The centennial of the publication of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, by Thomas and Znaniecki, presents a unique occasion to commemorate the monumental work like not many others. This special commemoration emanates from the breadth and complexity of the book and the extent of influence it exerted over sociology, philosophy, anthropology, social history, and social psychology. The book has inspired analyses of societies, closely connected with the social justice, informed social policies, remained debated and critiqued by opponents and those who considered themselves as ‘internal critics’. Twenty years after the publication of the first volume of the book, the Social Science Research Council surveyed historians and social scientists to inquire which works “had made the most significant contributions” to their respective disciplines. Sociologists selected The Polish Peasant. In its aftermath, H. Blumer produced an extensive, book-length analysis of the book, which became the first volume in a series of Critiques of Research in the Social Science.

Present day brings a renewed concern over the social issues that Thomas and Znaniecki focused on in their work.  Precipitated by the Solidarity movement in Poland, the 21century system change--the transformations of state socialism to capitalism in the Eastern Europe-- generated the post 1989 globally felt massive political, economic and cultural consequences. The system change affected present day Europeisation process, on the level of European nation-states, organizations, and individuals. It also unleashed unprecedented migration waves and revived social concerns over societal integration that accompanied massive waves of immigrations, meaning and boundaries of nationhood, ethnicity and ethnic identity.

The conference organizers invite the submission of abstracts related, though not limited, to the themes below:

 

* The Polish Peasant and Beyond; the Chicago School--extensions of, and departures from the Thomas and Znaniecki’s classic in the development of sociological theory;

 

* The methodological approach of The Polish Peasant and the ethnographic approach to study the contemporary globalizing processes, with the particular focus on the regional globalization--Europeization process;

 

* Sociological Practice and Public Sociology; the authors of The Polish Peasant as precursors of transcending the dichotomy of scientific and public knowledge?

 

* Social Justice issues and Policy Implications stemming from The Polish Peasant and their relevance for the current social interventions and immigration policy formations;

 

* The attitudes and values as the key concepts in The Polish Peasant & the post 1989 Big Change in the Eastern Europe and beyond, in the collective imagination and behavior, on the national, organizational and individual levels;

 

* The Polish Peasant theory of disintegration and reintegration & contestations over the European integration, challenges to democratic consolidation projects, and the formation of new collective identities, and inter- and intra-ethnic relations;

 

* The early 20th century global capitalism in The Polish Peasant & the late capitalism unbound: uneven development, segmentation of labor markets, spatial mobility, and migratory movements;

 

* The Polish Peasant’s thesis on the shift from affective to purposive and rational form of action & the contemporary scholarship on ethnicity, ethno-national identity formation in the age of economic individualization;

 

* The disintegration theory in The Polish Peasant & the contemporary scholarship on the social costs of regional globalization in Europe—brutalization of daily lives, crime, primary groups brake-down

 

The conference will take place in Poznań, Poland, at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (AMU). The country is inseparably tied to the genesis of The Polish Peasant and to the contemporary massive migratory movements associated with the post-1989 Europeization processes. Poznań, a major city in the Western Poland, is particularly suited as a site of the centennial commemoration of The Polish Peasant. It was in Poznań, where Florian Znaniecki wrote his major scholarly works upon the return from the US, after collaborating with Thomas on The Polish Peasant. It was also in Poznań, where Znaniecki institutionalized sociology as an academic discipline in Poland by establishing the first sociology department (referred to as the Institute of Sociology) at the Poznań University.

Submissions:

 

Respondents are expected to upload a file with a 300-word abstract of the proposed paper and the CV by March 21st, 2018. Submissions without the attached CV will not be considered. Presenters will be notified by April 19th and should register to attend the conference April 20th through May 10th 2018.

 

Abstracts must be submitted in English via the official conference e-mail: polish.peasant2018@gmail.com

 

The conference fee is EUR 90 for all presenters and attendees, payable at the registration time (comprising conference materials, meals, cocktail party and banquet, prospective publication). Reduction of fee is possible in individual cases.

 

See conference webpage http://socjologia.amu.edu.pl/new/aktualnosci/60-english/139-polish-peasant-symposium-2018