Book Launch : Civil Society Revisited

SSEES’s Director, Professor Jan Kubik, has contributed to the forthcoming book Civil Society Revisited: Lessons from Poland, which will be launched at SSEES on 22 May.  Join Professor Kubik for a discussion with the editors of the volume, Prof Kerstin Jacobsson and Dr Elżbieta Korolczuk, and fellow contributing author Dr Gabriella Elgenius.

In much social scientific literature, Polish civil society has been portrayed as weak and passive. However, recent developments, including ‘black protests’ against the proposed abortion ban and demonstrations against Peace and Justice party politics, suggest otherwise. The book Civil Society Revisited offers some insights which may help to understand current events as it challenges the characterization of Polish civil society as underdeveloped on both theoretical and empirical grounds.

Focusing on forms of collective action in Poland that researchers have tended to overlook, the studies gathered here show how public discourse legitimises certain claims and political actions as “true” civil society, while others are too often dismissed. Taken together, they critique a model of civil society that is ‘made from above’. The volume suggests new ways of conceptualising civil society to better account for events on the ground as well as global trends such as neoliberalism, migration, and the renewal of nationalist ideologies.

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