Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński was a Polish sociologist, political scientist, and writer. A professor of sociology, he was the founder and first head of the Polish Academy of Sciences' Institute of Political Studies, and rector of the Warsaw-based Collegium Civitas.
Florian Witold Znaniecki was a Polish and American philosopher and sociologist who taught and wrote in Poland and in the United States. Over the course of his work he shifted his focus from philosophy to sociology. He remains a major figure in the history of Polish and American sociology; the founder of Polish academic sociology, and of an entire school of thought in sociology. He won international renown as co-author, with William I. Thomas, of the study, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918–1920), which is considered the foundation of modern empirical sociology. He also made major contributions to sociological theory, introducing terms such as humanistic coefficient and culturalism.
Herbert George Blumer was an American sociologist whose main scholarly interests were symbolic interactionism and methods of social research. Believing that individuals create social reality through collective and individual action, he was an avid interpreter and proponent of George Herbert Mead's social psychology, which he labeled symbolic interactionism. Blumer elaborated and developed this line of thought in a series of articles, many of which were brought together in the book Symbolic Interactionism. An ongoing theme throughout his work, he argued that the creation of social reality is a continuous process. Blumer was also a vociferous critic of positivistic methodological ideas in sociology.
Humanistic sociology is a domain of sociology which originated mainly from the work of the University of Chicago Polish philosopher-turned-sociologist, Florian Znaniecki. It is a methodology which treats its objects of study and its students, that is, humans, as composites of values and systems of values. In certain contexts, the term is related to other sociological domains such as antipositivism. Humanistic sociology seeks to shed light on questions such as, "What is the relationship between a man of principle and a man of opportunism?"
William Isaac Thomas was an American sociologist, understood today as a key figure behind the theory of symbolic interactionism.
Piotr Sztompka is a Polish sociologist known for his work on the theory of social trust. He is professor of sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, and has also frequently served as visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at Columbia University in New York City.
Jerzy Ryszard Szacki was a Polish sociologist and historian of ideas. From 1973 he was a professor at the University of Warsaw, and in 1991 became a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is considered one of the most prominent representatives of the Warsaw School of the History of Ideas.
The Polskie Towarzystwo Socjologiczne (PTS) (Polish Sociological Association) is the main professional organization of sociologists in Poland. The PTS defines its mission as "supporting the development of sociology and popularizing sociological knowledge within society".
Maria Ossowska was a Polish sociologist and social philosopher.
A humanistic coefficient is a conceptual object, methodological principle, or method of conducting social research wherein data analysis stresses the perceived import of analyzed experiences to their participants. The term was coined by Polish sociologist Florian Znaniecki.
The University of Warsaw is a public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well as 100 specializations in humanities, technical, and the natural sciences.
Stefan Zygmunt Czarnowski was a Polish sociologist, folklorist and professor of the University of Warsaw.
Jerzy Józef Wiatr is a Polish sociologist, political scientist and politician. Professor of the University of Warsaw, Chairman of the European School of Law and Administration rector of a private tertiary education institution in Warsaw. Member of the Polish United Workers Party, he supported the party's line in communist-era Poland. In post-communist Poland, member of the leftist parties, deputy to Polish parliament (Sejm) from 1991 to 1997. Minister of National Education 1996–1997.
Elżbieta Hałas (1954–present) is a Polish sociologist and a professor at the University of Warsaw. She specializes in the sociology of culture.
Piotr Tadeusz Gliński is a Polish sociologist, professor, university lecturer and politician. He served as president of the Polish Sociological Association from 2005 to 2011. He was the nominee of Law and Justice for Prime Minister of Poland in 2012 and again in 2014. In the cabinet of Beata Szydło, he served as the First Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. He continues to serve in his Ministry in the government of Mateusz Morawiecki.
The Polish Peasant in Europe and America is a book by Florian Znaniecki and William I. Thomas, considered to be one of the classics of sociology. The book is a study of Polish immigrants to the United States and their families, based on personal documents, and was published in five volumes in the years 1918 to 1920.
In philosophy and sociology, culturalism is the central importance of culture as an organizing force in human affairs. It is also described as an ontological approach that seeks to eliminate simple binaries between seemingly opposing phenomena such as nature and culture.
Biographical research is a qualitative research approach aligned to the social interpretive paradigm of research. The biographical research is concerned with the reconstruction of life histories and the constitution of meaning based on biographical narratives and documents. The material for analysis consists of interview protocols (memorandums), video recordings, photographs, and a diversity of sources. These documents are evaluated and interpreted according to specific rules and criteria. The starting point for this approach is the understanding of an individual biography in terms of its social constitution. The biographical approach was influenced by the symbolic interactionism, the phenomenological sociology of knowledge, and ethnomethodology. Therefore, biography is understood in terms of a social construct and the reconstruction of biographies can give insight on social processes and figurations, thus helping to bridge the gap between micro-, meso-, and macro- levels of analysis. The biographical approach is particularly important in German sociology. This approach is used in the Social Sciences as well as in Pedagogy and other disciplines. The Research Committee 38 "Biography and Society" of the International Sociological Association (ISA) was created in 1984 and is dedicated "to help develop a better understanding of the relations between individual lives, the social structures and historical processes within which they take shape and which they contribute to shape, and the individual accounts of biographical experience ".
Maciej Roman Gdula is a Polish sociologist specializing in social theory and political theory, as well as opinion journalist and politician.
Xawery Tadeusz Stańczyk is a Polish poet, sociologist and essayist.
