Harnessing a cultural sociological approach to explore transformations in key social spheres in post-1989 Poland, Chmielewska-Szlajfer illuminates shifts in religiosity, sympathy towards others, and civic activity in post-Communist Poland in the light of Western influence over elements of Polish life. Reshaping Poland’s Community after Communism focuses on three major cases, largely ignored in Polish scholarship: (1) a hugely popular, faux-baroque Catholic shrine, which illustrates new strategies adopted by the Polish Catholic Church to attract believers; (2) Woodstock Station, a widely known free charity music festival, demonstrating new practices of sympathy towards strangers; and (3) the emergence of national internet pro-voting campaigns and small-town watchdog websites, which uncover changes in practical uses of civic engagement. In exploring grass-roots, everyday negotiations of religiosity, charity, and civic engagement in contemporary Poland, Chmielewska-Szlajfer demonstrates how a country’s cultural changes can suggest wider, dramatic democratic transformation.

The changes that Central European cities have undergone since 1989 deserve a complex, interdisciplinary analysis that offers deep insight into the specific nature of the transformation taking place in the region. This book presents a multidimensional and cross-disciplinary case study of Kraków, focusing on the changes taking place in Central Europe over the last three decades. This book answers the question of how the once neglected city of Kraków has transformed into a thriving global tourist destination, an attractive investment market, and a European leader of shared services. It examines political, socio-economic, cultural, and architectural development of the city against the ongoing processes of post-1989 political and economic transition, European integration, and globalisation. The authors offer a portrait of the evolution in thinking about the developmental resources of the city, accounting for what is broadly construed as culture and heritage. Whereas previous studies have offered only one-dimensional insights into these phenomena, this book highlights the specific characteristics of the transition and identifies the challenges typical of many cities in Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary, after the fall of communism. This book will be valuable reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate and PhD students of economic geography, urban studies, public management, political studies, sociology, culture and heritage management, and modern history, as well as those with an interest in Central European and transformation issues.

Thick Big Data presents the available arsenal of new methods and tools for studying society both quantitatively and qualitatively, opening ground for the social sciences to take the lead in analysing digital behaviour. These tools are critical for students and researchers in the social sciences to successfully build mixed-methods approaches.

Often reduced to the role of sensationalist gossipmongers, online tabloids are a vital source of political news for the public. This book offers a deep dive into Pudelek, Mail Online, and Gawker coverage of 2015-2016 political campaigns in Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where votes led to major populist shifts. Thanks to a close study of news stories, anonymous comments under articles, and interviews with online-tabloid journalists, Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer exposes the emotional public sphere of comment sections, as well as the key tabloid “(not) kidding” frame: ambiguous, reactive to readers, and shielding online tabloids from accusations of deteriorating democracy.

This open access book examines how civil society organizations in Poland, Russia, and Sweden (re)act to transformations of opportunities and limitations in access to various forms of resources. The volume’s contributions discuss the constraints associated with different types of resources as well as organizations’ capacities to generate resources—or compensate for their lack—as they negotiate and contest barriers. The resourcefulness of civil society is revealed to be rooted in a variety of capabilities: converting resources, eliciting organizational change, and metamorphosing in response to organizational and environmental development. ​

This book explores the reinterpretations of Poland’s past which have been undertaken by Polish national and local elites since the fall of communism. It focuses on remembrance practices and traces the de-commemorating of communism to examine the ways in which collective remembering and forgetting shapes present power constellations in Poland and impacts on foreign and domestic policy. The book outlines the detail of the new hegemonic national myths which are being established but also investigates fragmentation and diversification of commemorative practices at the local level that has the most potential to challenge the dominant vision of national Polish identity, historically centred on martyrdom, heroism and independence, as less relevant to Poland’s new aspirations for the future.

Located between the former Soviet Union and eastern Germany, Poland has the potential to become a political and economic bridge between the East and West. It is crucial to European security and stabilization; yet the list of reference books on recent Polish history is very short. This book fills that gap, providing information on Polish political, economic, and cultural history since 1945.

In a vivid account of every stage of the migration process, this topical book presents new research that looks in-depth at Polish migration to the UK, in particular the lives of working-class Polish families in the West of England.

Now in a fully revised and updated edition, this essential text provides a comprehensive introduction to Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltics and Ukraine. Broad but nuanced, it offers a reader-friendly overview of the globally and regionally significant changes and challenges the region faces. Divided into two parts, the book first presents thematic chapters on key issues, including nationalism and challenges to democratic institutions and practices, the contentious politics of memory, debates over demography and migration in a region with a shrinking population, and Russian efforts to retain regional influence through hard and soft power. The case-study chapters that follow highlight key political developments after communism as well as providing a strong foundation for readers on regional history and the political and economic experiences of the communist years. Each covers the foundational topics of political history, political competition, economic development, social problems, relationships with European institutions, and threats to good governance. For students and specialists alike, this book will be an invaluable resource on this dynamic region of Europe.

The authors analyse macro-level political decisions across various societies as well as individual actions and experiences to advocate for a more inclusive and effective education system capable of driving social change. They consider relationships between politics, education and social change – in various contexts and dimensions. The macro level of educational policy (and politics) is confronted with the micro realities of human biographies. However, the authors do not consider people who are influenced by political decisions as incapacitated "mass". Thus, social change always results from these macro-micro connections. This interdisciplinary book includes themes related to political sciences, education, and sociology, which resulted from the authors' study of contemporary social and education phenomena. It gives insight into interesting paradoxes and controversies.