Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego: program Diamentowy Grant, konkurs 43
Kierownik: Aleksander Matthew Haleniuk
Okres realizacji: 2014-09-03 do 2020-09-02

Proponowany przez autora projekt jest okazją do dogłębnego zbadania pozycji społecznej Afrykanerów, czyli przedstawicieli białej ludności Republiki Południowej Afryki oraz Namibii, w ramach istniejących na południu Afryki demokratycznych państw.

Wstępem do projektu ma być analiza zachodzących zmian tożsamości afrykanerskiej przy jednoczesnym zwróceniu uwagi na procesy, które dotychczas miały największy wkład w jej powstanie i kształtowanie tj. m.in.: Wielki Trek, wojny burskie, wyznanie kalwińskie, apartheid. Ważnym elementem badań będzie analiza samookreślenia się Afrykanerów i ich stosunku do istniejących realiów oraz poczucia bycia jedynym białym plemieniem Afryki.

Projekt jest też próbą naukowego zmierzenia się ze stereotypami, które ciążą na tej społeczności. Autor proponuje kompleksowe zbadanie i opisanie afrykanerskich organizacji takich jak AfriForum czy Solidariteit, które stawiają sobie za cel obronę interesów tej społeczności w zmieniających się stosunkach społecznych w Republice Południowej Afryki, a także szczegółowe przeanalizowanie propozycji i możliwości utworzenia autonomii bądź też odrębnego afrykanerskiego państwa w granicach współczesnej RPA, na przykładzie Oranii oraz Kleinfontein – dwóch miejscowości zamieszkanych wyłącznie przez Afrykanerów. Nieodzownym elementem projektu będą badania przeprowadzone w Republice Południowej Afryki oraz Namibii w III roku trwania projektu. Integralną częścią projektu ma być wydanie publikacji podsumowującej wyniki badań autora, które przybliżyłyby tematykę Afrykanerów przeciętnemu polskiemu czytelnikowi, a także uzupełniłyby dotychczasowy, skromy stan wiedzy polskiej nauki na ten temat.

COST Association, Brussels, Belgium
Okres realizacji: 27.11.2017–26.11.2021
Uczestnik akcji: dr Bartosz Pieliński

Empowering the next generation of social enterprise scholars
Social enterprise (SE) are organizations which combine an entrepreneurial dynamic to provide services or goods with a primacy of social aims. SE naturally cross various types of borders; sectoral (public, business, cooperatives, associations), resources (drawing them from the market, public procurement, grants, and philanthropy) and activity fields (personal services, finance, recycling industry, energy and transport, food supply chains…).

This EMPOWER-SE Action aims at:
(1) contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the diversity of SE models emerging across Europe and globally; their conditions of emergence and development; and their contribution to key industries for the development of sustainable societies by overcoming existing fragmentation in the levels of knowledge from both a geographical and a disciplinary point of view;
(2) empowering the next generation of SE scholars, focusing on expanding the SE scientific community to less research-intensive countries where it is still embryonic or non-existing; and
(3) fostering evidence-based policy from local to European levels and supporting the development of SE and their eco-systems in synergy with main industry representatives and stakeholders. The Action will implement networking mechanisms (working groups, conferences, meetings, workshops for policy-makers, local stakeholder talks, short-term scientific missions, training schools, communication tools including stakeholders briefs, and web-based dissemination) to connect fragmented communities and to contribute to closing the gap between the scientific community, policy-makers and society throughout Europe and beyond.

(Descriptions are provided by the Actions directly via e-COST.)

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS, edycja 20
Kierownik: dr hab. Adam Szymański
Okres realizacji: od 2021-07-07 do 2023-07-06

The proposed project is aimed at going beyond the national dimension in analysing democratisation and autocratisation and taking into consideration the subnational levels. Following the previous preliminary research, it envisages both theoretical studies to work out the relevant theoretical framework combining democracy and territorial politics studies and the empirical research on the pilot case of Poland, in the years 2010-2022. This study – to be continued afterwards within the complex comparative analysis – focuses on the impact of democratic/autocratic changes at the national level on the change of state of democracy at subnational levels (selected voivodeships and cities), including the COVID-19 crisis. The following questions will be posed with reference to Poland: Are there any patterns between the change towards democracy or autocracy and a change in a unitary or decentralised direction? Are the decentralised territorial structures “democratic enclaves” in the case of autocratisation starting at a national level and did something change in the analysed period in this regard? What types of democratic/autocratic changes can we observe at the subnational levels? The questions will help to verify the main hypothesis: decentralisation processes constitute an opportunity for subnational authorities to become more democratic but also more autocratic, as they may enhance the divergence in democracy levels between different territorial tiers of governance.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; SONATA; edycja 12
Kierownik: dr Aleksandra Zubrzycka-Czarnecka
Okres realizacji: od 2017-07-05 do 2020-07-04

Having a roof over one’s head is one of the basic human needs. Decent housing conditions allow for the proper functioning of individuals, families and communities. The housing crisis – felt in many European countries (e.g. in Poland, Spain, Portugal, France and Belgium) – proves that the housing needs of the population have not been fulfilled. It is also visible in the statistics concerning the problem of homelessness. This situation appears as a challenge for researchers and for professionals connected with housing. There is not only a lack of creditworthiness and budgetary means for financing expensive housing investments, but also a lack of any concept of housing policy development in the 21st century. The development of a housing policy vision which is capable of addressing modern housing problems is possible only with the use of theoretical tools and data obtained from research. The participation of social actors in shaping and implementing housing policy is an important element of this policy. However, within the theory of housing research there is a lack of theoretical and analytical tools to study the above mentioned issues. In this situation the concept of housing policy democracy (CHPD) developed in the project may be useful for studying the legitimacy of housing policy and its influence on the effectiveness and innovativeness of public policy within the sphere of housing. The research will include housing policy of the capital city of Warsaw between 2000 and 2016. The results of the research will make it possible to explain the social reaction to political measures in the scope of meeting the housing needs of the population, which in turn may contribute to the improvement of the design of these measures.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS, edycja 19
Kierownik: dr hab. Patrycja Grzebyk, prof. ucz.
Okres realizacji: od 2021-01-22 do 2025-01-21

In case of inter-state disputes, there is no international court with obligatory jurisdiction which could deal with any legal dispute. The International Court of Justice has a very limited contentious jurisdiction as it requires the consent of the state. Therefore, in order to circumvent the lack of consent of one of the sides in the dispute, the possibility to ask for advisory opinion through one of the organs of the United Nations or specialized agencies is tempting. The most recent request for the advisory opinion was made by the UN General Assembly in 2017 on Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965. It has proven that wise shaping of the questions to the ICJ can help engaging the Court even in bilateral disputes which in theory can be only adjudicated on the basis of the consent. The case has also shown that an advisory procedure could be an effective tool in the hands of smaller states in their relations with bigger powers, even permanent members of the Security Council. However, this does not mean that states automatically comply with the advisory opinions (which Chagos case proves as the UK disregards recommendations made by the General Assembly based on the ICJ’s opinion) and that those opinions determine the direction in which international law should develop. Quite the opposite is true: it can be proven that advisory opinions were not effective tools to solve legal problems and in many situations, advisory opinions just blurred the legal framework and provoked further disputes among states (Kosovo opinion) or undermined the basic principles of particular branch of international law (Nuclear Weapon opinion). Abuses (interpretation in bad will) of the ICJ’s statements expressed in advisory opinions are not rare (Kosovo opinion and the justification by Russia of the annexation of Crimea).

Projekt realizowany w ramach Horyzont 2020 (Research Executive Agency – REA)
Koordynator: ITTI Sp. z o.o., Polska
Kierownik: dr Magdalena Dobrowolska-Opała (od 2019-03-01)
Okres realizacji: 2018-05-01 do 2021-04-30

Strona internetowa projektu: http://eu-sense.eu/home

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; FUGA; edycja 4
Kierownik: dr Dominika Maria Mikucka-Wójtowicz
Okres realizacji: od 2015-10-01 do 2019-10-12

Although the literature on the widely understood Europeanisation of the post-Yugoslav area is quite extensive, the role of political parties has so far been neglected. This is a significant oversight because, as Simon Hix rightly noted, both national and EU politics are party politics. Moreover, the functioning of party systems significantly affects the stability of political systems. This fact is particularly important in the case of the political reality of countries which have such an important geopolitical position and which have had such a difficult (except for the special case of Slovenia) path to democracy. The research conducted during the project led to the creation of a model of the Europeanisation of parties in post-communist countries; the model in which Europeanisation of the parties is seen as a complex three-track process. The first track constitutes changes in the functioning of domestic political groupings caused by the changes to the external and internal environment under the influence of EU integration. The second track comprises the admittedly rare, but not unheard-of, direct interventions of EU institutions and transnational party actors (TPAs) in the operation of domestic parties and party systems. The third and the last one, but at the same time the very important track of Europeanisation, especially in the broad CEE region, is the cooperation of domestic parties with a broad scope of TPAs, which includes political internationals, transnational parties and the political groups that represent them in the European Parliament, as well as – particularly important in this case – Western European sister parties.

Impulses or “pressures” coming from external, EU actors are then modified (filtered) by three groups of factors: external (e.g. the credibility of the integration offer from the EU and the advancement of this process), intra-system (e.g. impact of the communist heritage, method of erosion of communist system, which includes time and scope of reforms of post-communist groupings, as well as changes in public attitudes towards integration) and intra-party factors (including the degree of institutionalization of the parties themselves, the faction that is currently dominant in the party and the role of electoral defeats or even  poll’s announcements of failures, or the fact whether the party is in the government or the opposition). These factors can in fact have a major impact on the intensity and scope of Europeanisation of national parties and party systems.

Party changes can be seen above all in the organisational and ideological dimensions. As for the former dimension, it includes copying certain organisational solutions from sister groupings, such as the introduction of gender parity and the appearance of women and young activists on electoral lists and, although less often, in central party bodies, or changes of the rules of selection of party leaders). On the latter, ideological level, we can observe, inter alia, increase in numbers of references devoted to the EU and the fact that they change their nature depending on the stage of integration: from “community of values” to “community of benefits”; as well as the introduction of new topics.

When the changes in party systems are in question, the Europeanisation primarily has impact on party systems’ mechanisms (existing patterns of party rivalry and cooperation, which is manifested, for example, in the loss of coalition potential by anti-EU groupings during the accession negotiations) rather than their format (the number of significant groups that count on the domestic political scene). However there are some evidence that the internal or inter-party conflicts over the benefits and losses connected with European integration contributed to some extent to the formation of new groupings or splits in old parties.

Projekt realizowany w ramach Horyzont 2020 (ERC, działanie Research & Innovation Action, Innovation Action, działania Marie Skłodowskiej-Curie)

Kierownik: dr hab. Jakub Zajączkowski
Okres realizacji: 2017-04-01 do 2021-03-31

The GLOBAL INDIA ETN will deliver a world-class multi-sectoral doctoral training programme focused on India’s emergence as a global and regional power, and its relationship with the EU. International research on India’s global role has not kept pace with the changes to India’s status as a growing economy and significant international actor. This is reflected in the lack of PhD level training programmes in Europe that have a focus on India. Europe lacks a knowledge base on India, the ETN addresses this by creating a multidisciplinary, multi-sectoral network bringing together six leading European universities, with six leading Indian universities, and six non-university partners (one as a beneficiary), all of whom have previously collaborated together. India’s actions as a global actor impact on the interests of the EU, and India as a democratic state could potentially be an ally for the EU on international issues that will affect the welfare and security of Europe. The quality of Indian democracy also shapes India’s actions as an international actor and therefore this programme examines the domestic challenges that are shaping Indian democracy and the key international actions of India that are most relevant to its relationship with Europe. The networks training programme is grounded in the academic excellence of the universities and the complimentarily of the strong, diverse range of non-academic partners – a representative business organisation, a consultancy SME; two think-tanks (in Brussels and New Delhi); a human rights organisation and a global company. The training programme requires that all ESRs will attend 9 network training events, providing workshops on skills (academic and practitioner), with inputs from all partners; complete an internship with a non-academic partner; and conduct extended period of field-work based in an Indian University. Key measurable outputs of the network will be 30 journal articles, 60 policy briefs and an active media presence.

http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/208796_pl.html

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS; edycja 13
Kierownik: dr hab. Marcin Kaczmarski
Okres realizacji: od 2018-01-10 do 2020-11-09

Description for general public The project focuses on two attempts to construct a regional international order: the New Silk Road promoted by China and the Eurasian Economic Union put forward by Russia. The two initiatives have a mixed, political-economic, nature. They envision economic cooperation and aim at increasing China and Russia’s influence in their respective neighbourhoods.
The goal of the project is to study to what extent Chinese and Russian initiatives are shaped by localized ideas and political traditions, and to what extent are they influenced by the international norms of cooperation and regionalism, promoted mostly by the Western states. Three major aspects of the initiatives will be analysed in the project. First, the visions of international order, i.e. the ways in which Chinese and Russian ruling elites imagine a regional international order, how they understand the concepts of ‘region’ and ‘regionalism’. Institutional designs of the two initiatives are the second component – the project will study legal and institutional frameworks, international treaties, and institutions constructed within the two regional orders in-the-making. Finally, the project will analyse practical economic and political cooperation, implemented by China and Russia within the New Silk Road and the Eurasian Economic Union with three states: Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Belarus.
Two major reasons support the choice of this research topic. China and Russia’s regional-order projects are important not only for these two states and their neighbours, but also for the global international order. The ways in which China and Russia shape their neighbourhoods will influence their relations with the West and with each other. At the same time, we still lack knowledge on how localised political ideas and international norms shape international politics at the regional level. Most to-date research has focused on the European Union which was established and functioned under very specific circumstances. There are few studies which would explore non-Western attempts of building regional orders, especially initiated and pursued by illiberal great powers.

Projekt realizowany w ramach Horyzont 2020 (Research Executive Agency – REA)
Koordynator: European University Institute, Włochy
Kierownik projektu ze strony polskiej: dr hab. Wojciech Gagatek
Okres realizacji: 2019-01-01 do 2021-12-31

Integrating Diversity in the European Union (InDivEU) is a Horizon 2020 funded project that will start in January 2019 and run for three years. Its main objective is to provide Europe’s policy makers with an important knowledge hub on ‘Differentiated Integration’.

The challenge of ‘integrating diversity in the European Union’ is back on the EU agenda as the EU strives to forge a post-crisis future, reach out to European citizens and counter-balance the anti-EU populist discourse.

The InDivEU project aims to contribute concretely to the current debate on the ‘Future of Europe’ by re-assessing, developing and testing a range of models and scenarios for different levels of integration among EU member states.

InDivEU will use various methods and data sources to explore Differentiated Integration conceptually and normatively, describe its historical trajectory and patterns, examine its causes and effects, study alternative forms of flexibility, and provide evidence-based policy advice on designing future forms of Differentiated Integration.

InDivEU will combine excellent academic research with the capacity to translate research findings into policy design and advice. The research will be supported by professional expertise and knowledge in project management, exploitation, dissemination and communication

Project consortium includes key European universities, including European University Institute in Florence, ETH Zurich, Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, London School of Economics, University of Amsterdam and others.

 The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 822304.

Inicjatywa Doskonałości Uczelnia Badawcza; Nowe Idee POB V
Kierownik: dr hab. Natalia Garner
Okres realizacji: od 2021-09-01 do 2023-02-28

Mass migration to the countries of the European Union presents us with many challenges. One of the most important is cooperation and the production of public goods, despite our differences. However, research shows that we are much less likely to place trust – a resource we need to collaborate – on members of foreign groups than on members of our own group. Our study will use laboratory and survey experiments to investigate to what extent an immigrant's generation or asylum seeker's status, coupled with that person's social status, affects the trust they place in that person by members of other groups. The results will help to understand not only whether the cultural difference or unequal social status negatively affects the trust between groups in the context of the migration crisis, but also what the legitimizing role of the state plays in this process.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS, edycja 19
Kierownik: dr hab. Anna Kurowska
Okres realizacji: od 2021-01-11 do 2025-01-10

Since the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic a large number of families have been directly impacted by the spread of the SARS-coV-2 as the family members got infected, became sick, hospitalized and some of them died. But in addition to the direct health effects, an even larger number of families has been affected indirectly by the pandemic, as most countries around the globe have implemented far reaching social (physical) distancing and confinement policies, such as country lockdowns, school, childcare and workplace closures, restrictions to movement of people, cancellation of mass gatherings, closing of parks, forests and other public spaces, limiting access to shops and services. The scientific goal of the project is to assess the diverse short (immediate) and long-term consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak policy responses for the distribution of paid and unpaid work in couples and their labour market outcomes (type of work contract, job stability, earnings, supervisory/managerial position) in Poland and in an international comparative perspective. The main focus will be on working parents with dependants, who were severely affected by the pandemic through school and childcare closures as well as disturbances to working arrangements. It is for the first time in modern history that partners who already had adopted certain division of paid and unpaid work unexpectedly had to re-arrange it because of the sudden immense increase in childcare responsibilities caused by kindergarten and school closures. At the same time, home-based work became suddenly available for many workers. Overall, these new circumstances create an extraordinary situation which may lead to either exacerbation of gender inequalities in the division of paid and unpaid labour or to more equal division.

Projekt realizowany w ramach Horyzont 2020 (działanie Marie Skłodowska-Curie, Research and Innovation Staff Exchange – RISE)
Koordynator: Accademia Europea Di Bolzano, Włochy
Kierownik projektu ze strony polskiej: dr Andżelika Mirska
Okres realizacji: od 2019-02-01 do 2023-01-31

LoGov aims to form an international and intersectoral training and research network in order to provide best-fit practices for local governments to address the changing urban-rural interplay and manage its impacts. As a global Consortium composed of eight European and nine non-European partners, we seek to (1) to identify, evaluate, compare and share practices in five major local government areas (local responsibilities, local finances, local government structure, intergovernmental relations and people’s participation); (2) to encourage the effective application of the best-fit practices by local governments; (3) to strengthen international and intersectoral collaborative research; (4) to enhance the career perspectives of the staff involved by increasing their mobility both within the academic and the non-academic sectors and between these sectors.
LoGov’s methodological approach relies on a comprehensive comparative analysis that draws on findings from 15 countries or wider regions on six continents, the extensive involvement of local policy-makers through local government associations and a multi- and interdisciplinary approach that is facilitated by the Consortium’s expertise in four disciplines (public law,
political science, public administration and economics).

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS; edycja 11
Kierownik: dr hab. Adam Robert Szymański
Okres realizacji: od 2017-02-01 do 2020-01-31

DESCRIPTION FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC
Although the number of countries holding elections has been on the rise in the last decades, the fairness of elections leaves often a lot to be desired. The phenomenon of electoral manipulations has been developed, going beyond the simple fraud. The main goal of the research is the analysis of the impact of these manipulations on the political regimes of states (first of all so called hybrid regimes – situating between democracy and authoritarianism), together with the outline of the forecast on their possible changes. Researchers will concentrate on the issue of keeping a fair competition between political parties intact and equal chances to seize power. The choice of this topic is first of
all a result of the observed dynamic development of a variety of the electoral malpractices – concerning the law, preferences of voters and voting itself, which favor single political powers and start affecting different elements of a political system, e.g. enhance the domination of one political party. In the long-term perspective it can lead to the undemocratic changes. Political scientists recognized this in last years and developed first of all the theoretical studies. However, they did not carry out the thorough research on the concrete cases, taking into consideration their comparison and they did not start the broad reflection on the impact of the manipulations on the system changes.
The research project will serve this goal. The main research subject will be Turkey at the time of the single party ruling of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002-2015 as one of the best examples to indicate the electoral malpractice and its impact on the changes of the political regime.
The researchers – political scientists working on the Turkish politics for many years and observing for a long time elections in Turkey will also consider the similar cases of states (mainly from the Eastern Europe and Latin America) for the more complete verification of the hypotheses led by these assuming that the electoral malpractices lead to existing of the so called borderline regimes,
balancing between the hybrid and authoritarian regimes but due to the rising number of the electoral manipulations gradually approaching the latter type of the regime. The two-year research will be carried out with the use of the rich Polish and English literature (to a lesser extent the Turkish publications) and available databases/reports concerning elections, electoral integrity (fairness) and democracy. Apart from it the interviews will be conducted with:
Turkish politicians, representatives of the organizations monitoring elections, experts in electoral law, elections and democratization in Turkey. The initial results will be presented in the special internet website, containing also the most important information about the project. The final results will be published in the monograph in English by one of the prestigious publishing houses in which books come out in this language. The research results at a particular stage will be consulted with experts from Poland and abroad.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; SONATA; edycja 10
Kierownik: dr Alicja Cecylia Curanović
Okres realizacji: od 2016-06-14  do 2020-06-13 

After the fall of USSR and during the first years of Putin’s presidency the Kremlin has officially sought to avoid ideological profiling of its policy and the president himself assured that Russia wanted to be a „normal power“. At the time, most experts on Russia saw messianism as a relic of the past with no bearing on the political thinking of the Russian elites. This assessment has changed drastically in face of the so called „conservative turn“ and the on-going conflict in the Ukraine. Leading newspapers (e.g. Financial Times, The
Economist) started to write about the renaissance of Russian messianism, analysis and comments on the topic began to appear. However, this growing interest still hasn’t ushered in an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon. In the predominant majority of publications messianism is used as a catch phrase for providing a simplified explanation of the new developments in Russian foreign policy. Although the idea for this project had occurred to me long before the “conservative turn”, the re-traditionalization of the public discourse, initiated in the recent years by the Kremlin, has been an important motivating factor for
addressing this issue. This issue, in my opinion, is of significant importance for understating the current dynamics in Russian politics. I define mission as a conviction of a certain community (state/nation) about its exceptionality which manifests itself in a special destiny (Russian: особенное предназначение) of this particular community. In my conceptualization of mission, the latter is determined by three inter-connected features: (a) the conviction of having a special destiny, (b) the feeling of moral superiority (politics understood in moral categories), (c) conviction of not acting solely in one’s own particular interest. The goal of research is to describe and understand the phenomenon of contemporary exceptionalism in Russian foreign policy by establishing the content, context and function of the idea of mission in the Russian thinking on international relations. The object of my analysis will be Russian official discourse on foreign policy in the years 2000-2014. My research will thus entail the examination of different forms of appearances (speeches, interviews, comments, press conference appearances etc.) by state officials with influence on Russia’s foreign policy. The project will allow not only understanding the complexities of Russia’s mission, but will give important insights about the dynamics of the self-identification process of the Russian state.
The research I propose in frames of this project will also yield observations on the universal mechanisms of political messianism. My hope is that it will serve as a platform for further comparative research on states with different statues, i.e. for comparing Russia (as a recovering power) with the USA (dominating power) or China (rising power). The project is multidisciplinary and combines elements of political science, sociology, philosophy and cultural studies.

Narodowy Program Rozwoju Humanistyki – moduł „Uniwersalia 2.1”
Kierownik: dr hab. Elżbieta Kossewska
Okres realizacji: od 2018-04-10  do 2021-04-09

Celem pracy jest charakterystyka dziennikarskich i czytelniczych środowisk polskich Żydów zorganizowanych wokół partyjnej prasy polskojęzycznej w Izraelu. Badano znaczenie i rolę tej prasy w procesie adaptacji Żydów przybyłych z Polski do Izraela w latach 1948–1970. W tym czasie na łamach prasy zapisano przebieg procesu adaptacji, różne stany tożsamości i napięć międzykulturowych, zwłaszcza gdy nowi olim [Żydzi przybywający do Erec Israel/ Izraela] wciąż byli zawieszeni między dziedzictwem kraju pochodzenia a wartościami żydowskiego państwa i dopiero przystąpienie do hebrajskojęzycznej większości kończyło ich „kulturową podróż”. Przyjęty w pracy kierunek badań pozwolił na opisanie również historii polskich Żydów w Izraelu, poszerzając perspektywę o nieznane dotąd fragmenty ich aktywności, w szczególności kierując uwagę czytelnika na ich działalność polityczną i wydawniczą. Praca składa się z siedmiu rozdziałów i każdy z nich, poza rozdziałem wprowadzającym, został poświęcony sześciu polskojęzycznym wydawnictwom partii izraelskich. W pierwszym rozdziale opisano zagadnienia polityczne i ideologiczne związane z szerzeniem etosu języka hebrajskiego i wzrostem ilościowym tytułów w sektorze prasy obcojęzycznej. Kolejne rozdziały, w porządku chronologicznym, dotyczą Partii Postępowej i Ogólnych Syjonistów, Mapaj, Mapam, Maki i Bundu.

Uzasadnienie międzynarodowej rangi wydawnictwa Globalny holding wydawniczy Peter Lang (Peter Lang Academic Publishing) specjalizuje się w pracach naukowych i czasopismach z zakresu humanistyki i nauk społecznych. Posiada globalny systemem dystrybucji i promocji prac naukowych oraz największą naukową bazą danych Scopus.

Publikacje Wydawnictwa Peter Lang są obecne w wykazach międzynarodowych baz danych i katalogach wydawniczych. Wydawnictwo ma swoje siedziby między innymi w Bernie, Frankfurcie nad Menem, Nowym Jorku, Brukseli, Oksfordzie i Berlinie.

Związek projektu z założeniami programu oraz celami i zakresem konkursu – praca „Ona mówi po polsku, ale śmieje się po hebrajsku. Prasa polskojęzyczna i integracja kulturowa polskich Żydów w Izraelu” została nominowana do Nagrody im. Jerzego Giedroycia. Ukazała się w języku polskim i jest to pierwsze opracowanie, które dokumentuje tak szeroko historię polskich Żydów w Izraelu i opisuje funkcjonowanie prasy obcojęzycznej w systemie politycznym Izraela. Praca ma charakter interdyscyplinarny, obejmuje problemy z zakresu historii, politologii, kulturoznawstwa i socjologii. Książka została napisana głównie na podstawie źródeł archiwalnych ( polskich, brytyjskich, izraelskich, francuskich, amerykańskich). W pracy zaprezentowano metodologię, która może być wykorzystana do badań grup etnicznych, uchodźców, społeczeństw wielokulturowych. W opinii np. Recenzentów dorobku habilitacyjnego praca została uznana za pionierską, “niemającą precedensu w literaturze przedmiotu”.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS, edycja 18
Kierownik: dr hab. Anna Kurowska
Okres realizacji: od 2020-07-10 do 2024-07-09

Parental leave policies provide fathers with the opportunity to take care of their children. Yet many men do not take advantage of this opportunity. To what extent does this result from their free choices? And do those who use these opportunities choose them freely? These fundamental questions have not yet been addressed with a coherent theoretical and methodological framework. This project will push scientific frontiers by setting an entirely new way of looking at and explaining the (non/partial) take-up of parental leave by fathers. It departs from the most recent research on the conditions for formal opportunities provided by policies to be translated into real ones, based on the adoption of Amartya Sen’s idea of
freedom (capabilities) to social policy analysis. It goes far beyond these developments and proposes an innovative, coherent theoretical framework that takes account of major factors contributing to the (non/partial) take-up of social policy opportunities and conceptualizes the freedom in one’s choices of whether or not to take advantage of social entitlements. This project will also generate cutting-edge methods for the empirical application of this framework, drawing on recent developments in institutional analysis originating from the Grammar of Institutions proposed by Sue Crawford and Elinor Ostrom. The theoretical and methodological framework developed in this project will be applied to analyse fathers’ choices about the (non/partial) use of parental leaves in Poland, Germany, Sweden and Japan.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; HARMONIA; edycja 10
Kierownik: dr Seweryn Dmowski
Okres realizacji: od 2019-04-17 do 2021-04-16   

Objective of the project
The project concerns the issue of fans’ perception of club football rivalries in Visegrad Group countries (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary). The main objective of the project is to identify and analyse that socio-political and cultural phenomenon and create a heat-map of club football rivalries between football supporters in Central-Eastern Europe based on their opinions.
The main objective of the proposed research is to analyse how football fans perceive the essence of their relation with their rivals and how they prioritise them, as well as to understand their motives and deeper socio-political and cultural factors that underpin such rivalries.

Description of the research to be carried out The data will be obtained through the largest ever quantitative and qualitative study on football fans in Europe.
The research will consist of two subsequent component: qualitative (series of ca. 20 In-Depth Interviews with devoted fans from Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary) and quantitative (Computer-Assisted Web Interviews attempted to reach an estimated number of 100 000 fans from Central-Eastern Europe). Results of the first component will help in drafting a proper survey form for the quantitative component, which will answer the key research questions of the project. The results of both quantitative and qualitative research will be complementary and will enable better understanding of the role of socio-political and cultural factors that strengthen club football rivalries. Reasons for choosing the research topic The issue of perception of rivalries in European club football has not been academically investigated on this scale before. Expected impact of the research project will help to develop scientific approach towards phenomena directly affected by football rivalries: fan and media attention and demand, level of enjoyment of football consumption, fan engagement and various forms of unethical behaviour and public disorder (violence and hooliganism, hate speech, racism, homo/xenophobia).

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; BEETHOVEN; edycja 2
Kierownik: dr Anna Karolina Kurowska
Okres realizacji: od 2018-02-01 do 2021-01-31

In our project we particularly explore the moderating role of the cultural context on the impact of public childcare and company-level work-family reconciliation policies on maternal labour supply and the capability for work-life balance achievement. Our project consists of four parts. The first study in the project addresses the question of how the implementation of an entitlement to public childcare for 5 year olds and further introduction of mandatory pre-school year for 5 year olds in Poland affected maternal work
engagement, and how this differed with respect to different local cultural contexts. The second study aims to empirically investigate the relation between informal and formal childcare and to what extent informal childcare creates capabilities for mothers’ work engagement in different cultural contexts – in Poland and in West and East Germany. The third study aims to analyse to what extent organizational work-family reconciliation support in companies affects the incidence of women who supply labour to these particular companies in the context of different work cultures in Germany and in Poland. The fourth study explores the gendered difference of home-based work (HBW) on the capability to achieve work-life balance (WLB) in double-earner families with dependent children in different cultural contexts (traditional vs modern attitudes; Poland, East and West Germany).
We hope that the results of our project will serve as a valuable insight into the explanation of observed differences in the effects of similar work-family reconciliation policy designs in different countries/local environments. Therefore it will not only extend our knowledge but also provide useful guideline in the policy making process and contribute to increasing the effectiveness of policies, and therefore also to the better life of families in both countries.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS; edycja 13
Kierownik: dr hab. Anna Wojciuk
Okres realizacji: od 2018-01-19 do 2021-01-18

This research will explain how institutions in countries of different culture and traditions become increasingly similar to each other. The phenomenon of instiutional imitation accross states had been well described in scholarship in last decades. However, existing research does not systematically show processes, which allow to overcome an initial sense of normative threat of the existing social order, leading to situation when foreign model of organization becomes atractive and worth of implementation.
I want to study this phenomenon using examples of educational systems because, firstly, education is crucial for the processes of state-building, secondly, education is where group values are transmitted (crucial for the identity of the group), and thirdly, education is where states meet their citizens and have impact on their socialization. The analysis will be conducted on the example of the evolution of the Chinese educational system between 1840s and 1990s. China is an interesting case, because Western institutional model encountered there a strong, local schooling tradition, grounded there since 13-14th centuries. Therefore resistance towards foreign model should be strong in this country. In the period under study the evolution of Chinese education system (imperial examination system) was influenced by a variety of factors: missionary schools run by Europeans, Japanese model of education (itself developed under influence from Germany and the US), proximity of British model in Hong Kong, and implementation of the Soviet model under Mao. In 1980s and 1990s during Deng Xiaoping’s reforms a lot of changes were implemented which adjusted Chinese education to international (Western) standards.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; PRELUDIUM 10
Kierownik: mgr Oliwia Piskowska
Okres realizacji: od 2016-10-11 do 2019-10-10

Research project objectives/ Research hypothesis

The main scientific aim of the project is to verify the thesis: from the perspective of the discourse of symbolic elites of Kyrgyzstan this country is perceived as a passive participant in international relations, and geopolitical rivalry in Central Asia did not help in implementing the multi-vector foreign policy. The goal I want to achieve is a reconstruction of images of particular actors in the context of international rivalry, created in that discourse. In the course of research, I will determine the discursive way of perception of powers’ policies, their rivalry, as well as the position of Kyrgyzstan in international relations. I will also determine, whether the dominant discourse is fixed (e.g. pro-Russian or pro-Western), or whether it changes, depending on current events. Another issue is: if it is possible to find in this discourse an elements of centre-periphery approach towards great powers, and – in relation to Russia, the former colonizer – postcolonial (post-dependency) elements.

Research project methodology

The main method of research, which will be applied in this project, is the discourse analysis, especially non-evaluative elements of critical discourse analysis (CDA), which focuses on the problems and issues of social life. In this project I will focus on a matter of international rivalry in Kyrgyzstan. The perspective of political science in discourse analysis lies not in a focus on linguistic layer of texts, but in their relation to political reality (analysis of the relationship between the text and the political context).

In the course of the study I will extract a key images and narratives, regarding the major powers (US, Russia, China), regional powers (Turkey, Iran) and their interaction in the Central Asian region. This will allow to determine what images of those actors are created in Kyrgyzstani discourse and the relation between those images and the foreign policy pursued by this country. At the same time the analysis of texts from the adopted timeframe (2001–2014) will show the dynamics of the discourse and characterize the evolution in its development and use. In the proposed study I will take into account the characteristics of the discourse intended for external recipients (at international level) and internal ones (using narrative of the international rivalry in domestic politics). Such analysis will be conducted on a stream of texts, which are connected through a theme and a domain. It will be a discourse of the political elite and symbolic elites. Primarily, speeches and statements of Kyrgyzstani Presidents from the years 2001–2014, published in newspaper “Slovo Kyrgyzstana”, that is the discourse of politics. The following will be political discourse – works of Kyrgyzstani researchers and analysts. The exact choice of texts will be preceded by a preliminary analysis of all available materials. The research will also be supported by an analysis of media discourse. Importantly, the language of this research material is Russian – it has a status of official language in Kyrgyzstan, and it is also a leading language of politics and science. Discourse analysis will be supported by the direct and indirect observations, and analysis and criticism of literature. Discourse analysis requires an interpretation, and in that case also a confrontation is needed, so I will conduct expert interviews and free interviews (held with representatives of Kyrgyzstani academia during research trips), which all together will allow to verify the results. Bibliography of the project includes – besides Polish – the positions in Russian and English languages. Therefore, the survey of library and archive holdings will be carried out in Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek).

Expected impact of the research project on the development of science, civilization, and society

The proposed research will have a double meaning for the development of the discipline of political science. Firstly, it will be carried out with discourse analysis. It is a method rarely used in polish political science, so proposed research will contribute to the development of scientific methods in this discipline. Secondly, the adoption of emic approach in the study of international relations in Central Asia is innovative – existing studies are descriptive in their nature, take an external perspective, and they are often burdened with Eurocentrism and orientalism. The proposed research will contribute to a better understanding by Western societies and civilization a dynamic of international processes in Kyrgyzstan.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS; edycja 12
Kierownik: dr hab. Jacek Zaleśny
Okres realizacji: od 2017-08-24 do 2020-01-23

1. Project objective

The objective of the present project is to establish the specific political character of the organs of the control of law constitutionality in post-Soviet states. This is done through determining and explaining their political character, their place in the system of the state power, assessing the tasks assigned to them, the manner of establishment, the course of their work, the legal force of their decisions, the legal status of members of those bodies and through presenting the conclusions referring to the optimization of the political status of the organs controlling the constitutionality of law as organs of the protection of the constitution.

2. Research to be carried out

Organs of the control of constitutionality of law in post-Soviet states are subjected to research. Legal regulations, conditions in which they appeared, their interpretation and application are analyzed. The aim of the studies is to establish the political identity of the organs of the control of constitutionality of law in the context of model solutions recognized by the doctrine of law in this respect in the contemporary world (the so-called European model of the control of constitutionality of law and the so-called American model of the control of constitutionality of law) and their adaptation in the conditions of particular states of the region. Analysis is made of which elements of the control of constitutionality of law are of universal character and which are an expression of the local specific character, political traditions and the structure of political forces occurring in the process of the establishment of an organ of the control of constitutionality of law and then during its activity.

3. Reasons for choosing the research topic

Organs of the control of constitutionality of law in contemporary states are the key guarantors in realizing the separation and balance of power, thus securing the state’s political stability. For this reason profound research on their political system is carried out. Organs of the control of constitutionality of law are also appointed in post-Soviet states (except Turkmenistan). Nevertheless, the doctrine of constitutional law lacks deepened analyses on their identity, their effect on the observance of constitutional regulations and on the realization of the principles of the separation of power or the protection of individual freedoms and rights. One can observe a deficit of analyses on the constitutional status of the organs of the control of constitutionality of law, their practical activity and the resulting relationships taking place between the constitutional regulation of the organs of the control of constitutionality of law and their importance for the political practice. This gives rise to negative consequences for the understanding of the political systems of those countries and thus for forecasting the political changes occurring in them. The studies undertaken are also necessary for the analyses of the rule of law in particular states of the region, especially those analyses which are conducted with the aim of foreign investors assessing the political risk.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; PRELUDIUM; edycja 14
Kierownik: mgr Kamil Matuszczyk
Okres realizacji: od 2018-07-13  do 2020-07-12 

The main academic purpose of the project is to deepen knowledge about the relation between the increasing number of immigrants providing services in the sector of domestic care for the elderly in Poland and the quality of that care. Particular attention will be paid to changes that occur in both migration policy and senior citizen policy (with particular consideration of long-term care) as a result of an increase of immigration to the caregiving sector. Migrations to the caregiving services sector is an effect of removal of care for senior citizens from the family, and of atomisation of families together with lack of systemic solutions in the sector of domestic caregiving and leads to differentiation of standards of quality for those services. At the same time the role of informal subjects is growing; those who are subject to the control of government institutions only to a limited extent. As a consequence the “grey zone” in domestic care is developing and the seniors get low-quality care services The subject under analysis will be the institutional solutions concerning the functioning of live-in and live-out care services for the elderly, with particular regard to verification of the caregiver qualifications for work with the elderly as well as their social predispositions.Triangulation of different research methods will be applied in the project; those used in political science and in the sciences of public policy and sociology. Over 50 individual in-depth interviews will be carried out with all so-called performers of domestic services, which means all involved: members of families hiring the immigrants, district nurses, doctors, workers of social welfare as well as those active in the labour market (employment agencies, schools for foreigners).
The process of the so-called double ageing of the population (increase in the number of people over 80) brings about a growing demand for care services which, more and more often are provided by foreigners from third countries (from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus first of all). Poland has become a new important country on the map of international care migration. That is the type of labour migration where foreigners pursue employment providing care services in employer households. Within the years 2010-2016 there has been a fourfold growth of work permits for foreigners working in households. As a result a dynamic development in the sector of caring services and in employment of foreigners is taking place. Available demographic prognoses indicate that the demand for more workers in caring services will be growing at a quick pace. At the same time there is a lack of systemic solutions placed at the intersection of migration and of senior citizen policies and which are being developed as a result of dynamic demographic processes. Therefore, analyzing these two processes at the same time will allow us to better understand the activities undertaken by public and market institutions, which are a response to the ongoing demographic processes in Polish society.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; HARMONIA; edycja 9
Kierownik: dr hab. Wojciech Gagatek
Okres realizacji: od 2018-05-08 do 2020-05-07   

Many books and articles devoted to political parties start with an oft-quoted citation from E. E. Schattschneider that „modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of political parties”, which comes from his book published in 1942. Yet already for decades scholars have debated whether parties are in a crisis, whose one of the most visible symptoms is a very low level of public trust, decline in electoral turnout, or decreasing membership figures. Despite this, parties still remain one of the core pillars of modern democracy, and over time they have proven their strong capacity for adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Nowadays the key question concerns parties’ relationship with the citizens and the state, and the consequences of tendencies related to the ‘anchoring’ of the parties to the state, on the one hand, and loosening links with the citizens, on the other. For this reason, understanding the reasons and consequences of party adaptation processes is not only relevant to academic research, but also to the wider audiences interested and engaged or perhaps aiming to get engaged in politics.
The project’s research question is: in what ways do political parties adapt to different institutional settings in the same time? So far, the academic literature has studied party adaptation from a diachronic perspective (over time), and the change has been linked to different party models, such as the mass, cadre, ‘catch-all’ or cartel parties. This project departs from this perspective, because these models are no longer capable of explaining party change, as parties might display different features of different models simultaneously. What is more, the existence of multi-level electoral arenas (such as the national and the supranational ones) shows further the inability of the previous approaches to analyze party adaptation. From these considerations stems the aim of this project, which is to assess extent to which parties organise themselves differently within the same electoral cycle according to the challenges presented by different institutional/electoral arenas. The project will be run in the framework of international cooperation, comprising researchers from five EU member states: Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Italy and Poland.
International cooperation will bear fruits both during the project’s refinement but also during the data interpretation, analysis and its publication. The leading international partner is Professor Luciano Bardi from the prestigious European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
The research method will consist of the construction of a dataset specifically designed to test five hypotheses derived from the existing literature and concerning the most relevant aspects for the organisation of electoral campaigns (candidates, programmes, professionalization, and finances). In the Polish part of the project, the data will be gathered in 2019 (covering the European Parliament elections and the elections to the Sejm and Senate) and will be both quantitative and qualitative, with the latter resulting from the extensive field work all over Poland.
The findings (in the form of an original dataset the project will produce) and subsequent publications in top international journals have the potential to greatly advance the way in which parties are studied from an electoral perspective, for if the hypotheses are validated, it will focus attention on the impact of institutional environments on parties’ organisational natures. This will not only pave the way for a new generation of research into parties, but will provide insights for disciplines that experience similar difficulties in adopting diachronic approaches in organisational analysis, such as economics and sociology.

Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju, Bezpieczeństwo i obronność
Lider konsorcjum naukowego z udziałem przedsiębiorcy: Politechnika Śląska w Gliwicach
Kierownik ze strony UW: dr Grzegorz Gudzbeler
Okres realizacji: od 2018-12-17 do 2021-12-16

The main goal of the project is to develop and create a modern WiSG simulator, which will be able to be effectively used to train Border Guard staff in improving procedures for the use of firearms and ŚPB, as well as conducting comprehensive exercises in the control of persons, vehicles and goods – thanks to the implementation of innovative Interactive 3D Multimedia Cave. WiSG will allow to improve a wide range of skills: from planning activities depending on the imposed and changing operational situation, by making decisions in the conditions of operation consistent with the Border Guard, use of shooting skills and ŚPB, to provide first aid and prepare appropriate documentation. The system will be equipped with a vector map of Poland and locations indicated by Gestor that will be photorealistically reproduced in a simulation environment. The project will be implemented within 36 months on the 9th level of technological readiness.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS, edycja 20
Kierownik: dr hab. Andrzej Szeptycki
Okres realizacji: od 2021-10-01 do 2023-09-30

Projekt ma za zadanie analizę konfliktów zbrojnych, w które zaangażowana była w okresie pozimnowojennym Federacja Rosyjska. Główne cele projektu są następujące: ocena roli użycia siły we współczesnej rosyjskiej polityce zagranicznej; ocena specyfiki współczesnych rosyjskich działań wojennych na płaszczyźnie strategicznej i taktycznej; ocena adekwatności strategii i środków wybranych podczas tych konfliktów do realizowanych celów i uzasadniających wartości; ocena poziomu zgodności zachowań i działań Rosji w operacjach wojskowych z odpowiednimi normami prawa międzynarodowego (w tym prawa humanitarnego); porównanie rosyjskiego i zachodniego sposobu prowadzenia wojen.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; MINIATURA, edycja 5
Kierownik: dr hab. Łukasz Zamęcki
Okres realizacji: od 2021-08-16 do 2022-08-15

The project will constitute a comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis of conditions, conducts and consequences of the armed conflicts, in which Russia has been engaged since the end of the Cold War. The main objectives of the project are as follows: an assessment of the role of the use of force in the contemporary Russian foreign policy; an assessment of the specificity of the Russian military combat operations, in particular strategies and means chosen; an assessment of the adequacy of strategies and means chosen during Russian combat operations to pursued objectives and justifying values; an assessment of the level of conformity of Russia’s behavior in military operations with the relevant norms of international law; comparison of the Russian and Western way of making war. Research will allow testing following hypotheses. First, the use of force and the threat of use of force is an important instrument of the Russian Federation policy, used not only to protect Russia against aggression, but also to defend and enlarge its zone of influence. Second, the military strategy of the Russian Federation largely relies on surprise, deception and non-transparency about its ends and means; such modus operandi increases the chance of military success and limits the political costs of military endeavors. Third, the growing scope and efficiency of the Russian military combat operations is largely due to a major modernization, which the Russian weaponry underwent during last two decades. Fourth, during its military operations, Russia, its proxies and allies systematically disrespect the norms of international law (unlawful use of force, war crimes and crimes against humanity), which contributes to the evolution of international law standards.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS; edycja 8
Kierownik: dr hab. Maciej Duszczyk
Okres realizacji: od 2015-07-20 do 2019-05-19   

The main goal of the research is to obtain an answer to the question about the significance of the expected and actually obtained
security in the labour market when migration decisions are made. This will help contribute to the theory explaining employment
migration processes, particularly the push and pull theory, which describes the factors stimulating and hampering migration
processes. The research on factors influencing such decisions has so far focused mainly on analyses of differences in salaries,
demand from employers, and migration networks. Moreover the project will use: “new economics of migration” and the theory of “incomplete migration”.

We have adopted a hypothesis that the expected and actually obtained security in the labour market is an additional (next to the salary level and jobs supply) important factor influencing migration decisions. The role of security in the labour market increases along with the duration of stay in the receiving state and can be even decisive in a situation when migrants consider staying permanently in the receiving state. This would mean that attractiveness of a given labour market for migrants is determined also by issues related to legal protection of employment (mainly the rules governing taking of employment, legal framework of employment relationship, civil law contracts, preference for employment in grey economy etc.), and – first and foremost – real opportunities to obtain a new job after losing previous one. Such approach should also allow for attainment of an additional research goal consisting in contribution to the centre-periphery theory and providing an answer to the questions about the status of Polish labour market in Europe. We are assuming that the latter is peripheral for Poles taking employment in other states and is becoming a centre for employment immigrants, particularly those from Eastern Partnership states.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki; OPUS; edycja 12
Kierownik: dr hab. Elżbieta Kossewska
Okres realizacji: od 2017-07-17 do 2020-07-16

The aim of the project of to present Polish expatriates in Palestine in the years 1939-­‐1948 against local and global political events and global migration movements during the World War 2 and after. During the war Palestine was one of the largest and most important centers for Polish military and civilian expatriates in the Middle East. In Palestine Polish refugees and Jews who had emigrated from Poland before the war created a unique community. The worlds of incumbent and new inhabitants of Palestine, especially those from Poland and of Polish-­‐Jewish roots, mutually penetrated in the cultural, social and political sphere, creating a common history but with many variations determined by individual choices and fates. The problem of the state was ever-­‐present in the lives of Polish expatriates; therefore, my project will try to find answers to the following question: What is the impact of the state (or lack of it) on the formation of identity of refugees and the fate of ethnic communities and their values?