Suchergebnisse

Social dialogue focusing on the problems of work does not deliver a sufficient area of communication for all citizens. It is important, therefore, to note that civil dialogue develops and permits to look at social problems in a wider manner as well as to include various partners to decisions made by the public authorities. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present civil dialogue in a theoretical and practical way. For that reason, making the detailed objectives of the study, we turn our attention to the relationship between social and civil dialogue, as well as the methods of civil dialogue. In the second section we wish to investigate one of these methods – namely, public consultation in a theoretical way. The third part of this paper describes a case study analysing an information meeting over the Lower Silesian participatory budget. In the final section we conclude our reflections about civil dialogue. The paper uses data from scientific literature, acts as well as the case study – observations and interviews with the participants of the consultative meeting.

This paper describes the phenomenon 'predatory conferences', the characteristics of predatory conferences, and it describes the problems they cause for science. Predatory conferences fail to properly manage peer review, frequently have imaginary conference committee, do not operate any quality control, are unclear about payment requirements and about conference organizer or location. Towards the end of the paper it is discussed what can and should be done to eliminate or reduce the effects of predatory conferences.

Zarówno Rada, jak i Rada Europejska działają zgodnie z "kulturą konsensusu", co oznacza, że nawet jeśli formalnie mogą decydować o niektórych sprawach większością kwalifikowaną, w praktyce rzadko to robią. Jest to szczególnie prawdziwe w przypadku Rady Europejskiej i dlatego dla wielu obserwatorów było zaskoczeniem, gdy 9 marca 2017 roku Donald Tusk został wybrany na drugą kadencję jako przewodniczący Rady Europejskiej, pomimo przeciwnego głosu jednego państwa członkowskiego (Polski). Wydarzenie to oznaczało, że Rada Europejska po raz pierwszy skorzystała z możliwości wyboru swojego przewodniczącego większością kwalifikowaną, a nie jednogłośnie. W niniejszym artykule argumentuję, że stosowanie w takich sytuacjach formalnych przepisów pozwalających na głosowanie większością kwalifikowaną nie tylko nie podważa kultury konsensusu, ale wręcz jest niezbędne do jej utrzymania. Argument ten jest osadzony we wkładzie zwrotu praktycznego do badań politologicznych. Ten nurt umieszcza praktyki społeczne w centrum zainteresowania i podkreśla fakt, że mogą być one wykonywane mniej lub bardziej kompetentnie. Dlatego też, jeśli państwo członkowskie wykonuje "praktykę konsensusu" niepoprawnie, nie może oczekiwać, że normy, które tworzą kulturę konsensusu, pomogą mu narzucić swoje stanowisko innym państwom członkowskim. Ponieważ sposób funkcjonowania Rady Europejskiej jest trudno dostępny bezpośrednio, artykuł rozwija swoją argumentację, czerpiąc z dorobku badań nad procesem podejmowania decyzji w Radzie (w tym badań prowadzonych przez autora). Następnie przeprowadzona zostaje analiza dostępnych źródeł odnoszących się do wydarzeń z 2017 r., związanych z reelekcją Donalda Tuska. ; Both the Council and the European Council are said to operate under "the culture of consensus", which means that even if they formally can decide on some issues by qualified majority, in practice they rarely do so. This is particularly true of the European Council and so it was surprising to many observers when on 9 March 2017 Donald Tusk was re-elected for a second term as the European Council's president despite the explicit negative vote of one member state (Poland). This event marked the first time the European Council used the possibility of electing its president by qualified majority rather than unanimously. In this paper I argue that using formal provisions allowing for qualified majority voting in such situations is, far from undermining the culture of consensus, in fact necessary to maintain it. The argument is embedded in the practice turn contribution to political research. Practice turn moves social practices to the centre of researchers' interest and emphasises the fact that they can be performed more or less competently. Therefore, if a member state performs the "practice of consensus" incorrectly, it cannot expect the norms which constitute the culture of consensus to help it impose its position on other member states. Because the way in which the European Council operates is difficult to access directly, the paper develops its argument by drawing from the ongoing qualitative research on decision-making in the Council (including author's own field research). It also uses available publicly-available sources relevant to the events of 2017 Donald Tusk re-election to substantiate the argument.

Zarówno Rada, jak i Rada Europejska działają zgodnie z "kulturą konsensusu", co oznacza, że nawet jeśli formalnie mogą decydować o niektórych sprawach większością kwalifikowaną, w praktyce rzadko to robią. Jest to szczególnie prawdziwe w przypadku Rady Europejskiej i dlatego dla wielu obserwatorów było zaskoczeniem, gdy 9 marca 2017 roku Donald Tusk został wybrany na drugą kadencję jako przewodniczący Rady Europejskiej, pomimo przeciwnego głosu jednego państwa członkowskiego (Polski). Wydarzenie to oznaczało, że Rada Europejska po raz pierwszy skorzystała z możliwości wyboru swojego przewodniczącego większością kwalifikowaną, a nie jednogłośnie. W niniejszym artykule argumentuję, że stosowanie w takich sytuacjach formalnych przepisów pozwalających na głosowanie większością kwalifikowaną nie tylko nie podważa kultury konsensusu, ale wręcz jest niezbędne do jej utrzymania. Argument ten jest osadzony we wkładzie zwrotu praktycznego do badań politologicznych. Ten nurt umieszcza praktyki społeczne w centrum zainteresowania i podkreśla fakt, że mogą być one wykonywane mniej lub bardziej kompetentnie. Dlatego też, jeśli państwo członkowskie wykonuje "praktykę konsensusu" niepoprawnie, nie może oczekiwać, że normy, które tworzą kulturę konsensusu, pomogą mu narzucić swoje stanowisko innym państwom członkowskim. Ponieważ sposób funkcjonowania Rady Europejskiej jest trudno dostępny bezpośrednio, artykuł rozwija swoją argumentację, czerpiąc z dorobku badań nad procesem podejmowania decyzji w Radzie (w tym badań prowadzonych przez autora). Następnie przeprowadzona zostaje analiza dostępnych źródeł odnoszących się do wydarzeń z 2017 r., związanych z reelekcją Donalda Tuska. ; Both the Council and the European Council are said to operate under "the culture of consensus", which means that even if they formally can decide on some issues by qualified majority, in practice they rarely do so. This is particularly true of the European Council and so it was surprising to many observers when on 9 March 2017 Donald Tusk was re-elected for a second term as the European Council's president despite the explicit negative vote of one member state (Poland). This event marked the first time the European Council used the possibility of electing its president by qualified majority rather than unanimously. In this paper I argue that using formal provisions allowing for qualified majority voting in such situations is, far from undermining the culture of consensus, in fact necessary to maintain it. The argument is embedded in the practice turn contribution to political research. Practice turn moves social practices to the centre of researchers' interest and emphasises the fact that they can be performed more or less competently. Therefore, if a member state performs the "practice of consensus" incorrectly, it cannot expect the norms which constitute the culture of consensus to help it impose its position on other member states. Because the way in which the European Council operates is difficult to access directly, the paper develops its argument by drawing from the ongoing qualitative research on decision-making in the Council (including author's own field research). It also uses available publicly-available sources relevant to the events of 2017 Donald Tusk re-election to substantiate the argument.

Artykuł zwraca uwagę na powiązania procesu starzenia się społeczeństwa z kształtowaniem zmian organizacyjnych zachodzących w miejskich instytucjach kulturalnych i artystycznych w zakresie świadczenia usług dla osób starszych. Przybliżone zostają główne cechy zachodzących na początku XXI wieku przemian pracy i czasu wolnego oraz zjawiska kreatywnej gospodarki wraz z nową stratyfikacją społeczną i nowymi czynnikami rozwojowymi. Zarysowany został także paradygmat kreatywnego starzenia się, korzyści i bariery budowania kapitału kreatywnego seniorów oraz zagraniczne i krajowe przykłady wykorzystywanych na tym polu rozwiązań a zarazem obszarów dalszych badań.

Sphere of values and related to them determinants of policy making constitute current issues in the social sciences. The author presents good practices in terms of partnerships among actors in the process of creation, implementation and evaluation of public policy, emphasizing their axiological foundations. This is primarily applicable in the knowledge sector which is an area particularly sensitive on the institutional ground because of great aspirations of the creators engaged. The article explains the concept of the knowledge sector using a group of related terms such as knowledge society, information society, knowledge-based economy, knowledge management and formulates a number of recommendations for development of this sector. The author presents the institutional structure of the knowledge sector in functional terms with emphasis on the demand of their greater integration in the pro-development activities. Subsequently, there is a presentation of constitutional norms, based on which the social dialogue and partnership are suggested as fundamental principles in the knowledge sector. The author examines the mission of the state emphasizing the importance of its role as a guarantor of these values and rules. Finally, the article presents the instruments of public policy towards the knowledge sector focusing on the importance of the principles and best practices in cooperation between public policy makers and their social partners – the creators of knowledge.

After more than 25 years since the beginning of the transformation it is worth considering the present socio-political cleavages in Polish society. The text will present the results of a research on framing analysis of the Round Table and transformation in the Polish weekly opinion magazines. Their journalists, despite changes in the media working formula, can still be regarded as the representatives of symbolic elite. They organize political discourse by defining "correct" ways of perceiving and interpreting reality. Under the broken reciprocity of perspectives the dynamics of discourse is affected by disputes which could be considered as "controversies," which can be understood, followed by Marek Czyżewski, as regarding both the communication and the metacommunication level (definition of the problem, assigning acting motives to the other side of the dispute). The dispute subjects are community symbolism and values on which the argumentation strategies adopted in the weeklies magazines are concentrated. Using the concepts of Jeffrey Alexander, it can be said that the parties involved in the discourse assign democratic code to themselves and undemocratic one to their adversaries. The objective of the article is to identify and describe framing and re-framing practices of the Round Table as initial event of Polish transformation. There are also presented some remarks concerning the problem of interpretive communities in the public debate. ; Po ponad 25 latach od początku transformacji warto zastanowić się nad obecnymi podziałami socjopolitycznymi w polskim społeczeństwie. W tekście zaprezentowane zostaną wyniki badań dotyczące praktyk ramowania w przypadku Okrągłego Stołu i transformacji w polskich tygodnikach opinii. Ich dziennikarze, mimo zmiany formuły działania mediów, wciąż mogą być traktowani jako reprezentanci elit symbolicznych. Organizują oni dyskurs polityczny, definiując "prawidłowe" sposoby postrzegania i interpretowania rzeczywistości. W warunkach zerwanej przekładalności perspektyw na dynamikę dyskursu wpływają spory, które można uznać za kontrowersje, rozumiane za Markiem Czyżewskim jako dotyczące zarówno poziomu komunikacyjnego, jak i metakomunikacyjnego (definicja problemu, przypisywanie motywów działania drugiej stronie sporu). Przedmiotem toczonych sporów stają się wspólnotowa symbolika i wartości, na których skoncentrowane są strategie argumentacyjne przyjmowane w tygodnikach. Używając pojęć Jeffreya Alexandra, strony zaangażowane w dyskurs przypisują sobie kod demokratyczny, a swym adwersarzom niedemokratyczny. Celem artykułu jest identyfikacja i opis praktyk ramowania i przeramowania Okrągłego Stołu jako wydarzenia inicjującego zmiany transformacyjne. W tekście znajdują się również uwagi dotyczące wspólnot interpretacyjnych w debacie publicznej.

Citizen participation is becoming an important element of self-government practice in Poland. One of the tools supporting the process of involving residents in local government matters is participatory budgeting. Its fundamental importance is to provide residents of local government units with the possibility of deciding on the allocation of some budget expenses, in particular those relating to infrastructure investments. Participatory budgeting is one of the most effective citizen practices aimed at involving residents in managing their cities. However, it can be a tool or a single project and a part of a thorough, long-term, and comprehensive reform of urban policy, based on the city's administrative reform. Citizen engagement is also seen as an instrument of state effectiveness. When citizens can meet their needs and hold public institutions accountable, public money is likely to be used more efficiently to deliver public goods and services that are better suited to citizens' needs. Recognition of the potential of citizen involvement in public affairs is widespread. The aim of the article is to present the concept and genesis of citizen participation as well as to analyze and compare the completed editions of the Zielona Góra Participatory Budgeting in 20132020. A particular attention was paid to the types of winning tasks and the principles of budget implementation.

This article provides a scientific reflection on the need for considering the issue of new technologies and their development in contemporary social policy in Poland. The article focuses on three selected areas of social policy, which are most intensively influenced by the development of new technologies: labor market policies, education policies, and telecare, including some elements of senior policies. The publication initiates further discussion on the current challenges and dilemmas faced by social policymakers. It corresponds to the specific experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic related to intensified, technologically mediated forms of communication and remote forms of using social services. It argues that rapid development of new technologies changes the goals and ways of putting social policies into practice. Drawing on theoretical assumptions of technological determinism and new institutionalism, the article aims to conclude that adequate institutional and legislative changes should be the consequence of technological changes and they should lead to greater compatibility of systemic solutions with citizens' everyday practice.

The article aims to discuss the relationship between social policy and public policy and to identify its most important elements. Social policy is linked historically on the one hand with the economy and on the other - with sociology and political sciences. Theory of public policy exposes the role of public administration in achieving its objectives and allows for wider recognition of the tasks by linking them with other specialties. This makes it possible to achieve in practice synergistic effects of actions taken, and at the theoretical level - a more comprehensive assessment of the analyzed problems. The history of social policy in Poland, especially of the Institute of Social Economy shows that such a broad approach to social policy has been characteristic also in the past.

Postfoucauldian discourse analysis is a vigorously developing approach to discourse studies focusing on the analysis of power, discourse, knowledge and social practice. This comprises studies deriving from Michel Foucault's thought, reinterpreting it, however, with the aim at application to an analysis of empirical data, also from the field of pedagogy and education. The purpose of this paper is to present main concepts and categories of postfoucauldian discourse analysis (e.g. enunciation, discursive formation, discursive practice, procedures for the control of discourse, dispositive, regime of truth) and guidelines for conducting research on the example of an analysis of chosen public texts concerning the debate on liquidation of middle schools in Poland as a result of the reform of education carried out by Law and Justice' government.

The subject of this paper is the institution of mediation, with a special emphasis on the formulation of postulates addressed to the Polish legislative, governmental institutions, local authorities, corporation of advocates, non-governmental organisations, and establishments of higher education. The Author outlines the general construction of mediation and the mechanisms of its functioning, the impact of the European Union on its Member States in the context of that institution, and touches upon the practical application of mediation in Poland, concluding that once the postulates enumerated in the paper have been addressed and realized, this will grossly reduce the piling number of unresolved disputes, and consequently will minimize the cost arising from the ever- -growing numbers of litigation and legal dispute. ; The subject of this paper is the institution of mediation, with a special emphasis on the formulation of postulates addressed to the Polish legislative, governmental institutions, local authorities, corporation of advocates, non-governmental organisations, and establishments of higher education. The Author outlines the general construction of mediation and the mechanisms of its functioning, the impact of the European Union on its Member States in the context of that institution, and touches upon the practical application of mediation in Poland, concluding that once the postulates enumerated in the paper have been addressed and realized, this will grossly reduce the piling number of unresolved disputes, and consequently will minimize the cost arising from the ever- -growing numbers of litigation and legal dispute.

Preparation of this study was designed to achieve two objectives. The first goal is to introduce the theoretical basis of two dimensions of social policy - policy towards old age and policy towards older people. The second objective covers analyzes of the proposals and actually undertaken activities for older people that were included in strategic documents and research reports compiled at central, regional (Podlaskie Voivodeship) and local levels (city of Bialystok). Thus, overview was aimed to identify current practices, as well as recommended actions that have not been implemented and the extent of involvement of social partners at all stages of the design and implementation of this area of social policy. The report is based on analysis of existing data (desk research).

The paper attempts to present the ideas of Robert Michels, known as the author of the "iron law of oligarchy." Unfortunately, this disciple and coworker of Max Weber is relatively unpopular in Poland. His fundamental work has not been published in Polish so far, while his thoughts appear to remain both original and topical. According to Michels, the need for organization and leadership comes from the masses, which tend to be passive and require direction. In the opinion of the author of the Political Parties, the mass character of 'contemporary' social phenomena makes directly-democratic leadership impossible. Even those institutions that are the most fervent supporters of the idea of such democracy are only an 'average' reflection of this ideally-typical system. An average model illustrates to what extent decision- making practices maintain only the appearances of democratic standards whereas the whole system observes an intensifying deficit of direct democracy. Robert Michels discusses the technical and administrative conditions of leadership and its autocratic nature, which is the core of the paper.