You are here: Home > Institute > Structure > Department of Urban and Rural Sociology
Department of Urban and Rural Sociology
Accademic Staff
- Dr hab. Mateusz Błaszczyk (Head of Department)
- Dr Iwona Borowik
- Dr hab. Katarzyna Kajdanek, prof. UWr
- Dr hab. Stanisław Kłopot, prof. UWr (Professor Emeritus)
- Dr inż. Barbara Szczepańska
- Dr Paweł Trojanowski
PhD students
- Agnieszka Markiewicz, “Nowe Żerniki: An example of the realisation of the idea the social settlement in a postmodern city” (supervisor: Dr hab. M. Błaszczyk)
- Paulina Olejniczak, „The social experience of the space of Nadodrze” (supervisorr: Dr hab. K. Kajdanek, prof. UWr)
- Jacek Szczepański, “The social meaning of the automobile” (supervisor: Dr hab. M. Błaszczyk)
History of the department
The Department of Urban and Rural Sociology was established in the same year as the Institute of Sociology. Its first Head was Associate Professor Władysław Misiak. Its second Head was Stanisław Witold Kłopot, Associate Professor. Since November 2018 the position is held by Mateusz Błaszczyk, Associate Professor. Since the very beginning the researchers in the unit have carried out numerous research projects and have published papers on development of urban and rural communities and contemporary changes observed in socio-spatial structures in city and countryside.
Main research topics
- Economy of cities in late modernity and postmodernity
- History of social thought
- Housing estates, urban renewal and gentrification process
- Great city and its social problems
- Suburban development in post socialist context of great, medium-sized and small towns
- Development in rural areas
Academic and scientific events
Researchers at the Department of Urban and Rural Sociology have organized conferences and seminars in cooperation with other Departments at University of Wrocław, Technical University, ECOVAST (The European Council For the Village and Small Town) and Polish Sociological Association. Researchers take an active part in evaluating urban social problems in cooperation with City Council in the project “Wroclaw Diagnosis of Social Problems” and also with city councils in the Lower Silesia region. One result of this cooperation was a conference “City and Power” organized in June 2015.
Recently the academics from the Unit were actively engaged in the process of evaluation of the European Capital of Culture Wroclaw 2016, they have also created the strategic documents covering the areas of urban culture and solving social problems in the city which will be included into the main strategic document Wroclaw 2030.
These forms of collaboration will be summed up during a scientific conference “City and Culture” which took place in September 2017.
Academic collaboration
The Department cooperates with other research agencies focused on urban and rural related issues, especially with scholars from Łódź, Katowice, Kraków and with Sections of Urban and Rural Sociology of Polish Sociological Association. Researchers of the unit also carry out individual grants supported by Ministry and EU funds and cooperate with city councils and various Departments; e.g.:
- Unit of Housing Architecture and Unit of Urban Planning at Technical University of Wrocław
- Unit of Sociology of Education and Knowledge The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
- Institute of Race Relations
- Medical Academy of Wrocław
- Department of Social Affairs Municipality of Wroclaw