The ASEEES Annual Convention is the world's largest gathering of scholars specializing in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies. This prestigious event brings together experts from across the globe, providing a platform for exchanging ideas, presenting research findings, and fostering international collaboration.
Our researchers took part in a panel titled “Polish” and “Ukrainian” Cases of the Socialist Model of Modernization: Case Study of Formal and Informal Behavior after 1945, where they presented the following papers:
- Konrad Walerski, M.A.: The New Society of the Western and Northern Territories of the People's Republic of Poland as a Laboratory of Formal and Informal Behavior
- Prof. Dr. Dagmara Jajeśniak-Quast: From Culture to Shock Therapy. Economic Ideas in the Pages of Parisian "Kultura" (1947-2000) during the Long Period of System Transformation
- Prof. Dr. Sławomir Kamosiński: The Importance of the Act of December 23, 1988 on Economic Activity for the Transformation of Private Owners
Their presentations were met with great interest and sparked lively discussions among the conference participants, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to studying the history and social transformations of Central and Eastern Europe after 1945.
"The implementation of the Soviet model of development in Poland encountered an unforeseen problem of strong socio-cultural conditions. Considering this fact, we would like to draw attention to the "Polish case", which has its roots in many centuries of specific shaping of social attitudes and behaviors. It can be assumed that their origin result from the entanglement of religious, national, political factors and entrepreneurial behavior. The "Polish case" understood in this way became the basis for the thesis that the socialist model of modernization did not achieve its goals due to strong informal institutions. Tradition, culture and religion permeating the family intergenerationally, are strengthened in the local environment and in the wider social life. They were some of the reasons for the instrumental, even selective, treatment of the official assumptions of socialist modernization by the Polish society. Thus, the so-called "Polish way of perceiving reality" became visible against the background of the countries of the socialist camp. Similarly interesting is the issue of Ukrainian society, which within the USSR formally co-created the socialist path of modernization, and at the same time – informally – referred to the idea of its nationalism and built its identity on the basis of Polish or even more multicultural heritage".
