Więzi społeczne a zjawisko samotności i osamotnienia

In modern societies, the number of people who are socially isolated and experience constant feeling of loneliness is increasing. Main causes of this social isolation are associated with both inherent features of an individual and features of structures such as family and local community. An isolated person is a person who has limited number of significant others. Nevertheless, loneliness may also occur when a person is a part of a lot of social relations. The feeling of loneliness is therefore an individually experienced discomfort resulting from a subjective evaluation of the desired and the existing network of social relations. Both phenomena are threats to the welfare of individuals and at the same time are a challenge for organizations which are dealing with social policy. An analytical category which provides the diagnosis of loneliness and isolation is the social bond. The assessment of deficits associated with social bonds and can be performed measuring following criteria: quantity, quality and potency of the social bond.

Rodziny z bezradnością opiekuńczo-wychowawczą – wsparcie społeczne a procesy wykluczenia i inkluzji w świetle badań nad społecznym konstruowaniem problemu bezradności opiekuńczo-wychowawczej

The article examined the relationship between social support and parental upbringing inefficiency in the context of social exclusion and inclusion. In the paper, I explained ways of defining and discourses on parental upbringing inefficiency (situation when, for various reasons, parents have difficulties with fulfilling their functions, they are unable or do not want to take care of their children properly as well as when they are unable to cope with behaviour issues concerning their children). Then I described qualities, rules and ways of family and child social support. Furthermore, findings of original social research were presented. In-depth interviews (conducted with workers of social welfare and child care institutions) were analyzed according to crucial analytical categories: institutional actions – forms, rules and effectiveness of institutional support – taken with reference to parental helplessness (towards parents and towards children) and social exclusion.

Samotne dzieciństwo w rodzinie

World of children’s experiences, meanings, values, emotions is still an unexplored area for social sciences. Particularly interesting are children’s experiences of being a member of the modern family. In the literature a lot is written about transformations of the family as a social group, it’s functions, tasks, risks and emerging alternative entities in the form of non-normative family practices are analyzed. Much is said about the phenomenon of orphanhood also as a consequence of the crisis experienced by the family. In the analysis of the problem of orphanhood attention is primarily placed on social orphanhood as the most visible and verifiable in statistics expressing the number of children living in residential care or foster care family forms. Little is mentioned about emotional orphanhood. The issue of emotional orphanhood is complex, which makes it extremely difficult study it. Definitions found in the literature are often not unequivocal. Emotional orphanhood can be divided on psychological, spiritual, occult, caused by emigration. Definitions are based on different criteria: emotional rejection, narrowing or lack of realisation of parental functions, temporary disconnection of family members. The common part of them is the fact that every one of them describes a child that lives without satisfying basic emotional needs (love, intimacy, acceptance, understanding) due to weakening or destruction of emotional bonds.

Kształcenie integracyjne – atmosfera myślenia życzeniowego?

The changes of the terms of educating the disabled were introduced in Poland in 1993. However, despite more twenty-year experience of integration education, giving equal educational opportunities to disabled children and youth still raises remarkable doubts. It is worth noting that in official discussions, as well as in the professional literature, it is the ideological side of the integration that is emphasized primarily, without much reference to the social conditions of its implementation. You may even notice that the atmosphere of wishful thinking is adopted and it is believed that by sheer change of the approach to the opportunities created for the development of people with disabilities their social integration will be achieved. Without denying the importance of education and educational activities conducted in integrated classes, and above all the need to treat all people in the same way, it is worth considering where to find the possibilities of implementing the accepted assumptions? Are they to be found only in the ideological message and curricula, or also in the attitudes of teachers who implement them? The crucial issue is the approach of teachers to the introduced changes in the education system: do teachers – the practitioners of educational activities – share the way of thinking of the creators of the introduced integration activities?

Rodzinne uwarunkowania przestępczości nieletnich w świetle kryminologicznych teorii nieformalnej kontroli społecznej

Social control as a set of means used in order to sustain social bonds and therefore to maintain social order, offers to criminology a category of special epistemological value, both in context of etiology of criminal behavior, and in the context of change of criminal behavior in the life course of the individual. Research and analyses indicate that bonds connecting the individual to his/her closest social environment can be – in both of the mentioned contexts – important or even determinant factors. That is why specialists in the criminological field, investigating the phenomenon of change of individual’s criminal behavior through life tend to turn their increasing attention towards informal relations of juvenile, as well as adult offenders and their functioning in small social groups, of which recognized as the most important is family. The aim of this article is to characterize some of the relations between youth criminality and their family life in the light of criminological theories of informal social control.

Zasoby i kierunki zmian kapitału społecznego w wybranych płaszczyznach zróżnicowania społecznego

The article presents theoretical accounts and the most important research findings, both Polish and international, concerning social capital in relation to social diversity and inequality. The analysis is aimed to show the major trends in social resources diversity. Two indicators of social capital are considered – participation in association and other forms of organizations (i.e. formal social capital) and social networks access (i.e. informal social capital). Social capital, like other forms of capital, is not equally distributed in society. Its allocation not only reflects the existing social divisions but can also preserve or even deepen social inequalities. Research findings indicate that the extent of social capital is associated with socio-demographic characteristics, such as age and gender, socio-economic status, and with ethno-cultural diversity. The changes of forms and fields of social activity are noteworthy and should be taken into account both in evaluation of social capital resources and in practices aimed to support social integration of the socially excluded or categories threatened by social exclusion.

Działania organizacji społecznych wobec osób biednych i wykluczonych społecznie – odbudowywanie czy tworzenie sieci społecznych

Social/non-governmental organizations are one of important social actors operating in the field of poverty and social exclusion and taking active part in the discourse pertaining to these issues. Traditionally they are expected to undertake actions that support and facilitate „getting out of poverty”, including rebuilding social ties. Therefore, the purpose of my paper is to examine how contemporary non-governmental organizations see their own role in the context of constructing definitions of poverty and exclusion, in particular in relation to the task of equipping the beneficiaries of their activities with this important capital of ties and social relations. I analyze the extent to which this role is defined as a particular interface connecting the poor with the society and its networks, opening them up to new challenges and experience, rebuilding the world of belonging (ties), and how much it is perceived as an independent system that offers alternative solutions and rules of the game, creating its own social network, which in consequence can result in rendering the social ties/networks a barrier to the process of inclusion. Niklas Luhmann’s perspective and structure of analytical categories will be helpful in responding to these questions. It will allow me to describe the mechanisms of reconstructing and/or forming social ties within the framework of action of social organizations.

Kim jest polski NEET?

The phenomenon of NEET (not in employment, education or training), which was developed in the European Union, has not been comprehensively investigated in Poland. This problem concerns the situation of young people outside the employment sphere and the sphere of education, which makes them particularly vulnerable to social exclusion. Different rates of young people in the labour market, particularly the unemployment rate, according to the European Union proved to be insufficient. In most countries the scale of NEET is not marginal and there are always variations within a given country. But there are also some additional difficulties in NEET analysis such as different legal conditions between Polish and other EU countries concerning the compulsory education or other forms of obligatory learning and heterogeneity of the age categories. This article concerns the initial characteristics of the NEET category in Poland in comparison to the European Union.

Model organizacji życia zbiorowego a więzi wspólnotowe

Human social life goes in frame of organized social wholes. Those wholes, according to Norbert Elias proposition, we can call social units of survival. Character of indicated wholes was changing together with the development of humanity. In the beginning survival was assured in a group of closely related individuals. Later on the same function performed different forms of state organization. Some claim today that today such a survival unit is or will be the whole humanity. In a group of relatives members were connected with personal bonds. In a structure of identity dominating character had we-identity. Along with the development raises also the role of bonds connected with associations, which were established to realize various goals and social identity becomes more and more I-identity. As rightly noticed Ralf Dahrendorf – collective character of human species requires community bonds, which are necessary to realize fulfilling life. Then it is a matter worth reflection the relation between changing models of organiazation of collective life and their ability to provide satisfying community bonds. Some manners of organization the community life are more and some are less favourable to preservation of community bonds. Especially threatening for this preservation are organization models of community life, which are extremely collectivistic or individualistic. For a preservation of appropriate community bonds there is a need for such a model of social life, in which individual and group actors will find, in a given space of security and resistance, field to practise autonomic individual and group behaviours.