Transformation In Poland Research Articles

Zagospodarowanie użytków rolnych na zabudowanych terenach mieszkaniowych aglomeracji poznańskiej

Artykuł porusza kwestię sposobu zagospodarowania użytków rolnych pozostałych na zabudowanych terenach mieszkaniowych aglomeracji poznańskiej. Poprzez identyfikację zabudowanych działek budowlanych, na których zgodnie z zapisami ewidencji gruntów i budynków, nadal znajdują się fragmenty użytków rolnych oraz inwentaryzację faktycznego sposobu ich użytkowania wykazano, że grunty te w zdecydowanej większości nie są użytkowane rolniczo, a wykorzystywane przede wszystkim jako tzw. tereny zielone, tj. głównie trawniki i tereny rekreacyjne, którym towarzyszą obce gatunkowo nasadzenia. Potwierdzono tym samym powszechnie obserwowany zanik występowania tradycyjnego ogrodu wiejskiego.

Changes in populationdensity of the urban population in southern Poland in the period 1950-2011 against the background of political and economic transformation

AbstractThis paper presents the changes in urban population density in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in an area of approximately 20,000 km2in southern Poland, which includes close to 100 towns and cities with a population of almost 4.5 million (in 2011) and an urbanisation index over 70%. It is the most urbanised part of Poland and includes the Cracow agglomeration and the Upper Silesian conurbation. The analysis was performed using one of the statistical methods for estimating discrete distributions, thekernel functionmethod. The conclusions served as a basis for the presentation of changes occurring in this area against the backdrop of political and economic transformation in Poland, as well as a scientific discussion concerning the state and future of the merging of these agglomerations in the light of the factors discussed.

Wokół „Patologii transformacji” Witolda Kieżuna — uwagi krytyczne

On Witold Kieżun’s Pathology of Transformation — Critical RemarksIn the first half of the 1970s Witold Kieżun, basing on the contributions of the Polish school of praxiology, presented his theory of pathology of organization. Recently in the book on pathology of transformation he attempted — in my view, unsuccessfully — to apply this theory to the analysis and evaluation of the process of systemic and especially economic transformation in Poland. In this paper I try to present apartial critique of his position. First, the theory of pathology organization, that is reconstructed in the first chapter of his last book, is largely incompatible with market conditions and as such it impedes the understanding of the working of organizations within the framework of market calculative environment — because of it I point to some defects of the said theory. Second, this theory has little in common with later description of pathology of transformation, that is based not on the theory of praxeology, but on the ideology of neocolonialism — therefore I present also acritique of basic propositions of this ideology. Third, Iindicate, basing on some case studies, that Kieżun’s selection of data in the description of privatization processes is largely biased — consid­ering the wider context allows us to understand that the scale of “pathologies” during privatization had to be much smaller than is suggested in the book. Fourth, Ipoint out that vague alternative pre­sented by Kieżun does not take into account the realities of transformation, although — as is implied in many passages of the book — he was well aware of them.

Ageing in place: residential satisfaction in Polish housing-estate communities

ABSTRACTDuring the period of economic and political transformations in Poland, considerable changes occurred in large housing estates, while demographic transformation and housing-stock ageing starting to aggravate social and spatial problems. The serious issue currently dominating such estates concerns the process of natural ageing of the housing stock and residential ageing which is associated with the reduction of residential mobility and demographic ageing of people living in the large housing estates. This paper intends to identify ageing of the estates’ population in the context of the evaluation of residential life quality. The authors concentrated on analysis of 2002 and 2011 statistical data, as well as data collected during their field surveys conducted in 2010–2012. Detailed studies were carried out on seven estates in five cities and towns in Poland (Kraków, Poznań, Tarnów, Żyrardów and Dzierżoniów). To identify the residential standard and quality of life, surveys were conducted on housing estates which allowed the researchers to establish the essential factors which determined the level of satisfaction of older people with regard to their place of residence. The authors also determined the course of changes in the perception of particular aspects of life quality in the process of residents’ ageing in the selected places of residence.

Pathways into the past: framing the Polish People's Republic in two recent road films (Ida and Ticket to the Moon)

ABSTRACTThe article offers a comparative genre-oriented discussion of two recent Polish feature films that stand out from the growing body of Polish road cinema, namely Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida (2013) and Jacek Bromski's Bilet na księżyc/Ticket to the Moon (2013). Set in 1960s Poland, both productions combine the narrative format of a buddy road movie with a coming-of-age story and make the main character's transformative journey through the People's Republic lead up to a retreat from life under state socialism. On the one hand, this disjunctive ending prefigures the break with the communist system of the late 1980s and reflects the widespread (cinematic) consensus about the desirability of the current sociopolitical order over the previous one. On the other hand, the third-act countermovement on which both films close is embedded in a different approach towards the communist past and the post-communist present: whereas the story of frustrated self-realisation depicted in Ticket to the Moon indirectly relates to Poland's transformation into a liberal democracy and its integration into pan-European structures, Ida's story of belated self-discovery (through postmemory) is inextricably bound up with the ‘pluralisation’ of collective memory after the fall of communism.

Sonic fictions: Afrofuturistic readings of Piotr Szulkin's The War of the Worlds: Next Century (1981) and Łukasz Barczyk's Unmoved Mover (2008)

ABSTRACTEnlightenment and colonialism introduced chronopolitical othering of the colonised as the people remaining in the past, the past of the colonisers. This thinking remade temporal categories of the past and the future into spatial ones, presenting some lands as located in the past in comparison to other, superior ones that represent the future of the humanity. This definition of the future and the past is taken up by Afrofuturism and its conception of the future and the past as being both spatial and temporal. Afrodiasporic culture emphasises the futurism of slavery seen as alien abduction. For Afrofuturists, spaceships already landed and what is perceived as the future is actually the hidden past. From this comes the idea of multi-layered rather than progressive time and of the future as being always already present. British Afrofuturism moves away from sci-fi metaphors of slavery towards focus on on-going colonisation of capitalism. Afrofuturist conception of multi-layered time and internal colonisation of capitalism is used here to analyse the legacy of Poland's transformation from socialism to capitalism in two Polish films: Piotr Szulkin's The War of the Worlds: Next Century (Wojna światów: Następne stulecie, 1981) and Łukasz Barczyk's Unmoved Mover (Nieruchomy poruszyciel, 2008).

LIMITS AND RISK OF DEVELOPING TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE IN POLAND

Low investment and other mistakes made in the process of transport development has led to the situation where even the infrastructure of the most developed transport branches does not correspond to European standards. Underdevelopment of transport infrastructure in Poland has become one of the main barriers to growth and modernization of the country. Well-developed transport infrastructure is an important determinant of socio-economic development. Over 25 years after the start of the economic transformation in Poland, the condition of transport infrastructure in this country remains unsatisfactory. However, since the accession to the European Union, the development of transport infrastructure in Poland has improved significantly. Funds from the EU have contributed significantly to this progress. The current financial perspective may be the last chance for Poland to get EU funding for transport infrastructure development in such a large scale. Therefore, it is particularly important that the allocated funds are fully absorbed. For this to happen, project beneficiaries should be able to obtain funds for their own contributions. The increase in bond yields related to rating downgrade, weakening banks or shifting funds from investment to consumption may weaken Poland’s ability to take advantage of opportunities arising from EU funds.

NOWE PRAWO WŁASNOŚCI – PRZEKSZTAŁCENIA W STOSUNKACH WŁASNOŚCIOWYCH W POLSCE W LATACH 1944-1950

NEW PROPRIETORSHIP – PRIVATIZATION TRANSFORMATIONS IN POLAND IN YEARS 1944-1950 Summary In the first years of the People’s Republic of Poland a partial change in the contents and the function of proprietorship occurred. The modification, in which the majority of the society believed for a long time, meant not only the introduction of new subjects under a given proprietorship, but also a real re-definition of the very notion of ownership. Then, shifts in restrictions imposed on proprietorship occurred. Before they were placed besides law, among other things in administrative regulations; as a result of the new solutions they have directly been included in proprietorship. This led to proportion changes between the rights and duties of owners and non-owners. Civil law tradition was abandoned, although it did not treat proprietorship as absolute law, but it did not impose any concreto limits. Civil law tradition accepted the assumption that the possible unlimited freedom of the proprietor connected with law’s flexibility is the characteristic feature of proprietorship. It proved that restrictions did not constitute the essence of ownership and they had a different role in it. Hence, it was underlined that the possible narrowing of the owner’s rights should have short-termed and individual character, established according to the law. Yet, the new transformations of proprietorship accepted a different assumption. The characteristic feature was that they were not distinctly visible and recognizable in the first years. They were not expressed in the theory of law while the thesis was developed in the sphere of politics and propaganda that its aim was to make proprietorship more wide spread and to enhance its social function. The political idea of proprietorship management appeared after many attempts taken up at the turn of the 40s and 50s. The referred theory of law was rather a false justification than the real, essential foundation of taken up activities at that time, as the new authorities did not manage to elaborate a coherent concept of socialist proprietorship fulfilling civil law criteria, even with the help of the Soviet achievements. Due to this reason slogans were mainly used, which were to signify the conformity of practice with the declaration of nationalization. In fact, they concentrated on the current property administration, property either taken over or controlled by the state. It was generally believed by the ruling body that proprietorship could be freely transformed without any negative consequences.

ARTYKUŁY WOJSKOWE AUTORAMENTU CUDZOZIEMSKIEGO WŁADYSŁAWA IV – OKOLICZNOŚCI POWSTANIA I ICH CHARAKTERYSTYKA

THE ORIGINS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF WŁADYSŁAW IV’S MILITARY REGULATIONS FOR FOREIGN CONTINGENTS Summary Władysław IV’s military reforms are recognized as one of the most important historical, military transformations in Poland. This ruler modeled his reforms on Swedish and Western European solutions by creating a foreign military contingent. In principle, it sought to abandon the recruitment of expensive, undisciplined and often disloyal soldiers from neighboring countries. His solution was to create a contingent of the king’s subjects led by individuals knowledgeable in the conduct of modern warfare. In 1629, even before ascending to the throne, he began putting together a new type of regiments – one with domestic recruits led by professional foreign officers. At the end of 1632, Moscow attacked the Ground Duchy of Lithuania. Władysław IV, an elected king, went to the aid of the fortress, leading forces modeled on foreign military designs. Consequently, this led to the creation of the so-called “foreign contingent.” On September 6th 1633, military regulations were announced for these new type of military forces. Those rules were a faithful translation of Gustav II Adolf’s 1632 military regulations. They were originally in force in the Polish Kingdom’s armies, and from the second half of the 17th century, also in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. During the first half of the 17th century, those regulations were not used by the contingents recruited from abroad or by reiter cavalry. Despite attempts to marginalize these regulations, they survived until the end of John III Sobieski’s reign. During this period, minor editorial changes can be noted, along with the addition and removal of minor legal directives. It was not until the reign of Augustus II the Strong that new foreign contingent regulations, based on Saxon ideas, were introduced.

New Reality – New Problems. Financial Crime in Greater Poland in the Years 1945-1970

Abstract Systemic transformation in Poland after the Second World War led to deep transformations within the economy. It did not, however, change the way people thought. Despite the chaos of the post-war period, in which all the negative features shaped in the period of occupation manifested themselves, it seemed that the conceptual leaders of the Polish political and economic life would create new quality. However, it soon turned out that old habits die hard and the system created by communists opened a field for many abuses. This was accompanied by a sense of impunity, as the most prominent personalities in a given region were also involved in economic scandals. All this resulted in the creation of “cliques” in which both prominent Party activists and people put by the Party in high positions (usually also members of the Polish United Workers’ Party, PUWP) played important roles. On the one hand, after 1956, surveillance by the Security Office (UB) or Security Services (SB) was not that strict anymore, and on the other, the so-called “private initiative” started to develop fast – therefore the more “entrepreneurial” individuals started to exploit the situation and gain wealth. Abusing one’s position to organize large-scale thefts was considered relatively normal. This happened in various forms: sometimes directly, but more often by supporting or even organizing private projects with the use of the national, though unsupervised, supply of raw materials or products. This way, the Party members grew richer at the expense of the companies they worked for. This business was relatively widely tolerated by ordinary citizens, who saw it as an excuse to also “organize” goods individually for their own purposes in the companies which employed them. This common belief that “everybody steals” allowed people to justify their own dishonesty. Any attempts to fight this problem failed to produce satisfactory results. The diagnosis, even if correct, had to face reality, in which the pursuit of a better quality of life by the Party elites collided with the officially promoted ascetic lifestyles of the “ideological communists”, who, like Władysław Gomułka, did not understood the new times.

Urbanization processes related to the development of residential functions in gminas adjacent to the city of Olsztyn

Abstract Political transformations in Poland have led to rapid suburbanization. Suburbias are beginning to develop functions and services characteristic of urban areas. The highest rate of growth is noted in residential development, in particular in the segment of single-family homes. Those developments bring about changes in demographics and social infrastructure. This study analyzes 4,000 real estate transactions conducted in 2007-2014, involving land plots zoned for residential construction, in order to determine the spatial changes that take place in the gminas adjacent to the city of Olsztyn, in view of the development of the local real estate market. The major trends relating to the number of concluded transactions, changes in real estate prices over time, the number of completed construction projects (new single-family homes) and changes in land-use structure are described. Demographic and social changes that inevitably follow from urbanization are described in the analyzed gminas. The results of this study will be used to determine whether Olsztyn’s suburbias are merely “bedroom communities” or whether they constitute autonomous territorial units.

Between rejected socialism and desired capitalism: social sciences’ discourse on the transformation in Poland

The transformation of the socialist societies of Central and Eastern Europe has been commonly described as a transition from a planned economy to a market economy and from a (semi)authoritarian system to a liberal democracy. According to this perspective, the implementation of new political and economic institutions was supposed to free the – so far suppressed – nature of all societies to become capitalist democracies. Such a vision of transformation dominated Polish public and academic discourse. It has been challenged by critics, who emphasized that transformation is an ambiguous process taking place at the level of social life rather than a macro-institutional level. Nevertheless, new concepts often reproduced characteristics of the rejected approach – a tendency to build dichotomous models based on simplified images of a pathological socialist legacy on one hand and of desired capitalist order on the other. Only recently a shift in the transformation discourse might be observed. The best examples are studies employing ethnographic methods, which focus on the level of everyday practices, and study how systemic changes were experienced by social actors. The article is an analysis of the social sciences’ discourse on transformation in the context of the broader public discourse in Poland. It depicts the transitology paradigm and its critique evolving from institutional and cultural perspectives. The focus is on concepts of homo sovieticus, ‘winners and losers’, learned helplessness and the like. Finally, the implications of ethnographic approaches are discussed. The case provokes questions about the role of social scientists in the vital processes of their own society.

PRESERVE FROM OBLIVION - POLISH CULTURAL HERITAGE AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE SOCIAL SPACE OF THE POLES IN PIEDMONT

Cultural heritage of any nation will aff ect both the supporting national identity, as well as creates collective memory, is shaping it, enriches and makes the material expression. A good example of activity in the fi eld of the protection of the Polish heritage, based on the social, organizational and institutional cooperation is a Polish enclave in Piedmont. Th ere, many of the events recorded in the pages of the history of the two Nations were played. At present, for many Poles in Piedmont in exile a bond with the country of origin is a crucial element of their life. It is expressed in promoting the activities of Polish heritage. It has two main strands. Th e fi rst is to support Polish customs and traditions associated with the celebration of Polish holidays formula - Christmas and Easter. Th ere are parties for children and youth with Polish-Italian and Italian, organized by members of the Italian-Polish organizations Comunita Polacca di Torino. This is associated with the care of the maintenance of the Polish language among children and young people from mixed families. Th e second stream of dissemination of Polish heritage in Piedmont is a project of national historical dimension. Honoring the memory of the events of Polish history offi cially became possible from the period of political transformation in Poland and the socio-political changes in the international arena. Th anks to the cooperation with the city and the region and the Polish diplomatic posts in Italy it is possible to organize a number of important events.

Polish District Heating Systems—Development Perspectives

The most economical and rational means of heat supply for city inhabitants are district heating systems. Heat generated in power plants and large heat sources is cheaper than heat from individual sources. The reason for that is the amount of the generated heat and the used fuel (coal for most heat sources). District heating, a very important energy sub-sector for the Polish economy, provides heat supply to centralised heating systems, which, on average, satisfy 72% of the demand for heat in Polish cities. Therefore, several million Polish citizens use heat from district heating systems that produce heat in professional, industrial and municipal power plants. In Europe, over 100 million citizens use district heating systems. The present situation of the Polish district heating sector is a result of Poland's transformation that took place at the beginning of the 1990s. The reform put the obligation of heat supply on the local authorities, on the municipality, instead of the state. Along with the transformation, district heating also made huge technological and technical progress. Increasing expectations of recipients posed new challenges for the branch, however.

Causes, forms and effects of social and moral confusion of the institutional Roman-Catholic Church in Poland

The lostness of an individual or institution is manifested in their aversion towards conforming or adapting to the social and cultural conditions in which they are to function or carry out their fundamental tasks. Lostness affects secular institutions as well as religious institutions, including churches. In this paper I demonstrate the lostness of the institutional Roman Catholic Church in Poland over the past 25 years through the reflections of clergymen and theologians, as well as on the basis of sociological research findings. Theologians claim that this lostness also signifies the specific pastoral situation of the Church brought about by the systemic transformations in Poland over this period, previously unencountered by and unknown to the Church, hindering the Church’s functioning and inducing it to take erroneous decisions. Lostness takes on a variety of forms and is manifested in numerous spheres of the Church’s secular activities, but does not affect its essence or religious identity. However, it does embrace its functions and actions, its attitudes and its decisions, in the area of secular and political activity, its relations with society, and also in relations within the clerical community. Wording it differently, lostness applies to the human structure of the Church, and within this above all the bishops and leaders who guide it and manage its assets, and who also perform an instructional and educational function towards the Church’s faithful.

Disclosure of Sensitive National Security Information during Civil Litigation in Poland and in the United States

The purpose of the article is to compare the American evidentiary rule of “state secrets privilege” with the Polish regulation of Article 248 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure. This issue, in particular, gains importance in the light of legal changes that occurred in the USA and most developed countries in the aftermath of the 11th September 2001 attacks and the so-called “war against terrorism”. The author presents the genesis and evolution of the privilege, the history of its application, as well as doubts which it has aroused in terms of civil rights. The American solutions make up a point of reference for the Polish regulations of the Code of Civil Procedure. A dogmatic analysis of Article 248 § 1 of the Code offers a broad platform for discussions about its compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, as well as, noted legal loopholes in the law of civil procedure, in connection with the protection of classified information. The author underlines the fact that, after the regime transformation in Poland, the right to information gained the status of a public subjective right, but it had a very little impact on the shape of the civil process. He points to the implications of the fact that Polish legislators departed from the principle of objective truth in the process, for the sake of the principle of formal truth, commonly accepted in Western legal culture.

Aksjologiczne założenia działalności katolickich uniwersytetów ludowych w Polsce w latach 1989-2004

People’s Catholic Universities were the places of extracurricular educational purposes for adults. They have been reborn in Poland after the year 1989. Education in People’s Catholic Universities was closely related to system transformation in Poland and the educational needs of local towns and villages. As pastoral-educational agencies they propagated spiritual values (religious, cognitive, moral, esthetic), vital values related to human’s life and health, and pragmatic values connected with social-vocational teaching. In the process of education such significant principles as helpfulness, solidarity and social justice were introduced.

Korzyści materialne z wykształcenia formalnego w Polsce

Okres transformacji systemowej to w Polsce czas istotnych zmian w strukturze wykształcenia społeczeństwa, a także poszczególnych grup zawodowych (wyodrębnianych z uwzględnieniem klasyfikacji ISCO-COM 88). Stąd w pracy badano, czy zmiany w strukturze wykształcenia (o zróżnicowanym natężeniu w poszczególnych grupach zawodowych) przekładały się na zmiany relacji przeciętnego wynagrodzenia brutto w danej grupie zawodowej i wśród ogółu zatrudnionych w Polsce. Analizy prowadzono na podstawie danych Eurostatu i GUS-u. Horyzont czasowy prowadzonych analiz wyznaczają lata 2002-2012.

Invented tradition and the new regionalism. The revival of pastoralism in Ochotnica Górna (Polish Carpathian village)

The article is based on anthropological fieldwork in Ochotnica Gorna, a village belonging to Podhale region (southern Poland). The study was focused on the revival of transhumance – the type of pastoralism, characteristic for Valachian villages of the entire range of Carpathians. The transhumance has been destroyed by global economic transformation in Poland. Recently it is revived on the new ideological basis connected with the idea of Carpathian and Valachian regionalism.

THE DEMOGRAPHY OF POLISH COUNTRY IN THE PERIOD OF 1989 – 2013

The aim of the study was to investigate and evaluate the development factors of demography of Polish country in the period of 1989-2013. In article statistical analysis was showed relating structure of demography of Polish country. Under the examination period concerns of constitutional transformation in Poland. Appropriate conclusions finish work.