Niniejszy artykuł jest próbą opisania zjawiska najnowszych migracji Polaków, które mają miejsce po 2004 roku, kiedy Polska stała się państwem członkowskim Unii Europejskiej i kiedy wielu Polaków znalazło zatrudnienie za granicami własnego kraju. Większość migrantów z Polski, relatywnie dobrze wykształconych, młodych i mających przykre doświadczenia w kraju wysyłającym, radzi sobie w nowych okolicznościach społecznych i zawodowych całkiem dobrze i wyraża zadowolenie z powodu podjęcia decyzji o wyjeździe. Z tego punktu widzenia problematyka migracji jest bardzo ważna i aktualna. Kiedy ludzie migrują z jednego narodu czy kultury do odmiennych, ich tożsamość kulturowa oraz ich poczucie przynależności podlega zmianom. Celem artykułu jest odpowiedź na pytanie: W jakim stopniu środowisko społeczno-kulturowe różnicuje dystans społeczny wobec obcych emigrantów polskich w Niemczech, ludności miejscowej oraz Polaków zamieszkujących w kraju? W prezentowanym artykule poruszone zostały różnice dotyczące dystansu społecznego badanych wobec osób innych narodowości oraz wobec wyznawców innych religii.

The aim of the research was to establish the relationship between Polish and Ukrainian students’ social distance towards „others” and their place of residence. Social distance is defined according to the conception of E. Bogardus, as the level of liking and closeness of relations, or aversion and avoiding contacts with certain people or social groups. „Other” is understood as a person of different nationality. The author employs diagnostic poll as the method and the social distance scale as the tool of research. 480 students from Poland and 491 from Ukraine were included in the study. The analyses proved the existence of directly proportional relationship between the investigated factors. The subjects coming from large cities show more positive attitude towards „others” than the ones who live in towns and villages. Large cities are becoming more and more culturally diversified in terms of material, spiritual and symbolic spheres. The strangers who arrive at big agglomerations bring different cultural patterns, axiological and normative systems as well as languages.. They come in order to seek employment or as tourists. The situation leads to more intense contacts and multidimensional interactions, which, in turn, result in getting to know each other, increased understanding of individuality, tolerance and acceptance of values. The phenomenon in not usually found in towns and villages.

Students about relations with Different/Stranger

The article presents the results of the research on the definitional view of the Other/Other, the sources of knowledge and personal experiences of the respondents relating to people different from them. In the first part of the article, the definitions of Otherness/Alien according to different authors are cited and the difference of these two conceptual categories is shown. In the next part of the paper, the negative reactions of society to otherness/ foreignness are presented, with particular emphasis on racist and xenophobic attitudes. Research showing the scale of pejorative behavior toward Otherness/ foreignness in Polish society is presented. The third part of the study presents the results of the author’s research on the relations of students of the University of Rzeszow and the State Higher School of Technology and Economics in Jaroslaw with Others/Aliens, who are part of their immediate environment, including students. The analysis of the research results is an attempt to answer the question “Who is the Other/Other in the perception of students?”.

Dehumanization of the Other. The role of popular art in raising awareness of the problem. The case of Men Against Fire (2016)

Dehumanization is – in the broadest sense – the process of depriving a person of positive human qualities. This problem, considered mainly in the field of social psychology, has strong pedagogical significance. The article is aimed to show the potential importance of popular art for intercultural education, precisely: to show the role that popular art can play in raising the awareness of the problem posed by dehumanization of the Other. To achieve the intended goal, the author indicates the justified presence of popular art in education, introduces the concept of the Other, i.e. a person who is beyond the horizon of a given person’s experience, who is outside a given community or is cognitively dangerous, and outlines the issue of dehumanization. The exemplification was conducted on the example of the episode of the British science fiction series Black Mirror – Men Against Fire (2016). The considerations are carried out from the perspective of contemporary aesthetic education, which refers conceptually to the Polish theory of aesthetic education. Humanistically oriented, contemporary aesthetic education must be conducted in the vein of pluralism and interculturalism; it should also contribute to the development of a person’s holistic personality: from their aesthetic sensitivity and moral orientation, to their ability of critical thinking and creativity. In the article, the possibilities are indicated of using popular art in education by building theoretical interpretive contexts.