This article provides an overview of the aims, the research design and the activities of the EurElite project, a project devoted to the comparative study of representative elites across Europe. Through investigating long-term trends in the composition of parliaments and member recruitment, the scholars involved in the EurElite activities attempt to identify the degree and patterns of convergence among national deputies on the continent. With the inclusion of democratically elected legislators from about a dozen post-communist countries, a new dimension has been added to the question of convergence: elite integration across Europe, i.e. between the elites in the new democracies and those in Western Europe. The scope of the research also encompasses the study of the European Parliament as the site of the possible emergence of a supra-national elite in Europe. The article also provides information on the structure and variables of the (key) data set and its regional/temporal coverage.
Big cities in Poland as well as abroad are the focus of many scientists of different disciplines. The authors of this study join these researchers and concentrate on a previously neglected segment of the Polish big cities’ political actors – city councillors. The aim of this paper is a socio-demographic description of the big city elite. The authors analyze its main characteristics: gender, age, occupational position, and local government experience. They also try to compare the big city elite with other parts of the political elite, especially with the simultaneously studied medium city elite. The paper is based on survey research conducted by the authors in the 12 biggest Polish cities.
In this text, the author tries to make the interpretation of the term „elite” and organize and describe the most common definition of the phenomenon and the concept of the elite. Analysis have been selected views presented in the literature that illustrate the classic and contemporary dimension to the concept of elites and allow the answer to the question formulated in the subject line.
Based on empirical research, the paper summarizes the social and institutional characteristics of the birth and reproduction of the Hungarian nomenklatura system. The research included the reconstruction of the decision making system and the documents of recruitment. Moreover, interviews were conducted with several top officials of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party. The paper argues that although there was a chance to form a new elite after World War II, it did not happen because of the infiltration of the Communist Party into the repressive organizations. The take-over of power led to the formation of a nomenklatura. The paper overviews the impact of the nomenklatura-system on the workings of central institutions, the academic world and civil organizations. It investigates the documents dealing with the composition of the nomenklatura and the privileges of its members.
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Contemporary Polish education faces a rapid change connected with the expansion of schooling on the secondary and the tertiary level. Right after this process there arises an illusion of democratic schooling. Secondary schools, till these days perceived as a pathway to university as well as elite professional and social positions, are open for pupils from the entire social spectrum. Looking at the social composition of secondary schools it seems that the community of this type of schools reflects social structure. Similarly, tertiary education is not any more the level for 'the chosen'. Every graduate from secondary school with 'matura' (secondary school-leaving examination) can enrol in one of over 400 higher-education institutions. Education has changed its function. Neither 'matura' nor a university diploma is any more a credential which opens the way to elite social positions. Do we really have democratic schooling in Poland? A closer look at the structure of secondary education shows that such a belief is a naive one. Secondary schools differ - next to those gathering students with outstanding results and originating from a high social status we can find schools dealing with pupils with a very low competence and from a rather low social background. The same is observed on the tertiary level. In the area of a seemingly democratic secondary education we can notice trajectories of a different social origin and destination. The elitism of certain pathways does not disappear. This paper is an attempt to answer the question of the mechanism of the indelibility of social inequalities in education by focusing the attention on the processes of social closure and the usage of social capital by families. Taking as a starting point the concept of Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu, the author tries to show how middle-class families deploy strategies of social segregation and closure to facilitate better circumstances of schooling and a better social future for their children.
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In the article, the author deals with the occurrence and interpretation of Elbe-Germanic silver fibulae in the area north of the middle Danube, i. e. in Bohemia, Moravia, southwestern Slovakia and the Danube part of Lower Austria, respectively, in the territory inhabited in the early Roman period by the Polabian Germans (Suebi). Spring covered fibulae (Rollenkappenfibeln) and fibulae with eyes (Augenfibeln) are typical for B1 grade, in grades B2 – B2/C1 the elite wore tube-shaped (Trompetenfibeln) and knee-shaped (Kniefibeln) fibulae. The new types of fibulae (Almgren 80 var. PňovBliestorf and Almgren 142 var. Dobšice-Drösing) are also singled out in the article. The wealthiest graves do not contain East Germanic (Przeworsk culture and Wielbark culture) or Roman silver fibulae, which are also found in the investigated area, but only Elbe-Germanic fibulae. On the basis of typo-chronological analysis, during the early Roman period, the shift of power centres from central and north-western Bohemia in phases B1a-b can be traced, which are mainly connected with the existence of the so-called Marobud Empire to the central Danube region in the 2nd century (phase B2a – b), i. e. to southern Moravia and southwestern Slovakia.
Artykuł opisuje początki Internetu w Polsce oraz losy zbiorowości polskich pionierów Internetu, czyli ludzi, którzy stworzyli techniczne podwaliny funkcjonowania sieci w naszym kraju. W artykule opisane zostało powstawanie skupiającej ich społeczności. Proces komercjalizacji i umasowienia Internetu w Polsce znacząco wpłynął na funkcjonowanie tej społeczności. Z jednej strony wytworzyło się przekonanie o elitarności własnej grupy, co wpłynęło na umocnienie grupowej identyfikacji. Z drugiej jednak strony dało się zaobserwować zróżnicowane postawy pionierów wobec tych procesów. W artykule omówiony też został wpływ pionierów Internetu na technologiczną i społeczną istotę Internetu: od kluczowego znaczenia w pierwszym okresie funkcjonowania Internetu w Polsce po późniejszą marginalizację.
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The article describes the beginnings of the Internet in Poland and the history of Polish Internet pioneers, which means people who create technical background of the Net in Poland. The process of formation of their community is depicted in the article. Commercialization and popularization of the Internet had a remarkable impact on that community. On the one hand, the community spirit as well as elitism emerged. On the other hand, the pioneers' attitudes towards these processes varied greatly. The influence of the Internet pioneers on technological and social essence of the Internet in Poland is also discussed in the article, which changed from initially crucial meaning to contemporary marginalization.
The study focuses on the social structural approach of the reforms in Eastern- and Middle-European countries based on the material of an international conference held in Kiev. In the fist part,the author briefs on a lecture held on the Polish middle class, after which she outlines the role of elites, classes and civil society in the changes in more details. Supporting David Lane's approach of explaining the Regime-change based on classes, we define the terms of administrative, capital and global political classes and identiy their status in the Post-Soviet society. in the second part, the developments during the past twenty years in Ukraine since its independence will be examined. This period has a double character: we see West-European democratic ideas and institutes implemented in traditional soviet mentality and practice. Based on empiric research results, we analyse the successful initiatives of the country striving for independency and the double - new democratical and old Soviet-type - characteristic institute system built on the above-meationed dichotomy. We pay special attention to the Orange Revolution, considered as the most important reform by public opinion, in reality being only a swing towards building democracy. In the third part, we leave the macro-social analytical frames behind and describe the Ukraine Parliament from inside. This lecture describes the structure of the Verkhovna Rada between 2002 and 2006. The author's impression of an ambiguously complex party society becomes transparent as a result of applying the social relationship network analysis. Based on examining the structure of the legislative body, she outlines the development of relationships and dynamics among the political and other groups during the four (!) significant structural reforms during the period concerned.
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