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Abstract
The transformation of the socialist societies of Central and Eastern Europe has been commonly described as a transition from a planned economy to a market economy and from a (semi)authoritarian system to a liberal democracy. According to this perspective, the implementation of new political and economic institutions was supposed to free the – so far suppressed – nature of all societies to become capitalist democracies. Such a vision of transformation dominated Polish public and academic discourse. It has been challenged by critics, who emphasized that transformation is an ambiguous process taking place at the level of social life rather than a macro-institutional level. Nevertheless, new concepts often reproduced characteristics of the rejected approach – a tendency to build dichotomous models based on simplified images of a pathological socialist legacy on one hand and of desired capitalist order on the other. Only recently a shift in the transformation discourse might be observed. The best examples are studies employing ethnographic methods, which focus on the level of everyday practices, and study how systemic changes were experienced by social actors. The article is an analysis of the social sciences’ discourse on transformation in the context of the broader public discourse in Poland. It depicts the transitology paradigm and its critique evolving from institutional and cultural perspectives. The focus is on concepts of homo sovieticus, ‘winners and losers’, learned helplessness and the like. Finally, the implications of ethnographic approaches are discussed. The case provokes questions about the role of social scientists in the vital processes of their own society.
Notes
1. The package – the so-called Balcerowicz Plan (plan Balcerowicza) – was named after Leszek Balcerowicz, the Minister of Finance in the first democratically elected government, who has been regarded as the main author of the package. Nevertheless, the project was based on a plan prepared for the Polish government by Jeffrey Sachs and the IMF economist David Lipton.
2. In the context of the political dimension of discursive fights it is worth mentioning that the Law and Justice Party (PiS) candidate won the presidential elections in August 2015. His success was followed by the emphatic victory of the Party in parliamentary elections in October.
3. About the intellectual frames of the policital, economic and social discussions of that time see, for example, Kowalik, WWW.Polskatransformacja.pl.
4. Conducted regularly by Centrum Badań Opinii Publicznej (Public Opinion Research Centre, CBOS).
5. Modernisation theory, convergence theory and the broadly discussed concept of the ‘end of history’ elaborated by Francis Fukuyama originated in and refer to different historical periods; nevertheless they employ similar ideas of development, progress and transformation.
6. See, for example, Staniszkis, “Ciągłość i zmiana,” 23–43; Szacki, “Nauki społeczne wobec wielkiej zmiany,” 123–36.
7. It is worthwhile noting that both – the transitological discourse, which conceived socialism as an interruption in Western-like modernisation, and the critique of the idea of “normality”, which manifested itself through an emphasis on the differences between the East and the West – overlooked the similarities between the capitalist and the socialist post-Second World War systems. As a result, the dominant type of reasoning solidified the dichotomous thinking of socialism and capitalism, the East and the West.
8. The Captive Mind (Zniewolony umysł) is the title of a philosophical and political essay written in 1953 by the Polish writer, academic and Nobel laurate, Czesław Miłosz, after he emigrated to Paris. The book attempts to explain the spiritual, psychological and intellectual dimensions of the ‘enslavement’ caused by the Stalinist ideology among intellectuals in post-war Central and Eastern Europe. The term entered the Polish language in a broader context of ‘socialist mentality’.
9. Tischner, Etyka solidarności oraz Homo sovieticus [Ethics of solidarity and homo sovieticus] is a collection of Tischner’s texts published since the 1980s in a weekly magazine, Tygodnik Powszechny [The Catholic weekly]. In the 1980s his texts were translated into many languages and published abroad as short books. The new edition (2005, same publisher) was supplemented with a chapter “The Ethics of Solidarność in Hindsight.” The authorship of the term is attributed to the Soviet writer and sociologist Aleksandr Zinovyev. However, it was Tischner who introduced it into the discussion on the cultural context of the transformation in Poland.
10. For this concept it is important to realize that the collective should not be understood as an active actor, but as a collection of self-concerned individuals who are submissive to the system as long as it provides for them.
11. Tishner, Etyka Solidarności.
12. Sztompka, Sociology of Social Change; Sztompka “Teorie zmian społecznych a doświadczenia polskiej transformacji,” 9–17; Sztompka, Trauma wielkiej zmiany. Społeczne koszty transformacji.
13. Sztompka, Trauma wielkiej zmiany. Społeczne koszty transformacji.
14. Ibid.
15. Sztompka, Trauma wielkiej zmiany. Społeczne koszty transfoirmacji, 106.
16. Sztompka, “Civilizational Incompetence: The Trap of Post-Communist Societies;” Sztompka, “Teorie zmian społecznych;” Sztompka, “Looking Back: The Year 1989 as a Cultural and Civilizational Break;” Sztompka, “Kompetencje cywilizacyjne.”
17. Sztompka, “Teorie zmian społecznych.”
18. Sztompka, “Teorie zmian społecznych,” 9.
19. An instructive example of the “winners and losers” discourse in academic literature is an introduction to the book Winners and Losers of Polish Transformation. See Jarosz, Wygrani i przegrani polskiej transformacji.
20. A concept used by Stefan Nowak to depict Polish society in the 1970s. It is parallel to the concept of “backward society” by Edward C. Banfield.
21. Marody, “Antynomie zbiorowej podświadomości,” 89–99. It must be emphasized that the thesis of the article was that “learned helplessness” in the public sphere is accompanied with resourcefulness and creativity in the private.
22. Marody, “Trzy Polski – instytucjonalny kontekst strategii dostosowawczych.”
23. Ibid.
24. See, for example, Adamski et al. “Dylematy transformacji,” 111–19; Wesołowski, “Transformacja charakteru i struktury interesów,” 119–43.
25. See, for example, Federowicz, “Aktorzy i mechanizmy zmian ustrojowych w gospodarce,” 52–63; Bojar, Kurczewska, and Staszyńska, “Blokady społeczeństwa obywatelskiego: czyli słabe społeczeństwo i słabe państwo,” 84–97.
26. This issue has been particularly at the core of the analysis of industrial workers, farmers and agricultural workers. It was also present in the discussion on the social factors of the political changes in Poland. A good example of the discursive marginalisation is an analysis of trade-union representation in the popular press titles conducted by Wiesława Kozek; Kozek, “Destruktorzy. Tendencyjny obraz związków zawodowych w tygodnikach politycznych w Polsce,” 161–5.
27. See, for example, Wesołowski, “Transformacja charakteru i struktury interesów.”
28. Lewicki and Marody, “Przemiany ideologii pracy,” 85–125.
29. The phenomenon of the so-called “neotraditionalisation” was discussed, among other authors, by Jadwiga Staniszkis in “Ciągłość i zmiana,” as well as the authors of the collection of articles edited by Federowicz and Rychard, Społeczeństwo w transformacji.
30. See, for example, Ost, Klęska Solidarności: gniew i polityka w postkomunistycznej Europie.
31. See, for example, Federowicz and Rychard, Społeczeństwo w transformacji.
32. A term by Mirosława Marody: Marody, Oswajanie rzeczywistości: między realnym socjalizmem a realną demokracją.
33. Rychard, “Aktorzy społeczni i instytucje: strategie adaptacji.”
34. Ibid., 191.
35. Milczarek, “Przystosowani? O kondycji materialnej i psychospołecznej Polaków;” Gardawski, Polacy pracujący a kryzys fordyzmu.
36. See, for example, books by Maria Jarosz, Postawy pracowników wobec prywatyzacji przedsiębiorstw; Prywatyzacja. Szanse i zagrożenia; Kapitał zagraniczny w prywatyzacji; 10 lat prywatyzacji bezpośredniej; Manowce polskiej prywatyzacji.
37. See, for example, Gardawski and Gilejko, Między nadzieją a lękiem. Społeczne efekty prywatyzacji; Gilejko, Społeczni aktorzy restrukturyzacji; Gardawski et al., Oceny i oczekiwania różnych grup społecznych wobec polityki właścicielskiej skarbu państwa; Gilejko, Od konfliktu do kooperacji: kształtowanie się nowych modeli zbiorowych stosunków pracy; Gardawski, Polacy pracujący a kryzys fordyzmu.
38. See for example, Federowicz, Kozek, and Morawski, Stosunki przemysłowe w Polsce: studium czterech przypadków.
39. Ibid.
40. Gardawski, “Pożądany ład ekonomiczny i formy prywatyzacji,” 133–56; Gardawski, Polacy pracujący a kryzys fordyzmu. “Friendly market economy” model was understood as combining rules of justice based on measures of efficiency with sensitivity to issues of unemployment and support for local capital.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. A significant contribution was given by regular and representative researches conducted by the Public Opinion Research Center (Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej, CBOS), which to this day constitute an extremely valuable source of data, particularly helpful in the longitudinal studies.
44. A good example is comparing statistical data and indicators concerning social structure (for example, Domański, “Mechanizmy stratyfikacji i hierarchie społeczne.”)
45. Szacki, “Nauki społeczne wobec wielkiej zmiany,” 126.
46. By “ethnographic studies” I mean studies employing qualitative research methods such as individual or in-depth group interviews, narrative or biographical interviews, case studies, participatory observation and others which allow the analysis of social phenomena on a micro/mezo-scale. Such understanding of “ethnographic research” does not limit its use to any particular social-science discipline – sociology, anthropology, ethnography, social psychology, history or others.
47. For example, the Lodz School of Studies on Poverty and Social Care (Łódzka szkoła badań nad biedą i pomocą społeczną).
48. See, for example, Burawoy and Verdery, Uncertain Transitions: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist World; Hann, Postsocialism: Ideas, Ideologies and Practices in Euroasia; Humphrey, The Unmaking of Soviet Life; Verdery, What was Socialism and What comes Next.
49. Burawoy and Verdery, Uncertain Transitions: Ethnographies of Change in the Postsocialist Worlds.
50. Ibid., 1–18 (“Introduction”).
51. Dunn, Privatising Poland: Baby Food, Big Business, and the Remaking of Labor (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2004). Polish edition: Prywatyzując Polskę: o bobofrutach, wielkim biznesie i restrukturyzacji pracy.
52. Ost, The Defeat of Solidarity. Anger and Politics in Post-communist Europe (Cornell University Press: 2006). Polish edition: Klęska Solidarności: gniew i polityka w postkomunistycznej Europie.
53. Mazurek, Społeczeństwo kolejki: o doświadczeniach niedoboru 1945–1989.
54. Mrozowicki, Coping with Social Change.
55. I refer to two subsequent projects conducted by Joanna Wawrzyniak as a head of the projects and an interdisciplinary research team, in which the author of the article has participated. The study includes 12 still operating plants, which were privatized with the use of foreign capital, not later than in 1997. Selected companies differ in terms of a foreign investor’s provenance, branch of industry, region of Poland they are located in, and the historical period of establishment. The study is based on the analysis of approximately 140 biographical interviews with employees (from manual workers to managers). Conclusions are under elaboration.
56. A good illustration of such a perspective is, among others, a book edited by Maria Jarosz Polska - ale jaka?, which aims at summarising the transformation period in the context of a new opening brought about by Poland's accession to the European Union.
57. See for example, Tittenbrum, Z deszczu pod rynnę: meandry polskiej prywatyzacji; Kowalik, Polska Transformacja.
58. Ibid.
59. See for example, Portet, “Elastyczność zatrudnienia w Polsce. Czyli o odkrywaniu rzeczy zakrytych,” 116–34.
60. See, for example, Dunn, Prywatyzując Polskę: o bobofrutach, wielkim biznesie i restrukturyzacji pracy; Wedel, Private Poland; Mazurek, Społeczeństwo kolejki.
61. Modzelewski, Zajeździmy kobyłę historii.
62. Marcin Król interviewed by Sroczyński “Byliśmy głupi” [We were stupid] Gazeta Wyborcza, 2014. The interview was followed by a book by the same title: Król, Byliśmy Głupi.