Management:
Dr hab. Sławomira Kamińska-Berezowska, professor of University of Silesia, the Institute of Sociology, University of Silesia
Guests:
Dr Jan Czarzasty – Department of Economic Sociology, Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Economic Sociology, SGH Warsaw School of Economy
Dr hab. Adam Mrozowicki, professor of the University of Wrocław – Department of Work and Economic Sociology, the Institute of Sociology, the University of Wrocław
Dr hab. Paula Pustułka, professor of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Youth Research Center and Institute of Social Sciences, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities
The 21st century has been a time of many crises, from the financial and economic, migration one, the crisis of rising Euroscepticism and Brexit, to the one caused by the wave of populism and the erosion of support for parliamentary democracy and others. On top of those crises, there was Covid-19 pandemic, which reinforced most of the exisiting crises and created new challenges and new forms of crisis.
A team of sociologists and socio–economists from the University of Wrocław and the Warsaw School of Economy undertook a study of these challenges and crises as a part of the National Science Centre grant OPUS COV – WORK. Its effect is a book “Polacy pracujący w czasie Covid-19″ (authors: Juliusz Gardawski, Adam Mrozowicki, Jan Czarzasty, Jacek Burski, Mateusz Karolak), which will be published in December, 2022 by Scientific Publisher Scholar.
On the basis of focused on group interviews with staff in education, healthcare, social welfare and logistics, a critical analysis of media discourse and nationwide questionnaire surveys, the team, in spring 2020, verified two thesis: on the fundamental impact of the pandemic on the crisis of the neoliberal model of capitalism and its correlates of consciousness, and on the pandemic as a factor that accelerates and deepens pre-existing trends without introducing revolutionary changes in the world of work. The analyses provided evidence of the validity of the second thesis.
During the meeting with the COV-WORK team and invited researchers from the Polish world of work, we will discuss what is left in the world and in Poland after the pandemic, which in its initial phases seemed to be an epoch-making event. What are the meanings of the pandemic experiences in the context of further crises – energy, refugee, war and economic? What have we learned as a Polish society during the pandemic and what lessons have we not done? Professor Paula Pustułka, head of the NCN OPUS ULTRAGEN project dedicated to the experience of entering adulthood in time of crises, will speak in the discussion.
Translated by Martyna Sobczyk (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
