of public-private divide. Polish Sociological Review, 1, 181: 87-102.

Polanska, D.V. (2013) Skiljelinjen mellan det offentliga och det privata: förklaringarna bakom inhägnade bostadsområdenas popularitet i Polen. Nordisk Östforum, 27, 1, 7-30.

Polanska, D.V. (2014) Urban Policy and the Rise of Gated Housing in Post-Socialist Poland. GeoJournal, Vol. 79, (4): 407-419, DOI 10.1007/s10708-014-9532-3.

Polanska, D.V. (2014) Cognitive dimension in cross-movement alliances: the case of squatting and tenants’ movements in Warsaw. Interface: a journal for and about social movements, 6, 2: 328 – 356.

Polanska, D.V. & Piotrowski, G. (2015) The transformative power of cooperation between social movements: the case of squatting and tenants’ movements in Poland. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 19, (2 –3): 208 –230.

Tsenkova, S. & Polanska, D.V. (2014) Between State and Market: Housing Policy and Housing Transformation in Post-Socialist Cities. GeoJournal, Vol. 79, (4): 401-405.

Book chapters

Aidukaite, J. & K. Jacobsson (2015) Europeanisation and Urban Movements: Political Opportunities of Community Organizations in Lithuania, in Kerstin Jacobsson (ed) Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, Farnham: Ashgate, 247-272.

Hryciuk, R. and E. Korolczuk (in press) The Polish Father Takes to the Streets: Fathers’ Rights Activism in a Post-Socialist Context in Katalin Fabian and Elżbieta Korolczuk (eds) Rebellious Parents. Parental Movements in CEE and Russia, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Hryciuk, R. and Korolczuk E. (2014) Konteksty upolitycznienia macierzyństwa i ojcostwa we współczesnej Polsce [On politicization of motherhood and fatherhood in contemporary Poland in Renata Hryciuk and Elżbieta Korolczuk (eds) Motherhood, Fatherhood and Politics. Dangerous Liaisons, Warsaw: Warsaw University Press.

Hryciuk, R. and Korolczuk E. (2013) At the intersection of gender and class: social mobilization around mothers’ rights in Poland, in Kerstin Jacobsson and Steven Saxonberg (eds) Beyond NGO-ization: The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, Farnham: Ashgate, 49-70.

Hryciuk, R. and Korolczuk E. (2012) Wstęp. Pożegnanie z Matką Polką [Research on mothering and motherhood in Poland – a critical review] in Renata Hryciuk and Elżbieta Korolczuk (eds) Farewell to the Polish Mother? Warsaw: Warsaw University Press, 7-26.

Jacobsson, K. (2015) Introduction: The Development of Urban Movements in Central and Eastern Europe, in K. Jacobsson (ed) Urban Grassroots Movemens in Central and Eastern Europe, Farnham: Ashgate, 1-32.

Jacobsson, K. (2015) Conclusion: Towards a New Research Agenda, in K. Jacobsson (ed) Urban Grassroots Movemens in Central and Eastern Europe, Farnham: Ashgate, 273-287.

Jacobsson, K. (2015) Fragmentation of the collective action space: The animal rights movement in Poland, in: Jacobsson, K. and S. Saxonberg (eds) (2014) Social Movements in Post-communist Europe and Russia. London: Routledge, 47-64.

Jacobsson, K. (2013) “Channeling and enrollment: The institutional shaping of animal rights activism in Poland”, in: K. Jacobsson & S. Saxonberg (eds) Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, 27-47.

Jacobsson, K. & Saxonberg, S. (2013) “Introduction: The development of social movements in Central and Eastern Europe” in: K. Jacobsson & S. Saxonberg (eds) Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, 1-25.

Jacobsson, K. & Saxonberg, S. (2013) “Conclusion”, in: K. Jacobsson & S. Saxonberg (eds) Beyond NGO-ization. The Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate, 255-264.
Korolczuk, E. (2015) Those Who Are Full Can Never Understand the Hungry: Challenging the Meaning of Infertility in Poland in Aidan McGarry and James Jasper (eds) The Identity Dilemma, Temple Press.

Korolczuk, E. (2014) Niepłodność, tożsamość, obywatelstwo. Analiza społecznej mobilizacji wokół dostępu do in vitro w Polsce. [Infertility, identity, citizenship. The analysis of social mobilization around IVF in Poland] in Magdalena Radkowska-Walkowicz and Hubert Wierciński (eds) Etnografie biomedycyny [Etnographies of biomedicine] Warsaw: Warsaw University Press, 67-90.

Korolczuk, E. (2013) ’Wystarczy in vitro, aby zniknęły całe narody’. Analiza wybranych strategii retorycznych oponentów in vitro w Polsce. [’IVF alone will make the nations perish. Analysis of rhetoric strategies of IVF opponents in Poland] in Gender Democracy Dossier, Warsaw: Heinrich Boell Fundation.

Korolczuk, E. (2013) Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTS) and nationalistic discourse in Poland, in Materials of the Second International Gender Workshop Overcoming Gender Backlash: Experiences of Ukraine, Bielarus, Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Poland. Heinrich Boell Fundation, 26-32.

Korolczuk, E. (accepted with revisions) ‘We are no second-rate citizens’. Reproductive technologies and new formulations of citizenship in the post-communist context in Teresa Kulawik et al (eds) Happy Futures between East and West? Disturbing Differences in European Gender Studies, Routledge.

Piotrowski, G. 2015. The ’Other’ Democratization in Poland: The Case Environmental Protection Movement. In Democratization Through Social Activism edited by I. Vlad & K. Fabian. Bucharest: TRITONIC, 235-260.

Polanska, D.V. (2015) Alliance-building and Brokerage in Contentious Politics: Polish tenants’ movement as a case study. In: Jacobsson, K. (Ed.) Urban Grassroots Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Farnham: Ashgate.

Polanska, D.V. (forthcoming) Neoliberal models of post-socialist urban transformation and the emergence of urban social movements in Poland. In Mayer, M. et al. (Eds.) Urban Uprisings: Challenging the neoliberal city in Europe. Palgrave Macmillan.

Polanska, D.V. (forthcoming) Marginalizing discourses and activists’ strategies in collective identity formation: The case of Polish tenants’ movement. In Jacobsson, K. & Korolczuk, E. (Eds.) The Challenge of Collective Action. New Perspectives on Civil Society and Social Activism in Contemporary Poland. Book manuscript.

Korolczuk, Elżbieta (forthcoming 2013) ”Promoting civil society in Poland: Gendered results of institutional changes”, Voluntas.

Polanska, Dominika V. (2013) Post-socialist civil society and the emergence of grassroots mobilizations. Baltic Worlds, Vol. VII (September)

Polanska, Dominika V. (2013) Gated housing as a reflection of public-private divide. Polish Sociological Review, 1, 181: 87-102.

Aidukaite, Jolanta (2013) Community Mobilizations Around Housing and Local Environment: Insights into the Case of Vilnius. Sociologija. Mintis ir Veiksmas 1 (32).

Aidukaite, Jolanta (submitted, undergoing peer review) Explaining Community Mobilizations in the Post-Communist City of Vilnius: A Search for Social Capital. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Aidukaite, Jolanta (submitted, undergoing peer review) Housing Policy Regime in Lithuania. International Journal of Housing Policy.

Events

International conference on ”The Challenge of Collective Action: New Perspectives on Civil Society and Social Activism in Contemporary Poland”, October 18-19 2013.

» See call for papers in attachment (pdf)

Key note speaker: Grzegorz Ekiert, Harvard University: ”Still Rebellious? Civil Society Transformation in Poland”.

Conference Venue: Warsaw University
Conference organizers: Kerstin Jacobsson, Elzbieta Korolczuk, Slawomir Mandes.

Edited Volume and Research Workshop, Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden, June 2014.

» See call for contributions in attachment (pdf)

Organizers: Elzbieta Korolczuk, Katalin Fabian.