Suchergebnisse

This article aims to explain the phenomena of incredibly broad consensus among the Scottish political elites around European integration. All relevant political forces (present in the 2016-2021 term in the Scottish Parliament) have unequivocally supported further membership. European integration and the EU are specifically defined in public debate to carry out certain functions from the perspective of the Scottish political elite. These interpretations in this text are divided into three categories, serving three basic functions: facilitation of the process of increasing the competences of Scottish institutions (through independence or decentralisation), support for social development based on left-wing values and strengthening the distinctiveness of Scotland's national identity. They were distinguished through in-depth analysis of scientifi c literature, documents of public institutions and political parties and statements of Scottish politicians. Author concludes that the distinction between the three basic functions of European integration from the perspective of the Scottish political elite is justified, although it is not always possible to draw a precise line between them. It is also easy to see that there are interrelationships between the different elements of these functions.

Brexit is one of the most important events that dominated the media discourse in 2017. The decision of the residents of the United Kingdom to leave the EU structures will certainly have not only serious economic consequences, but also political, social and cultural ones, both for the United Kingdom itself and for residents of countries that will stay in the European Union. While analysing the results of the referendum, which took place on 23rd June 2016, it can be seen that the majority of voters in England and Wales voted in favour of leaving the European Union, while those in Scotland and Northern Ireland supported the United Kingdom remaining in the EU structures. The aim of the article is to explain why the majority of voters in Wales were in favour of the United Kingdom exit from the European Union and to indicate potential benefits or losses resulting from the decision taken.

After Scottish Devolution referendum in 1997, Parliament of United Kingdom passed the Scotland Act 1998, creating the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive. Changes in United Kingdom structure created situation similar to federal countries, where national and regional governments need to cooperate and coordinate their activities. Intergovernmental relations in the UK are mostly relations between executives, with limited role of parliaments. This paper analyzes intergovernmental relations in two periods – before 2007, when formal institutions like Joint Ministerial Committee were rarely used and after 2007, when Scottish Executive and UK Government were led by different political parties – Scottish National Party on the regional level and Labour Party on the national level. The aim of the article was to describe intergovernmental relations throughout 1999–2010 years, explain asymmetry, informality and inconsistency of this relations and prognose future relations in the context of Calman's Commission works.

A point of departure for this study was an observation that, in political sciences, much more often the focus is on the phenomena happening in the political centres of European states than on those taking place in their regions. The foregoing, however, seems a serious impediment to further the knowledge on making political decisions and their practical implementation. When one follows closely the processes the countries of our continent go through, it is hard not to notice that the events unfolding in the regions more and more often, and to a much greater extent, impact the politics of both particular states and the structures of the unified Europe. Perfect exemplifications of the aforesaid assumption have been in the recent years Scotland and Catalonia. Therefore, the main aim of the present study is to indicate principle reasons that would offer a compelling justification to investigate social, political, and economic phenomena occurring at the level of region in Europe.

The purpose of the article is to present changes in the approach to reform of local government in the United Kingdom, in the case of which, since 1997, so after the seizure of power by the Labour Party, the strengthening of the position of individual regions of the United Kingdom, id est Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can be observed. Paradoxically devolution did not take place in England which does not have its own government and parliament. The response of the conservative‑liberal democrat coalition to this situation is without doubt the proposal to strengthen the competencies and powers of English cities. Such a policy is without doubt an example of a broader change in the contemporary political discourse, which recognizes an increasingly important role played not only, but still, by regions, but also by cities. The aim of the article is to familiarize a reader with these changes on the example of the UK, where the global tendencies to strengthen the role of cities, of which examples are such initiatives as the United Cities and Local Governments, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives and C40 become to have real, institutional, inscribed in a particular political and national tradition shapes.

Guaranteeing the availability of European labour markets constituted a very important element of the Polish foreign policy during the negotiation of conditions under which Poland would become a member of the European Union. At the time of the Polish accession, Poles as citizens of United Europe gained the right to take up legal work in other Member States. This opportunity was taken by Polish young people – "thirdgeneration emigrants" tempted by better earnings and prospects for the future. The proposed text is an attempt to capture migrants' reality in the context of adaptative difficulties experienced by migrants with regard to globalisation-related transformations and the construct of a global teenager. The research results were obtained from two research projects carried out: (1) a research project carried out under the promotional grant in the years 2008-2012 (National Center for Science in Krakow – NN 106 348 140 (grant manager: Prof. Magdalena Piorunek, PhD) under the title: 'Polish emigration and reemigration as an experience. Sociological and pedagogical aspect', the results of which have been published in: Kozielska J., (2014) Post-accession migration. The theoretical and empirical context. Social support. The research sample in the quantitative analysis consisted of 174 persons who emigrated for at least one year and stayed in Poland for at least 6 months from the time of their return to the time of the research. The sample was targeted, and the target group consisted of return emigrants who emigrated during the pre-accession period and decided to stay in a European state rather than a "traditional" country of migration like the United States of America. The quantitative research was supplemented with a qualitative analysis of texts derived from hermeneutic methods, which included online forums (created by and for emigrants, both those who are still abroad and those who are planning to return or have already returned to Poland) and blogs containing fragments of emigrants' biographies; (2) a research project carried out in London and Scotland under the POSTDOC scholarship of the Adam Mickiewicz University "Unique Graduate = Opportunities. An increase in the didactic potential of the Adam Mickiewicz University through proinnovative education in English, interdisciplinariness, e-learning, investment in human resources" under the title: 'Transnational biographical counselling. A paradigm of qualitative research. An in-depth interview – 15 families with children (aged between 3 and 13 years) (2015-2017)'.