This paper is a continuation of my reflection upon “neo-liberal entanglements of education” and an attempt to interpret Michel Foucault’s works with respect to selected aspects of youth policy in Poland. My focus here is on the relations between the issues of government and morality. I will begin with a brief examination of Foucault’s views on government and governmentality, pointing out some trains of thought that will be developed in the further sections. In what follows, I will present an attempt at the risk discourse analysis, focusing my attention on the regimes of truth employed in youth policy. Discussing the political and economic potential of realized risk used by the neo-liberal program, I will refer to some specific ideas of “technologies of the self” – from the Greek principle of care for oneself; then, the idea of getting to know oneself to the modern ethics of investing in oneself. Finally, referring to Foucault’s findings, I will place neo-liberal techniques within the context of two regimes: the discourse of threat (risk) and the discourse of civicness. I will examine how the production of the “threat” and “civicness” as educational practices of constituting of the self takes place within these regimes.

Too little attention has been paid to the school institutions intended to educate and socialize the children of the upper classes. Greece has a significant history of private educational institutions. Yet their history and role within the educational system and society has been consistently neglected. The study of elite private education and its relationship with the social reproduction of the upper and middle classes in Greece has been even more neglected. Through a study of elite private secondary schools, following the theoretical model of Pierre Bourdieu, we explored the relationship that the middle and upper social strata of Greek society maintain with specific private schools. In order to determine the above, we conducted a quantitative field survey at 13 well-known private schools in Athens, using a questionnaire. In these schools we find considerable over-representation of the social categories that are placed at the summit of the social hierarchy. A basic argument of our study was that different sections of the middle and upper classes develop different educational strategies to ensure their social reproduction and to increase their privileges. These different strategies adopted by traditional and more recently emerging social classes are reflected in the differences among the elite private schools as a “field” and they distinguished the very top private schools from the less prestigious one. Also, we have found that sections of the Greek upper and middle class provide their offspring, through certain schools and activities, with an international capital which is a necessary condition for their future participation in international educational and professional markets. The study’s central research methodology included geometrical data analysis such as correspondence analysis.

This paper focuses on the question whether the perceived distance between the low status of the school that is attended by the pupils, the high ambitions of these pupils, and the feasibility of achieving these goals could lead to the total evaporation of any motivation to do well at school. Is educational success of pupils in the lowest level of secondary education hampered by the realization that one’s chances to reach a highly respected social position are very limited? In this article, we, firstly, study how adolescents evaluate people in distinctive social positions and to what extent they are aware of status distinctions. Secondly, what are the expectations and ambitions of youngsters and how do they describe their own characteristics when asked to respond to questions, such as “who are you?” and “where do you locate yourself in society?”. Thirdly, we analyze their views on society, their self-images and career expectations. We want to investigate whether these images and projections differ in correlation with their level and type of education.

There are many misconceptions about what is called “integral education”. We propose an integral approach to education based on the historical thinking of John Dewey and on the more recent AQAL concept by Ken Wilber. At the centre of integral education, there is a Subject. Subject equals his/her perspective. Integral education is a process of constructing/creating perspectives in the subject. We propose that four main perspectives can be applied to the educational process and the Integral Education Matrix includes these perspectives. The matrix can be a useful tool for planning actions and outcomes in the process of education.

This study deals with burnout as a multifactor phenomenon, which is a state of complete mental, somatic, cognitive, and behavioral exhaustion. The aim is to provide an analysis of burnout, its causes, symptoms, developmental stage, and diagnostic methods. The study reported burnout as one of the manifestations of the contemporary developed, hurried, and consumer society, which is characterized by an increased pace of life and ever-growing economic and social demands. The first part of the analysis found burnout on a general level and in specific the profession of a university teacher. The first part of the study focuses on the characteristics of burnout, its reasons and various influencing variables, as well as the most vulnerable individuals. Another part of the study presents the different stages of burnout, which differ in various stages of development. In the next section, burnout relative to the profession of university teacher, which is characterized by specific forms and load requirements, is presented. At the conclusion of the study, the prevention of burnout, which should take place on a personal, organizational, and work level, is taken into account. Attention is drawn to the methods of diagnosing burnout. In essence, the study provides a comprehensive presentation of burnout, which creates potential and increasing threats to the form of the individual. The aim of the study was to develop a systematic approach to look at burnout as a gradual process with a set of cumulative and interrelated symptoms.

The thesis of this paper applies to the mediatization of politics process during American presidential campaign of 2008. It is entrenched in the theory of political communication. Because of the primary assumptions in the analysis below, political communication is considered mainly from perspective of the models of relations between the mass media and politics, which are treated as systems. It is justified because those relations influence the abovementioned systems and play the biggest role in affecting mass society and culture. In this thesis, the public is considered as having less influence on entire process of political communication. In order to clarify the subject of the research, the division into structural and functional mediatization was created. Structural mediatization, which is the main subject of the analysis, occurs when structures of the media and political systems come into dependence and subordination relation. Parts of the media system dominate over the analogical elements in the political system, internalizing media logic. Individual elements of the political world comply to the media logic and the media orders. Subjects of the political system implement political marketing methods to use the dominant role of the media in the process. Functional mediatization can be defined as a transfer of systemic relations at the smallest possible level – specific case in micro scale,when the medium controls a political actor. Here, the mediatization takes its most radical form. The medium on every stage of constructing the political reality can manipulate and deform a media political reality

Many members of a society deal with their everyday problems on their own, but there are people who look for and receive support from other individuals, groups and institutions. Social networks are considered important providers of resources accumulated in and of services delivered by the local community. The article is focused on social support networks of families living in big city in comparison with families living less urbanized communes. The first part of the analyses presents social support networks in various theoretical approaches. The main subject of empirical reflection are the resources available to these families as a result of informal social relations. The main conclusions are that informal social network of studied families is important for solving their every-day problems and the main resource of support for them are close relatives, then friends and the most rarelyneighbors, but the patterns of support expected and received within informal networks vary according to age and quality of residence. The paper is based on the results of the research conducted in 2008–2009 (the quota sample – 500 families living in Lodz and 1000 families living in less urbanized communes) within the project “Social network and local partnership in counteracting social exclusion and intergenerational transmission of poverty” (Nr H02E 021 29) coordinated by author.

This paper presents the chosen and initial issues relating to the potential of the historical gentrification in Nowa Huta – the part of Krakow that was erected as a new, perfect town of socialism in the 50s. In order to investigate the gentrification potential of this area, I take into account the important subject of urban changes present in the Polish conditions. In fact, I do it from a different perspective and in a different moment; I observe the gentrification process through the eyes of the new citizens and in its introductory phase.

The purpose of this paper is to present the analyses of the discursive strategies of constructing gender difference in the articles published in the Science in Poland bulletin. This bulletin is an important platform for the popularization of Polish and world science. It is funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland. In the article, I assume that gender is a socially constructed structure (including discursive) level, about the difference between men and women, especially anatomically. Starting from the assumptions of the theory of discourse, which is understood as the process of producing and reproducing social meaning, the analysis includes articles published on the website between 2005 and 2010. In the first part of the paper, I introduce the definition of gender and gender beliefs, which are an important context for the analysis. Then, the content and the method of research (the analysis of discourse) are characterized. In the last part of the paper, the results of research characterizing the main discursive strategies reproducing gender in polarized, homogeneous, and universal categories are presented.

In our article we will try to answer the following questions: how do the teachers in the pedagogical centres and the primary schools cope with the negative emotions? What kind of techniques and strategies do the teachers use to manage their emotions in difficult situations? The theoretical background constitutes Arlie Hochschild’s theory and conception of Theodore D. Kemper. We consider whether teachers’ demonstration of emotions during their work (teaching process) is a method to achieve a fixed goal or rather a random behavior and whether an emotional expression is some instrumental operation or an accidental one? Can emotional work be considered by teachers? Do people who embody in the teacher’s role simultaneously accept the rules of behavior, including emotional behavior? Finally, whether the emotions revealed in the teachers’ work are the result of possessed power and status? As the result of conducted research, teachers employed in educational institutions revealed negative emotions more rarely towards educational reforms than the teachers working in the public schools. The basis of this regularity stems from the fact that employed staff fulfill firstly the pedagogical and later educational function in the Reformatory and Youth Detention Centres. In public institutions such as primary schools the situation is opposite. Generally, we conclude that the longer the occupational experience of the teacher, the better strategy to deal with negative emotions. Young teachers used to rely on their older colleagues experience and reflections or use a trial-and-error-method to cope with the negative emotions at work.

One of the broadly discussed issues, in particular in societies with poor infrastructure of formal care of dependent people (i.e. Poland), is the effect of the ageing process on the efficiency of informal care of the elderly by family members, friends, neighbors, and local communities. The complex situation of elderly care resulting from dropping fertility is further complicated when the emigration rate is high in a given country, such as Poland. The problem is often conceptualized in terms of moral panic. It needs to be emphasized that intergenerational transfers are not unidirectional and not always necessary, as exemplified by parents often helping their children working abroad, and not all elderly parents need care. In this article, I will emphasize the point of view of the parents of migrants, by focusing on the functioning of the transnational system of social security that consists of different actors (migrating and relatively immobile) in both sending and receiving societies. Quantitative and qualitative data from the field studies carried out from 2010–2012 will be used for the purpose of this text.

The process of identity formation during the transition from adolescence into adulthood and its determinants are currently a central issue in the social sciences. On the one hand, the huge variety of possibilities presents the opportunity to expand the fields of exploration and to tailor commitments to individual aspirations and preferences. On the other hand, increasing instability and Bauman’s liquidity of the social environment of development may create threats that impede the making of decisions, engaging in their realization, and identifying with the choices made. James Marcia’s two-stage model of identity formation no longer adequately describes and accounts for paths of identity development. The dynamic dual-cycle model of identity formation developed by Koen Luyckx and collaborators is much more accurate. Although identity continues to develop throughout course of life, childhood, and adolescence in particular, seems to be pivotal from the point of view of which developmental trajectory the individual is on at the moment of his/her entry into adulthood. From this point of view, the factors which we regard as crucial for identity formation are shame proneness and shame regulation strategies on the one hand, and the system of personal beliefs about one’s life and related key social experiences which define the quality of social participation of adolescents on the other hand.

This paper attempts to show an idea of art therapy as complex: social, psychological and cultural system. Art therapy, in this sense, is not just a therapy (in traditional sense). Due to critical philosophical and social theories art therapy, in intersectional perspective, is strictly connected with feminism, queer, critical art and postcolonial movement. The most important ideas of intersectional theory (such as awareness of multidimensional problems of minorities) are also important for art therapy which shows practical implications of art therapy’s theory. The article is concerned with art therapy as a discipline. It shows practical applications of intersectional ideas in institutional and existential perspectives of art therapist’s work. The text shows specific art movements connected with work against prejudice and stigmatization.

Media change our culture. Complete and creative participation in culture requires at present new forms of knowledge, skills, and competencies. The aim of the paper is to present a possible direction for teaching about media. The considerations start with a discussion about the various approaches to media literacy. On the basis of the concepts of selected authors (Innis, Havelock, McLuhan, Flusser, Kittler, Ulmer), an attempt is made to describe the media dominated change in the culture that poses new educational goals before the system and enforces the application of new methods and tools. The category of metaliteracy performs here a heuristic function, which allows for the description of the problem in a new way, enabling fruitful analysis. Hence, it is shown that the ability to read and write is not sufficient for complete participation in culture at present. New forms of literacy, taking into account the domination of new media, have to be elaborated. The focus on electronic, information, or digital literacy, highlighted in the background literature, replaces old limitations by the new ones. The paper suggests that a new teaching strategy, based on the patterns of multiliteracy and metaliteracy, should be introduced. Only such a wellfounded strategy will allow the shaping of people capable of compete and creative functioning in the contemporary world.

Studies have been conducted in respecting the sensory preferences and learning styles of students with technical disciplines. It was Interesting to determine whether these students’ cognitive preferences are changing as a result of their participation in the learning process. To this end, research was conducted among students in engineering physics at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of studies. The results have been presented in this paper. They showed changes in sensory preferences and learning styles as a result of the learning process. This allows us to recognize that the intensive activities of the students to learn and acquire knowledge and skills lead to the emergence of certain cognitive preferences, needed because of the demands of the future profession and lifetime education.

Gender, in particular as it relates to the Irish constitution and Irish Law, is contested and complex, encompassing issues of national identity, religious values and sovereignty. These issues have a strong impact on education and training opportunities for lone mothers. Significant policy changes have taken place in the last decade with a view to creating a more equal society. Yet, this paper argues that gendered assumptions surrounding lone mothers’ position with regard to employment, training and education remain. Society’s traditional assumption of “suitable employment for women” is not a thing of the past. Therefore, while education is one means of empowering lone mothers and freeing them from the poverty trap, it does not address the deep-rooted structural inequalities women face. This is mainly due to paid employment remaining a vulnerable area in relation to gender equality. This is particularly visible in the current economic climate. In March 2009, the ILO warned that the gender impact of the global recession is felt harder by females than males in terms of unemployment rates. This confirms the view that women are still more vulnerable than men in the labour market, which highlights the pressing need for action rather than words in relation to the existing gender equality policies. Furthermore, this paper argues that lone mothers who remain at home caring for their children should be valued and not face automatic poverty. This can only be done through some form of financial security, not by being pushed into paid employment.

Educational systems worldwide apply some form of tracking which stratifies students according to their ability. Our study shows that teachers’ perceptions of intergenerational bonding in school diff er according to the track in which the teacher-student relationships take place. Moreover, this mechanism is responsible for the students’ lower sense of belonging in technical/vocational schools compared to academic schools. In terms of strengthening students’ connectedness to a technical/vocational school environment, we indicate that strengthening the level of trust in students on behalf of the teachers could be a crucial step that needs to be undertaken.

One especially relevant key theme in Sociology of Education is to what extent parents’ cultural level has significant implications in students’ educational achievement and, as a consequence, in the social mobility inherently linked to level of education and professional training – that is, how far the so-called cultural capital has a meaningful influence on current Spanish society. In order to investigate this aspect, our purpose has been to make an analysis based on data coming from public opinion surveys carried out by major sociological and statistical Spanish institutions. Since recently, these data are freely available to researchers, what makes possible the access to viewpoints of large samples of respondents. In short, with a view in the two-generation transit throughout the Spanish educational system, we will observe the validity of patterns of social and cultural inequality still influencing – though not determining – the educational achievement of Spanish population and, therefore, its professional development.

Decision making in terms of grading and evaluating students significantly contributes to unequal opportunities. In Switzerland, this is particularly true for the transition from elementary school to the stratified system of secondary schools, which oft en is determined by school authorities. Based on the case study of an elementary school in German-speaking Switzerland, this contribution explores accounts in which these decisions are related. Two types of accounts have to be taken into consideration. The first type refers to a student’s performance. This type of account is documented in a rather technical way. It aims to strengthen the procedural rationality of the decision-making process. Another type of accounts is based on material considerations. It refers to the effects of decisions on individual cases. This type of account is communicated to parents in order to achieve consent concerning a recommendation about which type of school a student should attend. The case illustrates that discriminatory decision making can be related to highly institutionalized accounts.

This paper presents new findings from quantitative and qualitative fieldwork in urban locations in the North of England. This study forms part of a three-year EU FP7 research project entitled ‘Ethnic differences in education and diverging prospects for urban youth in an enlarged Europe’ (EDUMIGROM). The project aims to conduct a comparative investigation in ethnically diverse communities with second-generation migrants and Roma in nine countries of the European Union. Th is paper presents findings from the UK team and gives an analytical account of a quantitative survey of Year 10 (14–15 year old) pupils in three multicultural secondary schools in 2008–2009, and qualitiative fieldwork focussed on African Caribbean, Pakistani and Gypsy and Traveller children, parents and families carried out in 2009–2010. The African Caribbean population tends to be economically disadvantaged and socially assimilated, in terms of cohabitation and marriage patterns, and with some significant degree of political incorporation; the Pakistani population tends to be in a position of greater economic marginality and poverty, with more social distinctiveness, due partly to social closure, and less political incorporation. But the group with the longest history of residence in the UK, the Gypsy and Traveller population, is in the most vulnerable position in terms of economic, political and social marginality. The extent to which wider patterns of socio-economic inequality play out in educational stratification and outcomes across these three groups is examined in this paper and emerging themes from current fieldwork are presented. This paper also addresses the policy implications of these research findings.

On the basis of these analyses, we cannot say that cultural and social resources have no role to play at all in the process of individual educational decision-making. What this study shows is that these do not enable us to explain the effect of parental SES on educational choice. In the absence of such evidence and in the light of the patterns found in the pupils’ accounts, we think to find some support for a view of educational decision-making as being the result of rational calculation. In this calculation parents take their own situation as a point of reference, considering the (educational) resources on which they can rely

This text argue that the notion of divided habitus makes it possible to expand the understanding of educational choices and strategies made by the upper secondary schoolteacher students. The analogue of a distance, gap or tug between habitus and field serve as a fruitful illustration of how educational choices and participations can be more or less complicated and full of conflict, and in the end determine the presence or absence of educational success. The social distance between habitus and the teacher education position on the field of higher education tend to affect the actual entrance and participation of the individual student. A wide distance is more complicated and full of conflict and failure than a narrower one. By combining this to the individual achieved school-resources the selection is becoming more complex but also with more consistency.

Social Movements as a Factor and a Result of Social Changes

The article describes relations between the phenomenon of social movements and social change. The analysis of the most important social movement theories and concepts is primary focused on two normally separately studied issues: the impact of social movements on social change and the impact of social transformations on the social movement sphere. In both of the cases the most important factors and directions of impact are shown. The article is concluded with the proposal of the integrated model of bilateral impact between social movements and social change.

Obedience to Teacher’s Authority in a Condition of Previous Arousing or Reducing an Individual Feeling of Power

The article presents the issue of obedience and disobedience, referring to Stanley Milgram’s research paradigm and the more recent models and observations gathered around this issue. Special attention is paid to the importance attributed to disobedience and its relationship with obedience. According to different authors it allows to see more broadly the mechanisms both of these processes than one-sided description each of them. First of all it shows also the role of the individual’s sense of power in shaping these processes. In the context of the theories author presents the course and results of an experiment. The experiment was devoted to the role of sense of power in determining students obedience toward the commands of the formal teacher’s authority. Project of research was based on a model of power as an approach-inhibition system by D. Keltner, D.H. Gruenfeld and C. Anderson. A part of undergraduates who participated in this study have been inducted in the sense of power, the second part have been reduced. Then checked whether and how long the persons from both groups comply with a groundless and an unreasonable teacher’s command. Hypotheses were confirmed. The results of the experiment are discussed.

Daily Life Esthetics. An Analysis of Emotional Patterns

Modern industrial design successfully combines beauty with usefulness. To describe this trend the term „emotional design” has been created so as to emphasize that utility is a necessary but not a sufficient condition of market success. This form of design might have been a response to a customers’ need for everyday objects not only to be practical but also to be beautiful and to evoke emotions. The basic model of emotional design by Donald Norman involves emotions on three levels: visceral, behavioral and reflective. The application of psychological knowledge seems reasonable on each of these levels. Most importantly, such knowledge will contribute to a better understanding why associating an object with emotions works and how it can be used most effectively.

The Policy of Standards. Constructing an Objective Field in Psychiatric Diagnostics on the Example of DSM-III

The article follows the evolution of diagnostic categories in psychiatry in subsequent editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), focusing on the third edition. The changes are determined by two processes: medicalization (the increase in the number of categories and expanding the scope of their application) and standardization (paradigm shift from psychoanalytic to positivist and pharmacological). From the constructivist perspective the Changes in the DSM are interesting for several reasons. They show a number of conditions such as economic interests, legal issues or social factors that take an active part in creating the diagnostic categories. The evolution of diagnostic can be seen in the descriptions of mental illness not as an expression of the progressive development of medical science, but as a transition from one paradigm of practicing psychiatry to another. Institutionalizing the new ways of describing mental illness has been done with the following elements and practices: the existence of a research collective (the individualisation of certain research domain), administering the research problems, transferring the research problems into the area of expert knowledge and make it inaccessible to laymen, rearticulating existing interests, highlighting anomalies in the old paradigm.

Gender Equality in Education as a Theoretical Construct and in Educational Practice

Gender equality in education isn’t only a theoretical construct, it is also the positive daily experience of girls and boys. This article analizes areas of inequality in education and shows examples of good practice which works to eliminate negative gender experiences. Firstly, four theoretical approaches to gender equality are presented from the historical perspective. Then, the article describes and makes a critical analysis of the Polish experience with specific reference to the rules of The Amsterdam Treaty, from the moment of Poland’s EU accession. These two contexts (the theoretical and the practical) will provide the basis for looking for a good solution to the problem of gender inequality.

Shaping Individual Multilingualism in the Early Stages of Education – European Context and Exemplifications

The article characterizes – in the European context – a relatively new term in the language teaching: plurilingual education. The are also discussed the pedagogical implications of the Language Awareness model, which can provide alternative and complementary approach to classical models of language teaching or conducting education in two or more languages. The paper also presents the results of qualitative research carried out in Vienna (Austria) and London (United Kingdom). The results illustrate solutions supporting the development of individual plurilingualism at the early stages of teaching. The main objective of this study was to determine what solutions supporting the education of children with diverse language and cultural experiences are being used in kindergarten and early grades at elementary school in Europe and whether these arrangements are developing plurilingual competence of all students. Analysis of existing solutions have not aimed at suggesting the ready-to-use strategies. That is why the description contain the identification of the emerging trends and factors that determine effectiveness of different solutions.

Educational Transformations in Venezuela During Hugo Chávez Presidency – Opportunity, Stagnation or Threat?

This article examines the huge changes that have occurred in the educational system in Venezuela at the period of President Hugo Chávez. It presents decisions and projects of the Venezuelan government and their overwhelming influence on society. Moreover, the text exposes the doubts which have arisen from the chosen course of reforms. The article attempts to answer the question whether education system can serve a policy purpose without being harmful to itself, and whether education should be one of the exclusive goods. On the one hand, it explains that the Bolivarian education can create a great opportunities for people to upgrade their educational and living standards in the future. On the other hand, it tries to illustrate that the omnipresent ideology is becoming very dangerous for quality of education.

Higher Education in Kyrgyzstan in Comparison to Global Educational Tendencies

The article describes the condition of the Kyrgyz higher education. Its characteristics is to promote access to this level of education, lack of investment whole sector, and inadequate education profiles to fit the needs of the labor market. General recommendation is to raise the quality of educational services by entering the International Higher Education Area.

The Problem of Economization of Education in the View of the Polish Conservative Journalism

The article attempts to present the position of Polish conservatives towards the process of economization of education. The public speeches published in press and on the web portals were primarily analyzed. According to the Conservatives after 1989 there has been expansion of ideology (neo) liberal in Poland. The essence of the direction of changes was to subordinate the public life to economic problems. These trends included the sphere of education. The main aim of the reforms was to use education as a simple tool to realize economic interests. The material efficiency became the priority of polish school – the basic criterion for assessing the quality of education was the profit they generate. Education was given the maximum practical size, tailored to the needs of the labor market. These processes were critically diagnosed by conservatives. According to them the effect of economzation of education was to produce graduates with no broad horizons and rooted in a culture focused on production and consumption, and thus susceptible to propaganda and manipulation.

Przemysław Wewiór (rev.): Anna Krawczyk, Hobbes i Locke: dwoiste oblicze liberalizmu [Hobbes and Locke: Two Faces of Liberalism], Warszawa 2011

Sonia Zieleniewska (rev.): Scott Lash, Celia Lury, Globalny przemysł kulturowy. Medializacja rzeczy [Global Culture Industries: The Mediation of Things], Kraków 2011

Dariusz Pakalski (rev.): Immanuel Kant, Dzieła zebrane, t. VI, Pisma po roku 1781 [Collected Works, Vol. VI, Writings Aft er the Year 1781], Toruń 2012

Arkadiusz Karwacki: Contemporary Problems of Social Policy in Poland – the Context of the Conference of The Polish Society for Social Policy

Atypical Sexuality in Queer Theory

The aim of presented text is to reveal discussion of the basic assumptions of queer theory. The emergence of different approach to normative and non-normative sexualities challenging the “identity politics” provoked, in Polish gender studies, concern as well as the attempts to include queer theory to their emancipatory purposes. Queer is also a methodological perspective which includes the analysis of sexualities in the world life and the textual deconstructive studies revealing the ways in which simplified binary oppositions system limit our understanding, especially related to sexualities, and lead to normative violence.

Conditions of Identity Development during the Transition Period from Adolescence to Adulthood

James Marcia’s two-stage model of identity formation has ceased to be sufficient to describe and account for identity formation paths. The dynamic dual-cycle model of identity formation developed by Koen Luyckx and collaborators proves to be much more accurate. Identity is formed in the whole course of human life, although the period of childhood and, in particular, adolescence seem to be pivotal from the point of view of what trajectory of development the individual is on at the moment of entering adulthood. From this point of view the factors which we regard as crucial for identity formation are, on the one hand, proneness to shame and the shame regulation strategies and, on the other, the system of personal beliefs about one’s life and related key social experiences which define the quality of social participation of adolescents

Motivation behind Lying and Psychological Dimensions of Culture as the Basis of Intercultural Differences of Lying Acceptability

The aim of this paper is to show that cross-cultural differences in the acceptance of lying depend mostly on the motivation that lies beneath lying. Cultural dimensions may explain which cultures will demonstrate higher acceptance of lying basing on specific motivation to lie. The article concentrates firstly on the definition of deception, stating which aspects of the definition of deception will be more culturally sensitive. Differences in motivation to lie are being discussed focusing on the collectivistic – individualistic dimension. In collectivist cultures people are prone to lie for the group benefit, while in individualistic cultures they may be motivated to lie to protect one’s privacy. Other crucial issues discussed in the paper are the stereotypes concerning liars and cues to deception. They may influence perceived veracity of the interlocutor. The article discusses also future research perspectives on the cross-cultural differences in the acceptance of lying.

Psychological and Evolutionary Framework of Pop Culture. The Evolution of Mind versus the Entertainment Content

The aim of present work is to present a thesis, according to which the form of entertainment (and broader – pop-culture) is considerably conditioned by evolution of human mind. Using conceptual apparatus of contemporary evolutionary sciences, one may try to determine specific subject area, within which there is content of entertainment, and at the same time predict which types of entertainment, including those offered by pop-culture, enjoy the biggest popularity. In this article the author poses a thesis that human brain is oriented at reception of particular stimuli and interprets it in order to increase the chances of survival of an individual. Pop-culture entertainment plays a role of an artificial stimulus, elevated to hyper-level, aimed at catching attention of the viewers, very often via confronting contrary strategies.

Between Scandalization and Provocation. Co-dependence of Art and Media

The article is based on semiotic interpretation of such a features as scandal and mechanisms which replace scandals. Two divided areas (the first strictly connected with scandal and the second one connected rather with mechanisms which replaces scandal) constitute important parts of two semiospheres (Juri Lotman’s term): critical art and media system. Due to cultural studies point of view these two areas may be also conjugated with two different aims. On the one hand critical art leads to dialogue which is based on interpersonal communication, on the other hand media’s main goal is to set stable however just fatic communication. Conclusions show that artistic scandals which were transformed by media may be understand as medial features (coronation, conquest, competition). What is more, the text shows that media mechanisms are very successful in changing the mode of the communication model (from interpersonal to fatic).

E-learning in the Polish Countryside

This paper presents some of the results of e-ruralnet project funded by the European Union Lifelong Learning Programme and assesses the possibilities which give e-learning to meet the educational needs of adult rural inhabitants. Article portrays opinions about elearning among individuals who have participated in e-learning recently (e-learners) and individuals who have had no experience of e-learning up to the time of survey (control group). Additionally authors present educational needs of both groups, kinds of e-learning courses completed by the e-learners and their satisfaction resulting from e-learning. The result of the surveys identifies the prospects of e-learning in Polish rural areas.

Egalitarization and Elitization of High Schools

Referring recently developed approach in the research on educational inequalities – the horizontal perspective, I examined how the increasing enrollment rates influence the processes of social selection within secondary schools. Using data from a survey conducted among students of general secondary, specialized secondary and technical schools in Białystok I examine how two important ascribed factors (social background and gender) affects selection between types of schools and fields of study. The analyses show that educational expansion leads to two processes which tend to balance each other out, resulting in persistent inequalities: equalization in access to general secondary schools weakens the stratification and differentiation of educational institutions magnifies it.

Students with Difficulties, Difficulties with Students and an Ideal Lesson. Teachers’ Narratives on the Meaning of Their Work

The article presents results of phenomenography research on teacher’s work experiences. Meanings imparted to labour show vocational ideology of that group. “Students with problems” phenomenon appeared from interviews and – as interviewed teachers describe it – refers to students’ lack of subordination, obedience and discipline. That allows to spot a crucial problem of jouissance stealing committed by “students with problem” but this problem is much more profound. “Students with problem” conceptualization covers real problem of teachers: “problems with student”. Those who are troublemaker for teachers are considered as those who are form lower social classes and are lost not only for educational system but also for social system at all. Interviewed teachers find work with “students with problems” pointless and claims that students and their families are only one to blame. However essence of this conceptualization are teachers’ problems with students which expose “horror of the Real” of capitalist educational system. Jouissance of teaching is stolen by “students with problems, what makes teachers’ work nothing more than disappointment.

Beliefs about People and the World and Anxiety in Socially Adjusted and Socially Maladjusted Groups of Young Adults

The study was aimed at investigation of differences in just world and human nature beliefs, between socially adjusted and maladjusted young people. In the study was also analyzed correlation between these beliefs and anxiety as trait and state in these two groups. The results show that pupils of secondary school are characterized by higher beliefs in human nature and lower anxiety as trait and state than juvenile delinquents. In relation to just world belief, there were not any differences between these two groups. As predicted, high just world and human nature beliefs correlated with low trait anxiety and state anxiety in group of pupils. But, in group of juvenile delinquents, high state and trait anxiety correlated only with low human nature belief, not with just world belief. In the final part of the paper, the author takes discussion of research results.

Sport – Connects Millions of People, but Only a Few Sociologists. Post-conference Reflections

A Match as a National Festival. Nationalism and Ethnicity in Football

Football Grasped by the Market? Social Consequences of Football Commercialization in the Narratives of Lechia Gdańsk and FC Twente Fans

Sport – from Media Mediation to Mediatization

Supporting Polish Youth in Their Entering into Adulthood. A Discussion around Youth 2011 Report

What Do Sociologists Really Know about Young Poles – What Can Politicians Offer Them?

Community and Community Feeling in Ancient and Contemporary Philosophy, M. Żardecka-Nowak, P. Paczkowski (eds.)