This ground-breaking book provides a compelling account of the social sciences in post-war Central and Eastern Europe. The first English-language monograph to analyse the history of sociology in Poland up to the present day, it maps transformations in the discipline against political and social change. Related in an accessible and engaging manner, it offers a comprehensive examination of sociology as a part of Polish society and culture after 1945. It can also be used as an introduction to the subject and a guide to further reading. Part of the influential Sociology Transformed series, Sociology in Poland will interest social and political scientists, historians and policymakers.

This book is about long-term changes to class and inequality in Poland. Drawing upon major social surveys, the team of authors from the Polish Academy of Sciences offer the rare comprehensive study of important changes to the social structure from the communist era to the present. The core argument is that, even during extreme societal transformations, key features of social life have long-lasting, stratifying effects. The authors analyse the core issues of inequality research that best explain “who gets what and why:” social mobility, status attainment and their mechanisms, with a focus on education, occupation, and income. The transition from communist political economy to liberal democracy and market capitalism offers a unique opportunity for scholars to understand how people move from one stratifi cation regime to the next. There are valuable lessons to be learned from linking past to present. Classic issues of class, stratification, mobility, and attainment have endured decades of radical social change. These concepts remain valid even when society tries to eradicate them.

The "European Revolution" of 1989 has not only brought about dramatic and far-reaching changes in the social structure of East and West European countries, but also in the social sciences. This volume is an attempt to evaluate how sociology has been affected by this dramatic event and how it has developed in the post-revolutionary period in some selected European countries. Ten eminent representatives of sociology from Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Great Britain, Poland, and Scandinavia were presented with a set of questions which served as a common guideline for their contributions. Their answers can be summarized in the observation of the "interrelated diversity" of sociology in Europe today. The high heterogeneity and fragmentation, typical of contemporary sociological thought in Europe, are interrelated by a high degree of institutionalization and integration of sociology in the European university system. In addition, two prominent scholars from non-European countries, Japan and the US, present their views on sociology in Europe from outside. They declare the end of the period of one-sided flows of reception in sociology and foresee a strengthening of a two-way exchange between European and non-European social scientists in the twenty-first century

The open access book provides a critical account of parenthood in Polish society. It uses a qualitative perspective to show how mothers and fathers engage with parenthood and also function in the labour market. Parenting in contemporary Poland is not only affected by individual preferences and choices, but significantly by the institutional context, in particular the family policy system, as well as socio-cultural norms of how men and women should fulfill parental roles. The author distinguishes between different kinds of work done in connection to parenthood and shows how the existing institutional system reinforces gender and other forms of social inequalities even in a post-communist state like Poland. The author demonstrates that Polish society has different expectations and institutional norms related to work and gender norms compared to those in long-standing democracies in Europe and elsewhere. The book also shows that the experiences of parenthood in Poland are different between men and women, between single and coupled parents, and based on economic and other resources. This book is of interest to social science students and researchers of family studies, parenting, sociology of work, and social structure in post-communist societies.

This book explores the key conceptual features of the development of the Sociology of Work (SoW) in Europe since 1945, using eleven country case studies. An original contribution to our understanding of the trajectory of the SoW, the chapters map the current state of the theoretical background of the sub-discipline's development to broader socio-political and economic changes, traced across a heterogeneous set of national contexts. Different definitions of the SoW in each country often reflect variations in the focus of analysis, and these chapters link the subject definition and focus to other social science disciplines, the state, as well as social class interests and ideologies. The book contends that the ways in which the sub-discipline makes sense of changes in work is itself a response to the type of society in which the sub-discipline is practiced, whether in the post-war social democratic West, the Soviet East, or today's societies, dominated by variant forms of neo-liberalism. It will be of use to scholars and students interested in the transnational history of the discipline of sociology, with a specific focus on the nexus between the sociology of labour, ideology, economics and politics.

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This open access volume provides evidence-based knowledge on European solidarity and citizen responses in times of crisis. Does the crisis of European integration translate into a crisis of European solidarity, and if yes, what are the manifestations at the level of individual citizens? How strongly is solidarity rooted at the individual level, both in terms of attitudes and practices? And which driving factors and mechanisms contribute to the reproduction and/or corrosion of solidarity in times of crisis? Using findings from the EU Horizon 2020 funded research project “European paths to transnational solidarity at times of crisis: Conditions, forms, role-models and policy responses” (TransSOL), the books addresses these questions and provides cross-national comparisons of eight European countries – Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK. It will appeal to students, scholars and policymakers interested in the Eurocrisis, politics and sociology.