Izabella Bukraba-Rylska
is Professor of Sociology, worked at the Polish Academy of Sciences and at the University of Warsaw, and currently works at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw. Her scientific specializations include rural sociology – models of economic migration of the rural population, studied using the monographic method; sociology of culture – cultural transformation of the rural population; and metasociology and posthumanities – neomaterialism, neonaturalism, sensory anthropology, and somatic sociology. She has authored over 300 publications, for example, Socjologia wsi polskiej (The Sociology of Polish Village; pwn, 2008); W stronę socjologii ucieleśnionej (Toward Embodied Sociology; Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, 2013); and the handbook Socjologia. Pytania podstawowe (Sociology: Fundamental Questions; pwn, 2021). bukryl@gmail.com; orcid:
Jacek Burski
is Assistant Professor at the Division of Sociology of Work and Economic Sociology at the Institute of Sociology, University of Wroclaw. He is also a postdoctoral researcher in the cov-work project on the pandemic crisis and labor (
Grzegorz Ekiert
is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government at Harvard University and Senior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. He was Director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (2012–2024) and Chair of Social Studies undergraduate concentration (2000–2006). At ces, he co-chairs the Seminar on Democracy – Past, Present, and Future. His research and teaching interests focus on comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society and social movements, and East European politics and societies. His books include: The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe (Princeton University Press, 1996); Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland (co-author J. Kubik; University of Michigan Press, 1999); Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist
Kaja Gadowska
is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Director of the Institute of Sociology at the Jagiellonian University (2020–2022), and Vice President of the European Sociological Association and Head of its Policy Committee (2019–2021, 2021–2023). Her research interests concentrate on dysfunctions of the public sphere and the relations between the politics, economy, and administration in postcommunist countries. Author or co-author of numerous texts published in Poland and abroad. Her recent works include the books Dysfunkcje administracji. Służba cywilna w perspektywie neoinstytucjonalnej (Administration Dysfunctions: Civil Service From a Neoinstitutional Perspective; Jagiellonian University Press, 2015); Legal Change in Post-Communist States: Progress, Reversions, Explanations (co-editor P. Solomon, Jr.; Ibidem Verlag, 2019); Sfera publiczna w Polsce i jej współczesne konteksty (Public Sphere in Poland and Its Contemporary Contexts; co-editor J. Arcimowicz; Institute of Public Affairs, 2020); and A Sociological Agora: Master Lectures from Poland (editor; Jagiellonian University Press, 2021). kaja.gadowska@uj.edu.pl; orcid:
Anna Giza
is Professor of Sociology, associated with the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Warsaw since the 1980s. She has served two terms as Vice-Rector for the Financial Policy and Development, and currently serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Sociology. In the years 1994–2005 she worked for an international corporation (Unilever), first as the market research manager, then as the manager for regional innovations centers in cee, and finally as the communication advisor of the Board. Thanks to her work for Unilever, she was able to observe closely the process of economic and social changes taking place in Poland and in the whole region of Central and Eastern Europe. She has also cooperated closely with nongovernmental organizations in Poland and cee, observing their formation and growth. Her scientific interests include theoretical sociology, methodology of social research, and the theories of social change. Main publications: Rodzina a system społeczny. Reprodukcja i kooperacja w perspektywie interdyscyplinarnej (Family and the Social System: Reproduction and Cooperation From an Interdisciplinary Perspective; Wydawnictwa
Małgorzata Głowacka-Grajper
is a sociologist and social anthropologist. She is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Warsaw, where she also serves as Head of the Division of Social Anthropology and Ethnic and Migration Studies. Her main research interests include the issues of contemporary national and ethnic identity, social memory, and research on the relationship between the local and national dimensions of memory. Currently, she is working on a project on the postcolonial perspective on imperial Russian heritage in Poland. glowackam@is.uw.edu.pl; orcid:
Michal Kaczmarczyk
is Associate Professor at the University of Gdańsk, Doctor of Science at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (2013), and lecturer at the State University of New York at Buffalo (2010–2012) and at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (2022–2023). He has received numerous scholarships, including fellowships at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala (2015–2016), Max-Weber-Kolleg in Erfurt (2019–2020), and iCourts at the University of Copenhagen (2018). For his recent book, The Aporia of Freedom (Brill, 2023), he received the Jan Długosz Award. His research interests focus on the sociology of law and sociological theory, with numerous articles on both topics published in scientific journals, including European Journal of Sociology, Historical Social Research, Transnational Legal Theory, and Studia Socjologiczne. michal.kaczmarczyk@ug.edu.pl; orcid:
Krzysztof T. Konecki
is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz. He is the editor-in-chief of Qualitative Sociology Review, a Board Member of the Polish Sociological Association, a member of the Committee of Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and a former member of the Executive Committee of the European Sociological Association. His research interests include qualitative sociology, the sociology of interaction,
Mirosława Marody
is Professor Emeritus of the University of Warsaw, full member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her main area of interest is changes in the functioning of individuals in modern society, summarized in the book The Individual After Modernity (2021, Routledge). Author and co-author of many studies and analyses of Polish society. In 2019, together with her team, she published the book Społeczeństwo na zakręcie (Society at the Crossroads; Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar) about the changes that have occurred in the attitudes and values of Poles over the last thirty years. In 2021, the book Wartości w działaniu (Values in Action; Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar) was published under her editorship. marodymi@is.uw.edu.pl; orcid:
Adam Mrozowicki
is Associate Professor at the Institute of Sociology, University of Wroclaw, where he heads the Division of the Sociology of Work and Economic Sociology. He also leads the cov-work project on the pandemic crisis and labor (
Joanna Wawrzyniak
is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Research on Social Memory at the Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw. She is also President-Elect of the Memory Studies Association and Vice-Chair of the cost Action “Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change” (2021–2025). Her most recent publications include co-edited volumes Remembering the Neoliberal Turn: Economic Change and Collective Memory in Eastern Europe after 1989 (Routledge, 2023) and Regions
Anne White
is Professor of Polish Studies and Social and Political Science, University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies (ssees). She is a sociologist and social anthropologist, conducting her research mostly in Poland, but also in the UK. She runs a Polish Migration website at ssees and has published three books as well as numerous scholarly articles about migration from and to Poland. anne.white@ucl.ac.uk; orcid:
Renata Włoch
is a sociologist and Associate Professor affiliated with the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Warsaw. She leads the Division of Digital Sociology and has played a key role in the establishment of the DELab uw, a research center focusing on the impacts of digitalization on economy and society. With a background in qualitative research, she has provided expertise for public institutions and produced research reports for both businesses and nongovernmental organizations. Her research interests are diverse, covering topics from migration and international security to global social issues. Since 2014, her primary focus has been on digital transformation, leading to her co-authorship of The Economics of Digital Transformation (co-author K. Śledziewska; Routledge, 2021), which examines its effects on the labor market and business operations. r.wloch@uw.edu.pl; orcid:
Tomasz Zarycki
is a sociologist and social geographer, Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw, and deputy director of the Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies (iss uw). His publications include Ideologies of Eastness in Central and Eastern Europe (Routledge, 2014) and The Polish Elite and Language Sciences: A Perspective of Global Historical Sociology (Palgrave, 2022). t.zarycki@uw.edu.pl; orcid:
Marek Zirk-Sadowski
is Professor of Law and Former Head of the Division of Theory and Philosophy of Law at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Lodz. He has served as the Faculty’s Dean (two terms) and Vice-Rector of the University