This book discusses the unknown and remote urban experiment of modernist social practices and dreams of a better tomorrow. It describes the history of the Warsaw Housing Cooperative not as a historical relic or a single case study, but instead analyses this working-class social housing estate – in itself an extremely interesting emancipatory project – from the perspective of contemporary urban studies. It focuses on issues related to the power of architecture, architects and the estate residents themselves: the city's performative actions, problems related to the polycentric character of the city authorities, the opportunities of building urban institutions, and social identities and urban common goods. Inspired by the history of the Warsaw Housing Cooperative, the book investigates how the estate residents, assisted by social reformers (today called urban activists), organised the urban space of performative democracy, and how they developed anti-capitalist, urban-survival strategies and created new lifestyles. It also analyses how passive tenants turned into active citizens claiming their right to the city. The inspiring book is intended for researchers in the field of performative studies, urban sociologists, critical urban studies researchers, animators of social life and urban activists.

In Culture, Modernity and Revolution a group of distinguished sociologists and social philosophers reflect upon the major concerns of Zygmunt Bauman. Their essays not only honour the man, but provide important contributions to the three interlinked themes that could be said to form the guiding threads of Bauman's life work: power, culture and modernity. Culture, Modernity and Revolution is both a remarkable sociological commentary on the problems facing East-Central Europe and an exposition of some of the key, hitherto neglected, features of the modern cultural universe.

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.

This title was first published in 1978. How far have sociologists working in countries commonly designated as "socialist" gone in studying the class structure and social consciousness of their own societies? What kinds of questions have they posed, and what is the degree of technical sophistication applied in answering them? Western sociologists interested in the fate of their discipline in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union have long recognized that the answers to these questions will differ substantially depending upon which particular socialist society one has in mind. The selection from Polish sociological literature brought together here by Stomczynski and Krauze should help to answer the questions raised and provide readers with the opportunity to assess the quality of Polish sociological studies in the areas of class structure, social mobility, and class consciousness.

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.