The Department conducts research on social policy, taking into account various specific policies. The main research perspective of the Department is based on political science, but due to the interdisciplinary nature of social policy its members also use the methods and approaches of other social sciences, such as sociology.

Research fields:

• migration policy,
• policy towards national and ethnic minorities,
• family policy,
• demographic policy,
• third sector policy,
• social capital,
• labour market policy,
• social policy models,
• public opinion,
• public debate and public discourse,
• social and political communication,
• monitoring and evaluation of public policies,
• policies towards crisis situations (e.g. immigration crisis, crisis caused by the
  COVID-19 pandemic).

Publications

The research interests of the Department’s staff are best reflected in the latest edition of the book “Social Policy”, co-edited by Grażyna Firlit-Fesnak and Jacek Męcina (PWN 2018). It is the most important textbook on social policy, used to teach students in all academic centres in Poland, where this discipline is the subject of lectures. Members of the Department are Authors or Co-authors of 7 chapters of this work, including: G. Firlit-Fesnak (3 chapters and Appendix); E. Jaroszewska (2 chapters); Cz. Żołędowski (2 chapters).

Other selected publications of members of the Department:

• G. Firllit-Fesnak, Ł. Łotocki, “Social Policy and Social Policy Research in Poland. A Report on Social Policy Teaching, Political Consultancy and Research Data Infrastructure“, DIFIS-Studie 2024/3.
• G. Firlit-Fesnak, Budowanie systemu pomocy dla uchodźców wojennych z Ukrainy w Polsce z perspektywy uczestników tego procesu, Studia Politologiczne 2/2023 vol. 68.
  
• Ł. Łotocki, The role of ideology in the Polish political debate over the 2015 migration crisis, [w:] Przegląd Zachodni, Special Issue, 2023, s. 93-119
• G. Firlit-Fesnak, Zdolność dostosowania  rodziny wobec zmian wywołanych pandemią Covid-19, Studia Politologiczne nr 3/2022 vol. 65. 
• Inwazja Rosji na Ukrainę. Społeczeństwo i polityka wobec kryzysu uchodźczego w pierwszym miesiącu wojny (raport roboczy autorstwa zespołu Katedry), Warszawa, marzec 2022.
• Ł. Łotocki, Kryzys imigracyjny w 2015 roku a bezpieczeństwo wewnętrzne an przykładzie Republiki Federalnej Niemiec (Immigration crisis in 2015 and internal security on the example of the Federal Republic of Germany), [w] Studia Migracyjne. Przegląd Polonijny 1/2022 (online first; DOI: 10.4467/25444972SMPP.21.028.14425),
• Ł. Łotocki, Rola ideologii w polskiej debacie politycznej o kryzysie migracyjnym w 2015 roku (The role of ideologies in the Polish political debate on the migration crisis in 2015), [w:] Przegląd Zachodni, nr 3/2021.
• J. Łukaszewska-Bezulska, The Role of Social Capital in Labour-Related Migrations: the Polish Example. [in:] Journal of International Migration and Integration, 1–18, 2020.
• C. Żołędowski, Poland in international migrations: the perspective of world systems theory,  Miscellanea Geographica – Regional Studies on Development, Vol. 24. No. 2, 2020 ISSN: (2084-6118), Published online: 30 Apr 2020.
• Ł. Łotocki, Kryzys imigracyjny w Europie w polskim dyskursie publicznym w latach 2015-2018 [Immigration crisis in Europe in Polish public discourse in 2015-2018], Dom Wydawniczy ELIPSA, Warszawa 2019.
• C. Żołędowski, Polish national minorities in post-Jagiellonian space (in:) T. H. Malloy, S. Oeter, G. Volkmer (Ed.): The promotion of national minorities by their ‘mother countries’ in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th and 21st century,  De Gruyter/Oldenbourg, Berlin-Boston 2019 (Publications of the Federal Institute for Culture and History of the Germans in Eastern Europe, Vol. 75).
• Ł. Łotocki, Strategie dyskredytacji oponentów w polskiej debacie politycznej o kryzysie imigracyjnym, (Discreditation strategies in the Polish political debate on the immigration crisis), [in:] Migranci i mniejszości jako obcy i swoi w przestrzeni polityczno-społecznej (Migrants and minorities as outsiders and insiders in the political and social space), (ed.) A. Adamczyk, A. Sakson, C. Trosiak, Poznań, 2019, pp. 143-158.
• C. Żołędowski, „Pierwsza repatriacja”. Powroty i przyjazdy osiedleńcze do Polski ze Wschodu po I wojnie światowej [“First repatriation”. Returns and settlement arrivals to Poland from the East after World War I], [in:], „Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny”, Nr 1/2017, s. 63-93.
• G. Firlit-Fesnak, Ł. Łotocki, P.W. Zawadzki (eds.), Europejskie polityki imigracyjne. Stare dylematy, nowe wyzwania[European immigration policies. Old dilemmas, new challenges], Aspra-Jr, Warszawa 2016.
• Ł. Łotocki, The Post-Soviet Armenian Immigration to Poland, [w:] Armenians in Post-Socialist Europe, (red.) K. Siekierski, S. Troebst, Köln, 2016.
• J. Łukaszewska-Bezulska, Migracje zarobkowe a kapitał społeczny na pograniczach kulturowych na przykładzie Opolszczyzny i Podlasia[Labour migration and social capital in cultural borderlands on the example of Opole and Podlasie regions], [in:] Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny, z. 2 (156)/2015.
• C. Żołędowski, Studenci zagraniczni w Polsce. Motywy przyjazdu, ocena pobytu, plany an przyszłość [Foreign students in Poland. Motives for arrival, assessment of stay, plans for the future], Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warsaw 2010;
• T. Żukowski, Przeżywanie śmierci Jana Pawła II i jej rocznic [Experiencing the death of John Paul II and its anniversaries], [in:] T. Żukowski, (ed.; with P. Gierech), Wartości Polaków a dziedzictwo Jana Pawła II [The values of Poles and the heritage of John Paul II], Centrum Myśli Jana Pawła II, Warszawa 2009.

Cooperation

The Department cooperates with other faculties of the University of Warsaw (Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Law and Administration) and with other higher schools (Wrocław University of Economics and Business, University of Silesia, Warsaw School of Economics). It also cooperates with research institutes (Institute of Labour and Social Affairs, Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Polish Academy of Sciences), committees and scientific societies (Committee for Labour and Social Policy Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Social Policy Association), central and local government administration institutions (Ministry of Family and Social Policy, Ministry of Interior and Administration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Voivodeship Labour Office in Warsaw), as well as research and training centres.

This cooperation consists of:

• participation of researchers and students in research projects and study visits,
• participation in conferences organized by these institutions,
• reviewing publications, doctoral and habilitation theses and books,
• scientific supervision of trainees from other research and education centres,
• preparing reports, opinions and expertise,
• obtaining and exchanging data and information,
• participation in publishing projects (such as monograph dedicated to the centenary of social policy in Poland in 2018 prepared by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy).