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Academic Staff
- Dr hab. Adam Mrozowicki, prof. UWr (Head of Department)
- Dr Jacek Burski
- Dr Mateusz Karolak
- Dr Agata Krasowska
- Dr Olga Nowaczyk
- Dr Piotr Pieńkowski
Professores Emeriti
- Dr hab. Zdzisław Zagórski, prof. UWr (Professor Emeritus)
PhD Candidates
- mgr Olga Gitkiewicz
- mgr Bartłomiej Grafik
- mgr Könül Jafarova
- mgr Szymon Pilch
History of the Department
The Department of Sociology of Work and Economic Sociology was created from the transformation of the Department of General Sociology in March 2022. The latter was created as a result of the establishment of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Wrocław (1988). Earlier, since 1945, there was the Chair and then the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of History and Philosophy, University of Wroclaw. In the first postwar years, research work was organised by prof. Paweł Rybicki (Jagiellonian University) and his assistant (in the subsequent years, professor), Irena Turnau (University of Lodz). The result of research work during "pioneer years" was the fundamental monograph "Studies on the structure of the population of Polish Wrocław (I. Turnau; Institute for Western Affairs, Poznań, 1960). The continuation of this project (in the form of the research on the social structure of Wrocław and Lower Silesia), became a collective work led by prof. Zdzisław Zagórski.
For many years, the Department of General Sociology was the basis for teaching and research in the organisational structure of Institute of Sociology. The members of Department of General Sociology, as they acquired habilitation and professorship, created other Departments of the Institute of Sociology (such as the Department of the Sociology of Borderlands, the Department of the Sociology of Dispositional Groups), or, if needed, joined other Departments and Institutes of the Faculty of Social Sciences or another universities.
Main research topics
The research of the Department of the Sociology of Work and Economic Sociology and PhD students covers the issues of changes in collective labour relations and labour market, quality of employment and precarity of work, transnational migration of workers, digitalisation in the area of work and employment. Additionally, continuing the tradition of the Department of General Sociology, the research covers also the topics of large social structures and systems, including class structure and stratification, sociology of contemporary processes (including globalisation, civilisation processes, (dis)integration of systems, post-communist transformations and regionalisation), sociology of (in)security and risk.
Staff in the department have a publication record in the world's leading journals in the sociology of work, economics and collective labour relations. The department has produced national and international publications on the history of labour sociology in Poland as part of the project "Nestorzy socjologii pracy" (Nestors of the Sociology of Work) co-initiated by its head. (carried out by the Section of Labour Sociology of the Polish Sociological Association). The Department also has a long history of cooperation in scientific projects with stakeholders in the field of economy and economic research, including trade unions, the European Trade Union Institute, the Foundation Institute of Public Affairs.
Academic and scientific events
- International conference "Digital realites. Work, mobilities and new opportunities and risks in Central and Eastern Europe in (post)panademic period", online, 13-14 May 2021.
- Seminar "Institutions, structures and people. Jubilee seminar for Prof. Zdzisław Morawski", 18.10.2018, Wrocław
- Seminar "Social science challenges for contemporary Poland. Jubilee seminar for Prof. Zdzisław Zagórski", 7.10.2016.
- International conference "Social boundaries of work. Przemiany w sferze pracy w XXI wiecznym kapitalizmie.”, 14-15.11.2014 (Wrocław), 12-13.11.2015 (Zielona Góra)
- Series of conferences "Civilisations in sociological perspective" Wrocław, 12-13.12.2011, 12-13.12.2012, 12-13.12.2013
- International conference: “Contemporary trade union representation of workers in Central and Eastern Europe: barriers, opportunities and challenges”, Wrocław 11-12.10.2012
- International conference: “Negotiating capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe? Chances and barriers to trade union renewal in a comparative perspective”, Wrocław 4.05.2011
- International conference: “Social Agency. Theoretical and Methodological Challenges of the 21st Century Humanist Sociology”, Wrocław, 20-22.10.2010
- Academic collaboration
Members of the Department of General Sociology regularly cooperate and participate in international conferences with Centrum voor Sociologisch Onderzoek (prof. Valeria Puglignano), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), University of Strathclyde (Business School), Grenoble Ecole de Management (prof. Paul Stewart), Free University Berlin, they are also involved in international educational programmes (Master Erasmus Mundus MITRA, Master in Sociology, Specialty Intercultural Mediation, FP7 ITN Changing Employment). They also carried out a Polish-German scientific project NCN-DFG Beethoven PREWORK "Young precarious workers in Poland and Germany: a comparative sociological study of working and living conditions, social consciousness and civic activity". (led at UWr by dr hab. prof. UWr Adam Mrozowicki). The Department also carried out a project of the Polish-German Foundation for Science "Right-wing populism among young Germans and Poles: Analysis of biographical motives for supporting right-wing parties and organisations". (under the direction of Dr Mateusz Karolak). Currently, under the direction of Dr Adam Mrozowicki, Prof. UWr, in a consortium with the Economic and Social College of Warsaw School of Economics, the Department is implementing the NCN COVWORK project "Socio-economic consciousness work experiences and coping strategies of Poles in the context of the post-pandemic crisis".
In 2022, research teams within the department are starting two major international grants: the project "ENDURE: Inequalities and social resilience – new ways of governance in a post-pandemic world" (funded on the Polish side by the National Science Centre under the platform " Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities (T-AP)" (Polish party leader; dr Mateusz Karolak) and Horizon Europe INCA "INcrease Corporate political responsibility and Accountability (INCA)" carried out by an international consortium led by Prof. Edoardo Mollona from the University of Bologna, with the participation of a team from the Department of General Sociology, University of Wrocław (leader: dr hab. Adam Mrozowicki, prof. UWr)
Teaching
Teaching activities conducted by the department's staff include:
- Large social structures and systems
- Contemporary labour markets
- Labour market and unemployment
- Qualitative data analysis
- History of social and economic thought
- Undergraduate and Master's Seminars
- Applying for Research Grants and Project Management
- Labour Markets and Organisation Managemet in Global Contexts
- Labour and Migration in Eastern Europe
- Methodology
- Labour relations in Poland and Europe