Overview
- Offers insights into the democratic transformation of Poland through examinations of the day-to-day lives of "ordinary people"
- Contextualizes Polish examples with ‘Western’ cases to analyze the influence of the West on Polish cultural development since 1989
- Holds value for scholars working in a range of disciplines including cultural sociology, political sociology, political science, social anthropology, transformation studies, religion, and culture and media studies, among other areas
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About this book
Harnessing a cultural sociological approach to explore transformations in key social spheres in post-1989 Poland, Chmielewska-Szlajfer illuminates shifts in religiosity, sympathy towards others, and civic activity in post-Communist Poland in the light of Western influence over elements of Polish life.
Reshaping Poland’s Community after Communism focuses on three major cases, largely ignored in Polish scholarship: (1) a hugely popular, faux-baroque Catholic shrine, which illustrates new strategies adopted by the Polish Catholic Church to attract believers; (2) Woodstock Station, a widely known free charity music festival, demonstrating new practices of sympathy towards strangers; and (3) the emergence of national internet pro-voting campaigns and small-town watchdog websites, which uncover changes in practical uses of civic engagement.
In exploring grass-roots, everyday negotiations of religiosity, charity, and civic engagement in contemporary Poland, Chmielewska-Szlajfer demonstrates how a country’s cultural changes can suggest wider, dramatic democratic transformation.
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Keywords
- democracy in Poland
- central eastern europe
- cultural practices
- social imaginary
- sovereign nation-state
- Polish national tradition
- Communism
- Post-communism Poland
- Polish civic activity
- Polish Catholic Church
- Woodstock Station
- democratic transition
- fall of communism
- right-wing nationalist
- democratic performance
- pro-democratic
- anti-democratic
- Poland
- cultural sociology
- Polish culture
- russian and post-soviet politics
Table of contents (5 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer is Assistant Professor at Kozminski University, Poland.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Reshaping Poland’s Community after Communism
Book Subtitle: Ordinary Celebrations
Authors: Helena Chmielewska-Szlajfer
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78735-0
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-78734-3Published: 05 July 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-08774-6Published: 15 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-78735-0Published: 14 June 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 191
Number of Illustrations: 15 b/w illustrations
Topics: Cultural Studies, Sociology of Culture, Political Sociology, Russian and Post-Soviet Politics, Democracy, Citizenship