Papers by Małgorzata Sikorska
Problemy Polityki Społecznej, Dec 11, 2023
The concept of familial pragmatism (Pustułka & Sikorska, 2023) was the main focus of the introduc... more The concept of familial pragmatism (Pustułka & Sikorska, 2023) was the main focus of the introductory remarks to the first part of our double-volume Special Issue (SI) on The privacy and politicisation of parenting in Europe: family as a set of practices and as an object of external influence. We argued that familial pragmatism works as an orienteering concept that makes it possible to highlight the practicalities of what people -at an individual (micro) level do in the face of the public/political sphere invading their private lives. The second volume not only underscores the suitability of a pragmatic approach with regard to the content of the second batch of four SI papers but also offers some methodological insights about the private/public dilemmas, alongside discussing solutions that have helped the authors/contributors to the SIilluminate new aspects or sites of private/public tensions in family lives. In essence, we argue that -regardless of the methods used -the tensions between private and public realms persist. Just like individuals, social researchers also pragmatically and reflexively navigate the methodological landscape in their efforts to understand the private/public dilemma.
East European Politics and Societies, Nov 30, 2023
This article has two main objectives. First, it proposes an analytical framework on how to explor... more This article has two main objectives. First, it proposes an analytical framework on how to explore "narratives of return" as policy proposals and tools of memory politics. Second, it reveals coexisting versions of "return" advocated by three Polish political actors: the populist right-wing Law and Justice party ("Return" to the Nation), Catholic activists ("Return" to Religion), and representatives of liberal feminism ("Return" to Women's Rights). The case material consists of four policy proposals relating to either family or women's reproductive rights. The article shows that all analyzed political narratives of return have used some variation of the discourse on victimhood, and all of them mean to terrify and raise fear. The policy proposals draw on Polish collective memory and, specifically, on the politics of memory of the post-1989 transformation.
Sociological Research Online, Sep 20, 2023
Problemy Polityki Społecznej Studia i Dyskusje
The paper reconstructs relationships between families with children and their social environment ... more The paper reconstructs relationships between families with children and their social environment consisting of both individuals and institutions. The relationships are identified from the perspective of families. I posit the following research questions: (1) What individuals and what institutions compose the social environment around families and have influence over them? (2) Which individuals and institutions do families trust, and which do they distrust? (3) Which individuals or institutions, in the eyes of interviewees, support their families, and which go against them? Edward C. Banfield's concept of amoral familism and Stefan Nowak's notion of sociological vacuum -both linked to social trust -provide a theoretical framework and serve as starting points for my study. The article is based on qualitative research findings. The study applied an inductive approach. I argue that families' isolation from institutions -I propose the term "families' social isolation" -is one of the most significant aspects of family life in contemporary Poland. I identify three key components of Polish families' social isolation: the absence of social institutions that families can trust, families' disposition to cut themselves off 1
Studia Socjologiczne
Koncepcja demonstrowania rodzinności (displaying families) -autorstwa Janet Finch -wpisuje się w ... more Koncepcja demonstrowania rodzinności (displaying families) -autorstwa Janet Finch -wpisuje się w paradygmat definiowania rodzin w odniesieniu do praktyk oraz w sposób analizowania sfery życia rodzinnego skupiony na badaniu codziennych interakcji i działań. Zgodnie z podejściem Finch, zarówno przy definiowaniu, jak i przy badaniu życia rodzinnego trzeba uwzględnić założenie, że rodziny są nie tylko praktykowane (robione, wytwarzane) w codziennych, rodzinnych praktykach, ale także są demonstrowane/ukazywane/manifestowane jako rodziny. Podejście to wykorzystywane jest najczęściej w badaniach koncentrujących się na "nietypowych" formach życia rodzinnego z różnych powodów odbiegających od normatywnych wzorców. Artykuł ma trzy cele: po pierwsze -dyskusję głównych założeń koncepcji displaying families; po drugie -przedstawienie tego podejścia jako narzędzia badawczego użytecznego w analizach zróżnicowanych zagadnień z zakresu socjologii życia rodzinnego oraz po trzecie -opis wykorzystania displaying families przy analizie materiałów wizualnych publikowanych w mediach społecznościowych. Słowa kluczowe: media społecznościowe; teoria praktyk rodzinnych; demonstrowanie rodzinności; analiza materiałów wizualnych; displaying families The concept of displaying families proposed by Janet Finch is embedded in the paradigm of defining families in relation to practices and in a methodology of analyzing the sphere of family life focused on the study of everyday interactions. According to Finch's approach, both defining and researching family life must take into account the assumption that families are not only "done" in everyday family practices, but also "displayed" as families. This approach is most widely used for the analyses focused on "atypical" forms of family life which for many reasons do not fit the normative patterns. The article aims to achieve three objectives: (1) to discuss the main assumptions of the "displaying families" concept; (2) to present this approach as a research tool for the analysis of family life; (3)
Problemy Polityki Społecznej, Oct 26, 2023
This double-volume Special Issue (SI) aims at mapping the tensions that shape families and family... more This double-volume Special Issue (SI) aims at mapping the tensions that shape families and family life at the junction of what is private and personal about families and for their members, on the one hand, and how families are rendered public and political through external actors and agendas, on the other hand. As per the SI's title -The privacy and politicisation of parenting in Europe: family as a set of practices and as an object of external influence -we specifically foreground the clashes and mutual interdependencies between the two -private and public -domains of family life in the European perspective. As the main argument, we stipulate that lasting tensions and the need to either reconcile, or, at least, successfully navigate between what is private and public about the family, can be tracked not only to scholarly debates and theorisation of families (see: , but is also inherent in the experiences that families and their members enjoy and endure across private and public domains. In this Guest Editorial to the double volume of Social Policy Issues, we recapitulate some of the main points in the debates within the private/public lenses for studying families, as well as propose a navigating concept of familial pragmatism as our contribution to the means of observing the private/political junction in family life.
Social Inclusion
The initial aim of this article is to analyze the clash between everyday family practices and par... more The initial aim of this article is to analyze the clash between everyday family practices and parents’ normative images of perfect children. I identified five sets of features and behaviors of the actual child that mirror daily parents–children interactions (including parental socialization strategies) and three sets of features and behaviors that reflect parents’ perceptions of a perfect child. The analysis revealed two “dimensions of contradiction”: egoism vs. empathy and obedience vs. independence. Investigating how family practices combine with parents’ normative images results in insights into parents’ ambivalent attitudes toward children. The second aim is to identify the social sources of these clashes. The Polish case appears to be intriguing due to a particularly rapid systemic transformation, resulting in overlapping patterns of everyday practices, divergent social norms, variant meanings, and contradictory discourses. This article’s contribution is to illustrate the hypot...
Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie i analiza pojęcia ambiwalencji w kontekście badań socjologiczn... more Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie i analiza pojęcia ambiwalencji w kontekście badań socjologicznych, w tym eksploracji obszaru życia rodzinnego. Ambiwalencja to termin pochodzący z psychiatrii oraz psychoanalizy, spopularyzowany w socjologii przez Roberta K. Mertona i Elinor Barber. W tekście opisano sens pojęcia ambiwalencji w kontekście socjologii oraz ewolucję tej kategorii od ambiwalencji socjologicznej do ambiwalencji strukturalnej. Dodatkowo, autorka wykorzystuje kategorię ambiwalencji w analizie wyników badania praktyk rodzinnych i rodzicielskich, opisując dwa przykłady: ambiwalencję widoczną w zestawieniu oczekiwań rodziców wobec dzieci z codziennymi doświadczeniami dorosłych oraz ambiwalentny stosunek rodziców do urządzeń elektronicznych używanych przez dzieci. Podstawowe pytanie, które stawiane jest w artykule, brzmi: co nowego kategoria ambiwalencji wnosi do analiz prowadzonych w ramach socjologii życia rodzinnego. Słowa kluczowe: socjologia życia rodzinnego; ambiwalencja socjologiczna; ambiwalencja strukturalna Małgorzata Sikorska, University of Warsaw Sociological Ambivalence as a Useful Category for the Studies of Family Life The aim of the article is to present and analyze the concept of ambivalence in the context of sociological research, particularly in the studies of family life. Derived from psychiatry and psychoanalysis, the notion of ambivalence has been popularized in sociology by Robert K. Merton and Elinor Barber. The article discusses the meaning of ambivalence as a sociological concept as well as the development of this category (from sociological to structural ambivalence). Additionally, the author uses the category of ambivalence to analyze the findings of the study on family and parental practices. The ambivalence appears in the juxtaposition of parents' expectations towards children and adults' everyday experiences as well as in the ambivalent of parents' attitude to the electronic devices used by their children. The article aims to answer the key question of what the category of ambivalence contributes to the sociology of family life.
In contemporary Poland fathers are more “visible” in public discourse than a few years ago 1 : pa... more In contemporary Poland fathers are more “visible” in public discourse than a few years ago 1 : parenting magazines and guides for parents devote separate pages and entire sections specifically to fathers; protagonists of popular Polish TV series get involved in the upbringing of their own children and often appear in scenes with both younger and older kids; fathers-celebrities pose for photos with their children and talk about them in interviews; blogs written by fathers are created on the Internet along with portals designed specifically for them. Even politicians noticed fathers, introducing the paternity leave in 2010. Meanwhile, several years ago the dominant model of fatherhood in Poland was the so-called absent father.
Polish Sociological Review, 2020
Modernization discourses which penetrated into Poland after the systemic transitions of 1989 brou... more Modernization discourses which penetrated into Poland after the systemic transitions of 1989 brought meanings that were in opposition to those embedded in the traditional models of interpersonal relations. Although the emergence of new meanings pertaining to asymmetrical social relations is typical for societies undergoing structural and cultural transformation, in the case of Poland these shifts have advanced rapidly, especially in comparison with the Western societies. This resulted in the fragmentation of the doxa—the set of taken-forgranted assumptions about the ‘natural’ shape of interpersonal relations. Due to this ‘responsible actors’ whose social roles have been so far based on authority have been affected by a loss of the sense of control over their basic social relations, i.e. the relations through which they define their identity and/or appoint life goals. Using qualitative evidence from Poland we analyze interpersonal relations in two domains of social life, i.e. work an...
Studia Socjologiczne, 2018
The main aim of the article is to present practice theories, the family practices theory and the ... more The main aim of the article is to present practice theories, the family practices theory and the concept of displaying families in particular, as an alternative framework for conducting family research. Although theories of practice and the associated perspective of doing families are an inspiration for Polish social researchers, the theoretical assumptions of these concepts – especially their most up-to-date versions – are rarely analyzed in a systematic way. In addition, the displaying families concept is hardly known as a research method. Meanwhile, it seems that the practice approach may be particularly valuable for researching contemporary family life for at least four reasons, which are presented in the third part of the article. The fi rst part of the article presents the main assumptions of practice theories, while in the second part the main assumptions of the theory of family practices and displaying families are outlined.
Być rodzicem we współczesnej Polsce. Nowe wzory w konfrontacji z rzeczywistością
Journal of Family Studies
Family and Social Change in Socialist and Post-Socialist Societies, 2000
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Papers by Małgorzata Sikorska