The publication 'Social Capital. Social Economy' prepared in our project thanks to financiation form EQUAL is now available in Polish.

If you would like to receive a copy of this book please mail to: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

"Therefore, more and more importance is attached to so-called social economy, which we understand as a tool for economic and social mobilization of neglected local communities/areas, and as a formula to increase the participation of its members/population in economic exchange and public life.
In Poland, social economy has recently become one of the key topics in the public debate on social policy. This is due both to attempts made in order to find remedial measures to address unsolved social problems mentioned above (a deepening  marginalization of some social categories and local communities), as well as to the country’s accession to the European Union and the resulting transfer of ideas, regulations, programs and funds."

 (from Introduction)

Ten adres e-mail jest ukrywany przed spamerami, włącz obsługę JavaScript w przeglądarce, by go zobaczyć  

"The publication consists of three parts and a supplement. Part I comprises studies on social capital issues. Agnieszka Rymsza (Classical concepts of social capital) provides an overview of basic concepts of social capital and discusses key aspects of its criticism. Tomasz Kaźmierczak (Social capital and socio-economic development – an overview of approaches), in turn, presents social capital issues from an economic point of view. He analyzes the economic value of social capital and characterizes viewpoints from which links between social capital and economic growth are presented. Whereas both studies discussed in the above are of theoretical nature, the article by Barbara Fedyszak-Radziejowska (Is social capital possible without social confidence? Examples of Polish rural communities) serves as their empirical counterpoint. The author tries to assess the level of social capital in Poland’s rural areas on the basis of a reliable research material.

Part II consists of three studies on social economy. Tomasz Kaźmierczak (Understanding social economy) tries to explain the phenomenon of contemporary interest in social economy and describes various present-day approaches to these issues (diverging concepts of social economy). The second study is dedicated to Polish traditions of social economy. Izabela Bukraba-Rylska (Social entrepreneurship in interwar Poland – examples) provides a unique reconstruction of social economy patterns at the time of the 2^nd Republic. The third study comes back to the present day.  Marek Rymsza (The second wave of social economy in Poland and the concept of active social policy) points out links between the growth of social entrepreneurship and growing popularity of a new concept of social policy which aims at activating its beneficiaries, as observable in Poland and across Europe. In this way, social economy becomes a part of the main political trend. The mid-1990s are characterized by a green light for social economy from the European Union. One of the results is the profile of the EQUAL Community Initiative, where growth of social economy is prioritized as a measure to reduce the problem of exclusion.

Part III of the volume is more practice-oriented. Hubert Izdebski and Monika Małek (Legal forms of social entrepreneurship in Poland) review legal forms in which social enterprises may operate in Poland. The study also presents a comparative analysis of these forms, with a reference to their strengths and weaknesses. Anna Królikowska, in turn (Financing social economy institutions) identifies and analyses sources of financing and credits for social enterprises. It is stressed by the author that without proper infrastructure of financial support (the one which takes into account the specific nature of these forms of economy) or access to credits etc, social enterprises are placed at a disadvantage compared with commercial companies. In the long run, social entrepreneurship cannot be popularized without developing its institutional background. Yet another practical aspect – the art of effective operation in a given social reality, including a skill of implementation of social economy initiatives – is pointed out by Witold Toczyski and Jacek Lendzion (A lesson learnt from the collapse of the Local Initiatives Program in Wicko community), who analyze a case of measures assessed as a failure (although in fact they had some positive effects for the local community, called ‘splinter effects’ by the Authors).

In search for a Polish model of social economy, it is perhaps worthwhile to take a look back in the past in order to see whether some ideas worth continuing could be found in the tradition of social thought. Poland has indeed not only rich customs of social economy, but also a considerable record of achievements of scientific reflection on the topic. Analyses by Stanisław Ossowski, Florian Znaniecki or Ludwik Krzywicki are worth reminding particularly in the context of the second wave of social economy. We decided to present in this volume shorts excerpts from the writings of Stanisław Ossowski. This was possible through the courtesy of the inheritors of Professor Ossowski’s scholarly legacy, as well as the owners of copyrights to his publications, for which we extend our cordial thanks. We do believe that his texts presented here – counted among the classics of Polish sociology, surprisingly timely and visionary, as we only now begin to realize – will be found inspiring by the reader. What is meant in particular is the idea of building a new social order  – an order of collective agreements – which we would describe today as an idea which encourages  popularization of a culture of partnership."