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There is less and less faith as to the possibility of forecasting since the rules of doing this are increasingly fallible. In the past many scenarii have been conceptualised in order to lower the barier of perception of the new phenomena. The more such scenarii are applied the bigger is the plausibility that one of these might be true, yet the more uncertainty which one. Sociology aware of its defeats in the past lost its faith in predictive potential to avoid repproach of being speculative. There is an increasing conviction that data science and scientists will manage to do it having Big Data at their disposal. Data scientists believe that neither socologists nor any other field experts in social sciences are necessary as data scientists themselves will do to interpret data and succeed in delivering appropriate and relevant policy and business oriented recommendations. The author claims our discipline is still in possession of important resources but sociologists should persuade themselves, the data science can do little without their assistance. The potential of sociology in forecasting is being confirmed by some „hard” scientists. More and more sociological research bring interesting and promising results in forecasting the social behaviour.
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As Martín Caparrós argues: “ecology has become a sign of the times, the times that lack the vision of the future.” It is my belief that an excellent illustration of Caparrós’s thesis can be found in the interdisciplinary debate on the position of Eugene F. Stoermer and Paul Crutzen, who have proposed that, on account of the scale and scope of human interference in planetary systems, the current geological epoch be called the Anthropocene – the epoch of man. Scientists concerned by the scale of the current planetary crisis are already voicing further warnings to humanity. But, is the Anthropocene also an epoch without any ideas for the future? We have lost much of our coral reefs, climate stability, the seasons, many species and even nature at large. How should we understand the thesis of the loss of the future in the epoch of man? As it appears, an insurmountable barrier to thinking about the future in the 21st century is the dominance of market-based attitudes, in which an investment horizon of no more than 20–30 years is taken into consideration. Could it be that ignoring the climate and environmental costs inherent in the development of modern economies is evidence of a collective / 134 repression of the very notion of a future? How, then, in such circumstances, can we formulate any far-reaching future scenarios? Does the risk of sudden climate change not put into question the validity of linear thinking and the current Western understanding of time? In the article I seek possible answers to this questions relying on earlier analyses of the selected narratives in the debate on the Anthropocene. These include: 1) the naturalistic narrative of scientists (E. Stoermer, P. Crutzen, W. Steffen, J. Zalasiewicz, J. Rockström), 2) the narrative of humanists from post-naturalist circles (D. Haraway, B. Latour, I. Stengers, D. Chakrabarty), 3) the discourse of eco-Marxists, who use the label Capitalocene and are critical of the Anthropocene label (J. Moore, I. Angus, A. Hornborg, A. Malm, C. Bonneuil, J.-B. Fressoz, S. Lewis, M. Maslin), 4) the eco-catastrophic discourse (C. Hamilton, E. Crist, J. McBrien, E. Swyngedouw, N. Oreskes, E. Conway), and 5) the narrative of eco-modernists peaking about a good or even great Anthropocene (T. Nordhaus, M. Schellenberger, D. W. Keith).
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The paper analyzes the contribution of studies on science and technology (STS) to the debate on the relationship between science and technology, our today’s ideas about possible futures (present futures), and the future to come as the results of our actions (future present). First, I present the basic assumptions of STS and how it frames the impact of the visions of the future on the innovations. Then, I review the processes leading to the creation of a shared socio-technological future: from participatory assessment of technology through social movements’ engagement to the official policy of the European Research Area. I argue that STS research on societal futures should include market dynamics, the role of interest groups and social movements.
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One of the central concepts of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, especially highlighted in the “Methodological Note,” is the relationship between values and attitudes, which frames the subsequent empirical analyses and conclusions. The aim of the present article is to reconstruct Florian Znaniecki’s early idea of values in order to demonstrate its originality and later influence on his sociological contributions. As the author argues, Znaniecki’s early insights with regard to values allow us to reconsider his collaboration with William Thomas and to interpret The Polish Peasant as a part of Znaniecki’s long-term research programme.
More...Katarzyna Leszczyńska, Płeć w instytucje uwikłana. Reprodukowanie wzorców kobiecości i męskości przez świeckie kobiety i świeckich mężczyzn w organizacjach administracyjno-ewangelizacyjnych Kościoła Rzymskokatolickiego w Polsce
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This article concerns the multidimensional work of Lydia Ginzburg (1902–1990), a Russian literary and cultural theoretician and author of memoirs and diaries, who witnessed the most momentous events in the Soviet Union. The author of the article discusses the intersection of three dimensions of totality characterizing this remarkable thinker. The firstwas her biographical experience (the repressions, the siege of the city). The second concerns the institutions within which she worked (the totalitarian Soviet Union, censorship). The third was the nature of her thoughts andconcepts, which crossed the boundaries of various disciplines and formsof activity (her academic work aimed at completeness and precision; heremotional, reflective memoirs were open in form). “Totality” is understood in this article as the inseparability of theory and practice, of rationality and emotionality, of abstract ideas and private experience.
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