Search results

Filters

  • Journals
  • Keywords
  • Date

Search results

Number of results: 7
items per page: 25 50 75
Sort by:
Download PDF Download RIS Download Bibtex

Abstract

In order to describe the features of Polish hospitality, autobiographical records containing memories of hospitality from various historical periods were compiled. The research material included about 300 episodes from 30 published sources. A targeted selection was made according to a combination of three criteria: a di versity of social positions among the authors, the biographies of the authors, and the detail of description. An analysis of the material was conducted in order to contribute to a better understanding of the social significance of hospitality. The oretical assumptions about hospitality in conditions of stability and social crisis were advanced. The analysis showed that in times of relative stability, hospital ity was biographically important when it allowed a person to transition between positions in the social structure (usually between close levels) and involved some form of promotion. On the other hand, in conditions of intensified change and crises, the order was disturbed: on the one hand, visits to the homes of persons occupying more distant positions in the hierarchy (both up and down the social ladder) became more common, but on the other hand, there could be a challenge to or rejection of traditional requirements of hospitality. The first situation occurs especially at the beginning of a crisis, and with the depletion of resources, the increase in the number of negative experiences, and socialization to a long-term threat, a survival strategy begins to take shape in which only the closest circles prevail. Such findings suggest that a more cautious look should be taken at both the theoretical concepts in which hospitality is considered a useful social invention especially in times of increased need and at the Polish self-stereotype as a nation with a culture based on hospitality, invariable generosity, and an inclination to selflessness.
Go to article

Authors and Affiliations

Dorota Rancew-Sikora
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Uniwersytet Gdański
Download PDF Download RIS Download Bibtex

Abstract

This article concerns “living zones of the imagination”—areas of social life in which intensive “interpretive labor” is underway. Thanks to these zones, it is possible to engage in universally accepted exercises that enable a person to “see the world through the eyes of another person” and that yet do not disturb the current socio-cultural order. They provide an important basis for understanding among people, for harmonizing meanings in the sphere of social realities, and for integration that goes beyond certain permanent boundaries and hierarchies. The basic aim of the article is to prove that hospitality, understood as a value in Polish culture, could contribute to a considerable degree to the creation of such zones. The author analyzes the zones’ character, function, and meaning, paying attention to how they resist the expansion of bureaucratic ways of organizing social life. He also draws attention to the influence that an axio-normative pattern could have within specific models of behavior and cultural practices. Key words: hospitality, resistance practices, social imagination, interpretive labor
Go to article

Authors and Affiliations

Adam Pisarek
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach
Download PDF Download RIS Download Bibtex

Abstract

This article looks at hospitality practices in the process of recreating and modifying social structure. The author seeks the general regularities and behavioral patterns that appear when people visit others and are visited, as well as how they speak of these visits, or, in Pierre Bourdieu’s language, the principles that organize practices that are part of the class habitus. For the purposes of the analysis, two comparative groups were selected: people with the highest and lowest levels of economic, social, and cultural capital. The analysis allowed several conclusions to be drawn. First, in addition to the class factor, the age or generational factor should be taken into account as it has proven to be relevant in terms of the diversity of practices. Second, the research showed that several of the practices studied were not differentiated between the groups; they turned out to be intense in the case of people with high and low levels of capital. Such patterns involved informality and freedom, the striving for agreement and group solidarity, and an aversion to aesthetics and decoration. Third, there were sometimes differentiating nuances—the general principle could be the same, but the justification or motivation behind it was different. For people with a high level of both types of capital, naturalness/honesty was an important justification and was contrasted to falsehood, artificiality, and pretentiousness. This justification seemed to be a meta-principle that permeated many other patterns of behavior.
Go to article

Authors and Affiliations

Marta Skowrońska
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza
Download PDF Download RIS Download Bibtex

Abstract

The subject of this article falls within the sociology of art. By analyzing selected aspects of a novel (Bolesław Prus’s The Doll) and a film (the Oscar-winning Green Book directed by Peter Farrelly), the author raises the problem of what he calls “ambiguous hospitality.” His point of departure and theoretical basis are George Ritzer’s concept of “inhospitality” and Jacques Derrida’s idea of “hostipitality.” The author treats each artistic depiction of reality as a source of situations to be read in light of elements of Erving Goffman’s reflections. He uses the ideas of symbolic interactionism, the interactive ritual, and the metaphor of the performance as tools for interpreting a film or literary situation that illustrates cultural attitudes and practices. In conclusion, he states that hosting someone could result from something other than a sincere desire to react to another human being in a friendly manner. However, this does necessarily undermine the sincerity of openness toward strangers. Realization of the maxim to “have dignity and respect others,” even if enforced by social sanction, can be a way to maintain or build relationships between those who are “one’s own” and “other,” “one’s own” and “strangers,” and finally, between a guest and host.
Go to article

Authors and Affiliations

Paweł Ćwikła
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach
Download PDF Download RIS Download Bibtex

Abstract

The author of the text focuses on the economics of everyday life as defined by a contextual and qualitative measuring of various aspects of hospitality through the use of terms such as “more,” “less,” and “just right.” He analyzes the presence of food, alcohol, and coffee during the visit of guests. Each of these three material components of hospitality is regulated according to specific principles: “too much is better than too little” in regard to food, “too little is better than too much” for alcohol, and there has to be “at least” coffee. A detailed analysis of these principles leads to the conclusion that Polish hospitality is today oriented toward moderation. The popular belief in the abundance of Polish hospitality as a national feature is thus called into question.
Go to article

Authors and Affiliations

Ariel Modrzyk
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza
Download PDF Download RIS Download Bibtex

Abstract

This text contains an analysis of the ways in which men and women engage in selected hospitality practices, including such questions as the feminine transmis sion of hospitality patterns, the division of responsibilities in preparing for guests, and places for meeting socially (at home and outside the home). On the basis of material gathered by the team of the Archive of Research on Everyday Life, the author finds numerous paradoxes and inconsistencies between women’s beliefs and their behaviors. In attempting a theoretical explanation, reference is made to the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu, Jean-Claude Kaufmann, Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen, and Monica Rudberg. Analysis leads to the conclusion that the multiple and time-con suming responsibilities associated with receiving guests mostly fall to women and thus contribute to their ability to sustain symbolic power over the home space. Consequently, hospitality perpetuates the traditional division into what is public and considered “masculine” and what is private or “feminine.”
Go to article

Authors and Affiliations

Bogumiła Mateja-Jaworska
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza
Download PDF Download RIS Download Bibtex

Abstract

This article is about immigrants’ perceptions of their host society and cultural differences. The analysis is based on twenty in-depth interviews conducted in 2018 with persons from Turkey working in Poland. Their narratives are a rich source of information about the challenges of the integration process and about the opportunities and dilemmas of ethnically and religiously diverse groups in Polish society, which is becoming increasingly multicultural. The respondents pointed to the recent noticeable deterioration in the attitude of Poles toward foreigners in general, which translates into more negative attitudes toward Turks. The cultural differences most commonly noticed related to work culture and working conditions. Although Poland’s fairly large ethnic uniformity was mostly declared to be a hindrance in the adaptation process, some immigrants saw it as strengthening social cohesion and facilitating adaptation to life in the new country. In defining the cultural differences and expectations of the host society, the foreigners became more aware of the values, practices, and attitudes with which they had become acquainted. Some interviewees did not define the differences they observed as traits of the sending or receiving society but rather “de-nationalized” the differences and referred to other categories of diversity, for example, of a class nature.
Go to article

Authors and Affiliations

Katarzyna Andrejuk
1
ORCID: ORCID

  1. Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii PAN

This page uses 'cookies'. Learn more