Object structure
Title:

Scientific ideals and political engagement: Polish sociology nad the 'ethnic question' between the wars

Subtitle:

Acta Poloniae Historica T. 114 (2016) ; Social Sciences and Politics in Early Twentieth Century East-Central Europe

Creator:

Linkiewicz, Olga ORCID

Contributor:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences ; Polish National Historical Committee

Publisher:

Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Date issued/created:

2016

Description:

p. 5-27 ; 23 cm

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

ethnology - Poland - history ; science and politics - Poland ; social sciences - political aspects - Polan - 1900-1945 ; ethnology - Poland - methodology ; ethnic question ; expertise ; knowledge ; objectivity ; Eastern Galicia

Abstract:

The article brings to light the relationship between politics and social sciences in interwar Poland in its local and transnational dimensions. It explores the beginnings of expertise in ethnology and the evolution of the discipline’s tools and methods as closely linked to the political goals of the interwar Polish state, and the post-coup Sanacja [Sanation] regime in particular. Ethnologists carried out fieldwork focused on multiethnic territories, such as Eastern Galicia, which were subjected to international territorial disputes. The collaboration with politicians and the administration – developed mostly in the framework of research institutes – was a source of inspiration and, at the same time, stiff competition between scientific schools. To illustrate some consequences of this collaboration, the article traces an argument over scientific approaches to the ‘ethnic question’ which involved ethnologists and empirical sociologists, and the connection of this argument to the objectivity principle in science. These different approaches reflect international theoretical and epistemological divisions at the time as much as they show the direct and indirect exchange of ideas within the European scholarship.

References:

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Dabrowski Patrice, ‘Borderland Encounters in the Carpathian Mountains and theirImpact on Identity Formation’, in Omer Bartov and Eric D. Weitz (eds.), Shatterzone of Empires: Coexistence and Violence in the German, Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman Borderlands (Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2013), 193–208.
Engelking Anna, ‘Ekspedycja etnosocjologiczna Józefa Obrębskiego w latach 1934–1937. Organizacja, metody badań, problematyka, uczestnicy’, Etnografia Polska, xlv, 1–2 (2001), 23–46.
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Linkiewicz Olga, ‘Applied Modern Science and the Self-Politicization of Racial Anthropology in Interwar Poland’, Ab Imperio, 2 (2016), 153–81.
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Paprocka Wanda, ‘Instytucje i organizacje polskie na Kresach Wschodnich 1920–1939’, Etnografia Polska, xlv, 1–2 (2001), 9–22.
Stach Stephan, ‘The Institute for Nationality Research (1921–1939): A Think Tank for Minority Politics in Poland?’, in Yvonne Kleinmann et al. (eds.), Religion in the Mirror of Law. Eastern European Perspectives from the Early Modern Period to 1939 (Frankfurt am Main, 2015), 149–79.
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Relation:

Acta Poloniae Historica

Volume:

114

Start page:

5

End page:

27

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article : original article

Format:

application/pdf

Resource Identifier:

2450-8462 ; 10.12775/APH.2016.114.01

Source:

IH PAN, sygn. A.295/114 Podr. ; IH PAN, sygn. A.296/114 ; click here to follow the link

Language:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of History PAS

Projects co-financed by:

Programme Innovative Economy, 2010-2014, Priority Axis 2. R&D infrastructure ; European Union. European Regional Development Fund

Access:

Open

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