Bez zmian na „zielonej wyspie”? Kryzys ekonomiczny w polskich badaniach socjologicznych

The article presents selected aspects of the discussion about the conditions and consequences of global economic crisis in Polish sociology. The author argues that the relatively limited debate on the nature of the current crisis can be explained by two factors. Firstly, it is the consequence of the dominance of modernisation paradigm in the analysis of the Polish social transformation as well as the marginalisation of two sociologies: critical labour sociology and economic sociology. Secondly, drawing on research carried out by the author on working-class life strategies in the 2000s, the limited debate is the outcome of social “normalisation” and “adaptation” to crisis experiences in the Polish society. Despite the symptoms of collective “demobilisation” in the face of successive crises, adaptation to crises has its social limits. The discourse of global economic crisis contributes to new forms of collective mobilisation in the sphere of work and politics regardless of the dominance of individualistic coping strategies inherited from the first decades of transformation. The “counter-movement” taking place in Poland is expressed in trade union radicalisation and mobilisation of radical-nationalist movements. Both processes are interpreted by the author with the reference to Karl Polanyi’s work as the manifestations of self-defence of the society against the expansion of socially uncontrolled market mechanisms.