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This paper explores the multifaceted concept of social development within economically advanced countries, delving into the implicit assumption of technological advancement as a cornerstone for well-functioning economies. While digital technologies shape broad socio-economic processes, a counterfactual perspective emerges when examining social development through the lens of (nature-based) social welfare. The analysis encompasses the coexistence of advanced technologies with disparities in living standards, resource appropriation mechanisms impacting both populations and environments, and the underexplored negative consequences of techno-economic development. The article addresses the visible and invisible impacts of information technologies, emphasising issues of labour exploitation, resource extraction practices, and the environmental costs of digital production. Critically assessing optimistic scenarios, the paper suggests the need to broaden discussions beyond the positive aspects of technology, considering the challenges for sustainable welfare posed by exploitative labour, resource extraction, and inequitable benefits. The study advocates for an inclusive approach to (nature-based) social welfare, encompassing marginalised issues and proposing concepts such as degrowth as potential solutions to the rapid development of information technologies and their societal implications.

The central thesis of this commentary focuses on the paradox of two wars occurring in parallel with Russian aggression in Ukraine. It is not just that—in addition to military action—there is a geopolitical tsunami and its consequences in the form of a possible food crisis, mass migration, or an already open energy war. The paradox relates to the fact that a potential Ukrainian victory could have adverse effects on the welfare of European countries as a consequence of the embargo on Russian hydrocarbons and the need to replace them (assuming there is no return to the ancien régime before the Russian aggression of February 24, 2022). The defeat of the Ukrainians, on the other hand, could lead to a so-called "new opening" and a gradual return to the import of Russian energy resources (which, although they will not obtain the pre-war volume, will provide energy stability for Europe in a period of diversifying contracts and developing investments in renewable energy sources).

Aware of the challenges faced by the social sciences in publishing a massive volume of research papers, it is worth looking at a novel but no longer so new ways of machine learning for the purposes of literature review. To this end, I explore a probabilistic topic model called Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) in the context of the epistemological challenge of analysing texts on social welfare. This paper aims to describe how the LDA algorithm works for large corpora of data, along with its advantages and disadvantages. This preliminary characterisation of an inductive method for automated text analysis is intended to give a brief overview of how LDA can be used in the social sciences.

This article deals with participatory culture through the prism of new media, identi-fied as standard with the development of information and communication tech-nologies (ICT) and information technology (IT). These technologies (co-)constitute the foundation of the network society, also referred to as the information society, and influence the economy and - undoubtedly - the cultural sphere. The main re-search problem posed in this article concerns reflections on participation patterns mediated by the new media in the context of psychological well-being and its op-posite the state of ill-being. This task requires a redefinition of the notions of par-ticipatory culture and new media and the adoption of specific determinants of well-being and ill-being, which - unlike in the case of the psychology of happiness - is concretised through sociologically understood categories of redistribution and recognition.

Celem artykułu jest charakterystyka własności z perspektywy socjologicznej, czy dokładniej – socjoekonomicznej. Chodzi w nim o wyeksponowanie różnicy w podejściu do problematyki własności ze strony prawa oraz socjologii, szczególnie w kontekście badania współczesnych przedsiębiorstw. Przegląd wybranych ujęć własności ma służyć wyartykułowaniu skomplikowanej natury corporate governance, której pełniejsze zrozumienie umożliwia prześledzenia prawnych oraz socjologiczno-ekonomicznych losów tego specyficznego stosunku społecznego.

Artykuł ma na celu charakterystykę oceny polskich czasopism naukowych z zakresu humanistyki i nauk społecznych w szerszym kontekście krajowych reform nauki i szkolnictwa wyższego. W tym celu wprowadzono pojęcie resentymentalnego racjonalizmu, nawiązujące do pracy Maxa Schelera, by uwypuklić dezorganizację kolejnych prób przebudowy systemu nauki zakorzenionych w złych i atawistycznych namiętnościach. W konsekwencji przyjętej optyki badawczej wyłania się obraz chaotycznych, upolitycznionych i utowarowionych reform, które nie tylko nie korygują pozycji nauki polskiej, ale dodatkowo antagonizują środowisko badaczy, uniemożliwiając zajmowanie się jej ważnymi problemami strukturalnymi.

This article attempts to descriptively characterize the impact of the sharing economy, using Uber as an example, on the social welfare of those people working via the app. For this purpose, the author proposes a theoretical concept of a technologically networked economy, which is a component of a broader heuristic model of a technologically networked reality. Furthermore, a critical review of the different approaches to the sharing economy and the diverse practices within it have been carried out. The results of the theoretical exploration of this increasingly popular phenomenon revealed parallels with the problems of nondigital labor markets in the field of the workforce. The clear separation of grassroots sharing practices from those in name only like Uber suggest that the latter do not realize social welfare more broadly than ordinary capitalist enterprises.

The conceptual approach to real social phenomena and problems, as well as factors influencing and shaping them, although theoretical in nature, has momentous practical consequences. The issue of nature, and in a narrower sense of climate, constitutes a telling and representative example of the implications of the theoretical and methodological orientation adopted to study society and its relationship with the environment and its resources. This short paper aims to highlight the consequences of the shift in research perspective from 'political economy' to 'political sociology' in the context of climate change and its challenges. The article's main argument is to outline the implications of the change of reference point for the conceptualisation and operationalisation of theoretical frameworks related to social problems and challenges, which, nota bene, are conditioned directly and indirectly by the state of the ecosystem. And the central thesis is that a fundamental reorientation towards nature and climate change within the dominant capitalist system will only be camouflaged maintenance of the status quo (accompanied noisily by a series of technological and fiscal solutions that solve nothing).

12 kwietnia 2018 roku, dwa dni przez swoimi sześćdziesiątymi szóstymi urodzinami, zmarł Profesor Jacek Tittenbrun, wybitny socjolog gospodarki związany z Uniwersytetem im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, członek rady naukowej "Studiów Krytycznych", promotor wielu prac magisterskich i doktorskich oraz nauczyciel wielu pokoleń socjologów i socjolożek. Niezwykle pracowity, dociekliwy i polemiczny badacz, którego cały dorobek naukowy i postawa życiowa przepełnione były myśleniem krytycznym.

Zasadniczym celem tekstu jest zwrócenie uwagi na potrzebę krytycznych ujęć szeroko rozumianej rzeczywistości społecznej w naukach społecznych i humanistycznych, szczególnie w czasach "parametryzacji" i "bibliometryzacji" tych ostatnich. Dyskurs krytyczny operujący "w poprzek" dobrze zinstytucjonalizowanych szkół, podejść czy paradygmatów stanowi wartość także dla – użyjmy określenia Thomasa Kuhna – "nauki normalnej", która konfrontowana z alternatywnymi koncepcjami musi być w stanie na nie odpowiedzieć i/lub zreformować swoje podstawy. Krytyczna koncepcja społeczeństwa stanowi zatem wartość nie tylko z perspektywy alternatywnej wizji "ładu społecznego", ale także z czysto pragmatycznych punktów widzenia zdominowanych aktorów życia społecznego.

The main aim of the article is to outline welfare sociology as a potential sub-discipline of sociology and to discuss the issues of broadly defined social welfare. While in contemporary social sciences the literature concerning welfare often focuses on themes such as happiness (psychology), prosperity (economics), or quality of life (sociology), these themes may be considered too narrow and do not reflect the complexity of the issue. However, if one considers the definition of social welfare through the prism of material and non-material needs, as well as the needs expressed individually and collectively, it is possible to attempt a comprehensive study of this phenomenon. The author uses the definition of social welfare to look at research on (a) welfare state regimes, (b) welfare attitudes and (c) issues of work in contemporary capitalism, all to enable the application of research results within the analysis of the title concept.

This article addresses the problem of the crisis of capitalist society, as described by Alain Touraine, through the example of urban space. It attempts to trace the symptoms of the crisis in the context of the urban question, understood as the set of (potential or actual) dysfunctional consequences of the organization of social life in accord with individual and/or collective expectations within the sphere of the city.