The People’s Republic of China currently possesses the second biggest national economy in the world, smaller only to that of the United States. It is also a matter of time for China to become the greatest economic power, at least regarding share in aggregated global GDP and the sphere of international trade. Growing engagement of China in global economic development and its dependence on other participants of trade exchanges have made this country a  more ‘responsible shareholder’ of the international economic system. China has a  great development interest in upholding a  stable world economic situation, and especially in proper economic relations with the United States and the European Union, on whose markets its healthy development largely depends. Whether China will soon become a “mature, responsible and attractive superpower” depends to a significant degree not only on its efforts but also on proper relations with major trade and investment partners around the world. It seems that mutually beneficial economic relations between the PRC and the European Union (founded on mutually beneficial and strategic cooperation and not on serious and opaque competition) constitute one of the key factors determining this scenario’s validity. Unfortunately, for the time being, many problems arise in this relationship. They come from both sides requiring a proper diagnosis, as well as a scientific analysis including both assessment and prognosis. The presented scientific article tries to meet these expectations.

The exclusive interview with Mr Lech Wałęsa, the legendary leader of “Solidarity” Trade Union, the Noble Peace Prize Laureate in 1983 and the President of Poland from 1990 to 1995, on the state of democracy in Poland and Europe, presents Mr Wałęsa’s perspective on challenges that contemporary political leaders have to face. It discusses four major areas: a historical consideration of Poland’s post-communist transformation, a today’s perspective on democracy in Poland, an evaluation of country’s role in united Europe and a discussion of processes that threaten democracy in Poland and Europe. In the interview, Mr Wałęsa shares his hopes and fears, and he presents main ideas for the new political times. His assessments do not focus only on the today’s state of democracy, but he also tries to consider how the democracy may look like in the future. As a result, the Polish Political Science Yearbook publishes a unique conversation with the legend of the struggle against Communist dictatorships in Europe that shows Mr Wałęsa’s personal remarks on the democracy, the globalised World and modern technologies. 

In the contemporary world, the development of education is given special importance. Education is considered as a basic force of civilization changes. Interdisciplinary education, focused on innovation, is seen as a necessary challenge to cultural changes. The level of education is becoming an increasingly important factor in determining the economic, political and social behaviour as well as values shaping systems. Currently, educational challenges are of interest to different actors of cultural life. They draw attention to the types of education, institutional arrangements, curricula, the teachers image, educators and students, teaching methods, forms of extracurricular education, financial aspects, etc. These issues are awakening big disputability, and even controversy, both political factors, responsible for shaping educational policy and public opinion, including teachers and researchers interested in various aspects of education. There is on the one hand – pursuance to preserve tradition, cultivating patterns developed in the historical process and enrich them through the elements of civilization challenges and on the other hand – promotes belief in the need for education outgoing to meet civilization challenges of education called modern, rejecting the existing patterns of development; moreover, in a Polish cultural reality, the traditional school model is known as a little – friendly institution for teacher and student. 

Generally idea of united Europe has to guarantee peace and stabilization on it territory. At what there is dispute in aspect of stated of this territory. It notices itself, that borders of Europe wasn’t definite; it treats this particularly it concerns eastern border, which was movable. Trying to show borders of Europe usually it calls itself three conceptions. First from cancellation oneself to empire of Charles Great. Ruler that created monarchy in conditions of threat expansion of Arabs. That notion came into being European also, which fighting knights with Arabias invasions on Pyrenean Peninsula were de! ned. Heirs of Great Charles, Ottons, divided own territory on four large regions: Italy, Germany, Gaul and Sclavinia. Eastern border came to river Elbe: with run of years Otton’s territory included Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland. Second conception was built on so-called eastern schisms from 16th July of 1054 year. Christian world divided (orthodox) and western (roman catholic onto eastern order, called also catholic). Line of division ran resource from Adriatic to Danube, existing in XX century called state Yugoslavia; on Balkans they be shaped then Slavic communities; Serbians as well as Bulgarians tied with Orthodox Church, Slovenians and Croats with Catholicism. Alongside with Christianization civilization border shi! ed beyond Danube reaching for Arctic borders of continent. In Catholic circle there were Hungarians, western Slavs (Czechs, Slovaks, poles), Balts, Estonians and Finns; meanwhile in circle of order orthodox church found themselves Romanians and eastern Slavs (Ukrainians, Byelorussian).2 Russian diplomatist Wasilij Tatiszew on beginning XVIII age advanced third conception, recognizing mountains and river Ural for eastern border of Europe; he showed, that one should Russia to Europe.

The problem of politics is that nobody controls it anymore, because the social formula of its acceptance is expiring, or has already expired. There is anarchy. There exist monopolies of international corporations, which try to govern globally but do not have sufficient social legitimation to do it. The notion of economic globalisation that refers to this has been developed, but in reality there is a vacuum of global management and participation (the growth of emotions over reasons, a tribal approach, and territorialism) in the prospect of growing threats (e.g. climate change, terrorism, migrations, pandemics). An average human, full of natural envy, desires that everybody can fulfil themselves in the material world the same as them, and such equality would be satisfying for them as we know that the argument about similar stomachs is universal. He or she does not want equality in spiritual realisation; here, with ease, he or she accepts that there are smarter and more talented people than them, but they will defend fiercely their equality, treating their right to it extremely seriously. Equality is a part of human faith, and practice confirms the suggestions that traditional mythical patterns cannot be eliminated without toil. Certainly, there is no threat of the end of politics. So far, all living organisms of the human kind organise themselves. The specifics of this self-organisation depend on self-determination. People will have an interest in politics as long as politics determines their security. Nowadays, we are again witnesses to disorder, revolution, desperation, and terror, so the factors that cause fear start to dominate in the moral narrative. Finally, security and directing improvement of life chances are tasks of politics and the political character. It would be a catastrophe if a problem of security returned to its pre-political state. The basic aspect of human self-determination is the organisation of every personal life according to the norms and activities allowed by the group. Theories referring to the crisis of democracy (through e.g. the dictates of fear of nuclear war, terrorism, ecologic catastrophe, a technocratic state with an expert-driven system, entertainment justified by economic-political interest groups, and losing sovereignty through complicated institutions, external networks, and sub-political social subgroups) could become true, or have already become true. The loss of reputation, credibility, and attractiveness can happen at the same time as the decline of the meaning of internalisation in social communication, which appears in the growing discouragement towards politics and the creation of subsystems that are not predictable and steerable in a democratic way because of their complexity.

The process of globalisation poses global challenges, both new or already existing. There exist global threats of intense power interactions. Each act of creation of World Order is accompanied by predicaments, as there are multiple interests and numerous exclusive aspirations, all of which need to be overcome in order to shape a foundation for a secure Global Order. Thus, teachers’ responsibility for the transmission of knowledge about the world after the bipolar rivalry between the Soviet Union and the USA is of utmost importance in school education. Undoubtedly, teachers’ expertise is meant to shape pupils’ further choices and lifestyles.

The summary may not be so original, but I take the liberty of quoting Jan Czaja’s words which in my book are really accurate: „Summing up considerations on the topic of sources for Polish culture, it may be said that they connect - like opportunities for its development - with its opening to the world, what means opening both on global and mass culture (equating generally with commercial American products) and more and more advanced European integration, thus both process are not coherent. As a one, this process is extraordinarily complicated and conflictual. It is worth to remember that flowing with figments from another culture would be really dangerous, if it have met thoughtless and dull society which can afford on creative internalization but only mindless imitation. As Polish history shows, society was forced to life in the face of many dangers, its culture developed the best in periods of such dangers, mostly in places of their bigger closeness (for example on Eastern marches). Moreover, there is no agreement among theorists if dangers dominate or civilizational chances resulted from this opening. And at the end the nontrivial matter: opening for this stream from world (from West) is a result of our sovereign decision what makes the situation diametrical different in comparison to that one from the period of socialism when the stream of dominant culture (from Soviet Union) was a result of horrible war, Jałta’s matter and also political and ideological enslavement”.

The article describes the commodification process, focusing on the sphere of labour. The specificity of the approach consists of treating labour as a component of the systemic transformation of the Polish society. The Polish people, on their way from real socialism to market democracy, are undergoing a particularly intense commodification process. This process has been intensified by Poland’s accession to the European Union and by globalisation, due to participation in supranational market systems at the regional (European) and global levels. Empirically, the commodification process has been analysed using awareness studies. Subjects were young inhabitants of Warsaw with higher education, and the study results were additionally related to nationallevel research. The labour sphere is seen here as a key element of the wider social reality and it is studied empirically in terms of individual orientations which the subjects exhibit towards normative social models. The processes of commodification and decommodification are seen in the context of the systemic transformation from centralisedautocratic to the marketdemocratic models of society. Attention has also been paid to the role of the welfare state, whose key function is to protect citizens from major risks, including the risk of being unemployed. The empirical study clearly shows the specificity of labour in commodification processes. Labour was shown to be an element that stands out from the other elements of the social system.

Identity in the age of globalisation (a report on Manford Kuhn’s Twenty Statements Test taken by the students from Poland and Zimbabwe)

The global reality, and in particular the extensive network of economic, political and also strategic interdependencies, especially over the past several years, has led to a significant conversion of the educational model. As a result of the real changes taking place, whole social categories can be observed, whose life, work and also study are completely uprooted from a specific place and the concept of “we” goes beyond the borders of the local community. This raises the question of the factors that shape the “self” in the changing global world of the 21st century. The aim of this article is to compare the categories within which young people from Poland and Zimbabwe define themselves and to identify the dominant elements of a description of the “self” concept. The research tool is the Twenty Statements Test designed by the symbolic interactionist Manford Kuhn. McPartland’s (1959) codification key is used to interpret the test results.

The article analyses the impact of inequalities on the stability of the global society. The author asks questions concerning the reasons for global inequalities. The link between globalization and global inequalities is presented as well as the connections between the free market rules and the growing gap between the North and the South. Some solutions to the problem are also suggested.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have brought to the surface problems of the modern world that the international community has not seriously addressed. These problems appear to be, on the one hand, the management of global public health and, on the other, relations between states on international trade. These situations are linked to circumstances that have altered the power relations of states over the years, challenging the centrality of the West and the already fragile power of UN institutions. This research analyses the international situation of two UN bodies: the WHO and the WTO, addressing the governance crisis on public health and international trade and trying to understand the causes of the decline in the leadership of their institutions. Adopting a thorough literature review, the findings show how faulty leadership within the UN has led to a significant increase in nationalism among emerging nations, distrust and lack of cooperation. The divergent political visions of members have radically shaken the international balance, triggering a cycle of change in the governance of global health and global trade on a new premise, that of ‘multilevel’ global governance.

The paper sets out to deconstruct two concepts featuring in the title. Firstly, a novel definition of the welfare state based on economic ownership is presented, used then throughout the paper to examine the facts behind the widespread view of the welfare state finding itself in a crisis. Upon scrutiny, it turns out that empirical evidence to support the thesis under investigation is weak at best; neither globalisation nor Europeanization bring about any significant quantitative or qualitative worsening of welfare parameters. In addition, it is imperative not to put all the welfare states into one bag, as they in fact represent a plethora of diverse social-protection regimes.

The paper presents three possible 'futures' and 6 scenarios for schools that are elaborated in the OECD report published as a book entitled What Schools for the Future? in 2001 and its sequel in 2003 Networks of Innovation. Towards New Models for Managing Schools and Systems. These different visions are compared and archetypes of the types of leaders that each of them might require are proposed. The implications for developing such managers to meet the demands of varying future scenarios are then considered. Finally, the question to what extent these visions are globally relevant is explored and whether globalisation of educational policy and practice itself is a desirable future.

The Tragedy of Ukrainian Children of War – Globalisation and Civilisation Crossroads of the Modern Era

The article focuses on a relevant contemporary issue – the tragic events taking place in modern Ukraine, struggling for independence in a bloody war against the Russian occupier. In the era of globalisation, the civilisation crossroads where Ukraine is located, determine the accessibility of common cultural values, the necessity of historical consolidation and integration in overcoming global world differences, which sometimes lead to conflicts and wars.The author analyses historical, pedagogical and axiological research on children who have experienced various kinds of trauma as a result of the Russian- -Ukrainian war; typical difficulties faced by Ukrainian teachers in working with students affected by the Russian military aggression have been identified; the author has proposed the most effective methods and techniques for working with children of war, in particular those temporarily displaced due to the war in Ukraine; and outlines the areas of teacher training in the organisation of the educational process in the conditions of (post) martial law. The article focuses on the qualitative interpretation of the research results based on theoretical compilation of the author’s experience and intuition.