Sociological Salon

The Sociological Salon is a series of academic meetings initiated and organised by members of the Institute of Sociological Sciences and Pedagogy at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW). Its aim is to promote sociological knowledge and foster academic debate on important contemporary social issues. The initiative is held under the patronage of the Rector of SGGW, Professor Michał Zasada, the Board of the Warsaw Branch of the Polish Sociological Association, and the Sociology of Science Section of the Polish Sociological Association. In 2025, the Sociological Salon celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Timeline:

  • 22 October 2015 – Prof. Grażyna Skąpska, “What Comes After the Crisis? Catastrophic and Promethean Responses”
  • 21 January 2016 – Prof. Piotr Sztompka, “Moral Capital: An Imperative for Social Development”
  • 21 April 2016 – Prof. Anna Landau-Czajka, “Verba docent, exempla trahunt. Can the Polish School Educate Conscious Citizens?”
  • 1 December 2016 – Prof. Krzysztof Wielecki, “Is It Possible to Be Normal in a Narcissistic World?”
  • 11 May 2017 – Prof. Jolanta Grotowska-Leder, “Reaching Adulthood in Times of Uncertainty”
  • 22 June 2017 – Prof. Andrzej Wójtowicz, “What Is Sociology For, and Who Still Needs It?”
  • 23 November 2017 – Prof. Margaret S. Archer, “The Morphogenesis of Personal Identity: Who We Are and What We Care About”
  • 22 March 2018 – Prof. Ewa Bogalska-Martin, “The Age of Witnesses: On the Memory of the Experience of Evil”
  • 7 June 2018 – Prof. Adam Bartoszek, “Work and Community: Sources of Values and Ethical Conflicts in Social Life”
  • 15 November 2018 – Prof. Agnieszka Kolasa-Nowak, “Polish Sociology: Practical, Critical, or Public? Transformations in the Social Functions of Science”
  • 11 April 2019 – Prof. Marek Szczepański, “Private Homelands and Local Communities: Annihilation or Revitalisation?”
  • 16 January 2020 – Prof. Krzysztof Frysztacki, “On the Benefits of Sociology”
  • 18 November 2021 – Prof. Piotr Sztompka, “Trust and Risk in Times of Pandemic”
  • 15 September 2022 – A special edition of the Sociological Salon, organised as part of the 18th Polish Sociological Congress, with the participation of Prof. Krzysztof Frysztacki, Prof. Andrzej Sadowski, Prof. Marek Szczepański, and Prof. Marek Ziółkowski.
  • 30 March 2023 – Prof. Rafał Wiśniewski, “An Institutional Model for the Dissemination of Culture”
  • 18 May 2023 – Prof. Krzysztof Konecki, “The Lifeworld – the World of Death: Contemplative Sociology in the Explication of Fundamental Questions of the Lifeworld”
  • 30 November 2023 – Prof. Kaja Gadowska, “Cynicism in Place of Ideology: The Party Nomenklatura System in Poland under State Socialism and after 1989”
  • 11 April 2024 – Prof. Michał Kaczmarczyk, “What Does Environmental Sociology Tell Us? In Defence of the Functionalist Paradigm”
  • 17 October 2024 – Prof. Marek Ziółkowski, “The Commodification of Nature: Varieties, Determinants, Consequences, and Paradoxes”
  • 5 December 2024 – Prof. Henryk Domański, “Symbolic Class Distances and Their Consequences in Contemporary Poland”
  • 26 March 2026 – Prof. Mirosława Grabowska, President of the Polish Sociological Association, “Some Are Leaving, Others Are Staying: Religiosity among Young Poles”
  • 23 October 2025 – 10th Anniversary Sociological Salon at SGGW
  • The anniversary edition of the Sociological Salon was a special event, bringing together on a single day many of the distinguished scholars who had participated in the Salon over the previous decade. The event consisted of two thematic sessions.
  • The first session, “Society in the Process of Globalisation: Contemporary Opportunities and Threats,” was chaired by Prof. Agnieszka Kolasa-Nowak (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University) and Prof. Joanna Wyleżałek (SGGW). The participants were Prof. Adam Bartoszek, Prof. Henryk Domański, Prof. Jolanta Grotowska-Leder, Prof. Anna Landau-Czajka, Prof. Krzysztof Wielecki, and Prof. Rafał Wiśniewski.
  • The second session, “Global and Polish Sociology: Similarities and Differences,” was chaired by Prof. Jolanta Grotowska-Leder and Prof. Anna Śliz. The session featured Prof. Ewa Bogalska-Martin, Prof. Krzysztof Frysztacki, Prof. Michał Kaczmarczyk, Prof. Agnieszka Kolasa-Nowak, Prof. Grażyna Skąpska, Prof. Andrzej Wójtowicz, and Prof. Marek Ziółkowski.
In 2025, the Sociological Salon celebrated its 10th anniversary.