Social Macrostructures

obowiązkowe

The course is designed to introduce students to selected issues of macro-social structures, i.e. social phenomena and processes in modern societies on a macro scale, paying special attention to cultural and subjective aspects of social structures and how they are changing today.

w sali

The following issues will be discussed based on the attached reading list: Polish society during the transition period, collective behavior, collective action and social movements, conflict as a source of social change, social inequality and social stratification, social mobility, class and stratum structure, middle class and lifestyle, globalization, transformation of local communities, collective memory.The listed phenomena will be discussed in the context of Polish society, but also the context of other societies will be discussed.

Banerjee, A. V., & Duflo, E. (2008). What is middle class about the middle classes around the world?. Journal of economic perspectives, 22(2), 3-28.

Coser, L. A. (1957). Social conflict and the theory of social change. The British journal of sociology, 8(3), Complementary reading 197-207.

Dixon, J., Sturgeon, B., Huck, J., Hocking, B., Jarman, N., Bryan, D., ... & Tredoux, C. (2022). Navigating the divided city: Place identity and the time-geography of segregation. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 84, 101908

Domański, H. (2017). Omnivorism of Eating and ‘Highbrow–Lowbrow’ Distinction: Cultural Stratification in Poland. Polish Sociological Review, 199(3), 299-314.

Giddens, A.. (2006), Sociology, 5th edition, Cambridge: Polity Press

Jungsberg, L., Copus, A., Herslund, L. B., Nilsson, K., Perjo, L., Randall, L., & Berlina, A. (2020). Key actors in community-driven social innovation in rural areas in the Nordic countries. Journal of Rural Studies, 79, 276-285.

Karolewski, I. P. (2006). Civil Society and its Discontents. Polish Sociological Review, 154(2), 167-186.

Karstedt, S. (2009). The Life Course of Collective Memories: Persistency and Change in West Germany between 1950 and 1970. Polish Sociological Review, 165(1), 27-38.

Kurczewski, J. (2006). The Social Functions of “Solidarity”. Polish Sociological Review, 153(1), 111-128.

Li, Y., Zhang, S., & Kong, J. (2015). Social mobility in China and Britain: a comparative study. International Review of Social Research, 5(1).

Niżnik, J. (2017). Transformation of the Memory and Symbolism of Local Space in the Process of European Integration. Polish Sociological Review, 198(2), 127-140.

Shahraki, H., & Heydari, E. (2019). Rethinking rural entrepreneurship in the era of globalization: some observations from Iran. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 9(1), 42.

Słomczyński, K. M., Janicka, K., Shabad, G., Tomescu-Dubrow, I. (2007). Changes in Class Structure in Poland, 1988–2003: Crystallization of the Winners—Losers’ Divide. Polish Sociological Review, 157(1), 45-64.

Szczecińska-Musielak, E. (2016). Social Conflict Theory in Studying the Conflict in Northern Ireland. Polish Sociological Review, 193(1), 119-136.

T i l l y, Charles. 2009. Inventions of the Social Movement, in Social Movements, 1768–2004. Boulder, Co.: Paradigm Publishers, p. 16-37

Tarkowska, E. (2013). Collective Memory, Social Time and Culture: The Polish Tradition in Memory Studies. Polish Sociological Review, 183(3), 281-296.

Tomescu-Dubrow, I., Dubrow, J. K., Słomczyński, K. M., Domański, H., Dubrow, J. K., Sawiński, Z., & Przybysz, D. (2018). Class, Stratification, and the 2008 Economic Crisis from an Intersectional Perspective. In Dynamics of Class and Stratification in Poland (pp. 201–216). Central European University Press.

Veal, A. J. (1993). The concept of lifestyle: a review. Leisure Studies, 12(4), 233–252. doi:10.1080/02614369300390231 

Wilk, K. (2009). Embeddedness of Social and Economic Relations in Systemic Transformation. Long-Term Evidence From the Post-Communist Transition in Poland, 1988–2003. Polish Sociological Review, 165(1), 81-106.

The student knows and understands the definitions of the most important sociological terms, can explain the basic concepts and theoretical approaches to social structures, knows different types of individual and collective identities, understands the role of the individual in the formation of different types of communities at different levels of social structure, as well as knows the functioning of different types of modern and historical social structures

Demonstrated knowledge of the assigned literature, completed project work.