Dominik Antonowicz

The Changing Paths in Academic Careers in European Universities: Minor Steps and Major Milestones

The patterns of academic careers in European universities have changed dramatically as a consequence of wider transformations of higher education in the last two decades. The aim of this paper is to explore new trajectories of academic careers, with special attention paid to their major turning points as well as minor steps that might have influence on the academic success in European universities. The analyses are based on semi-structured interviews conducted with academics in eight countries as an integral part of the EuroAC project of the academic profession. Overall, the paper argues that the academic progression today has to be made systematically, in increasingly clearly defined timeframes, and the academic career seems to be sliced into comparable time periods across European systems. In competitive and less stable academic environments, both small steps and requirements for moving up the academic ladder are becoming more uniform. More volatile, rapidly changing economies certainly mean a less stable and more competitive academic world.

Academic Work, Working Conditions and Job Satisfaction

This chapter focuses on the analysis of changing academic work, working conditions and discussion about job satisfaction related to the academics’ income in Europe. The study shows that the academic profession in Europe remains under strong pressures that lead to considerable personal strain. Even though academics work beyond routine hours, they are relatively satisfied and consider their work conditions as at least good or acceptable. Across Europe, they assess lowest, among the various categories of facilities, resources and personnel, in their current access to research funding. In general, there is no enthusiasm in Europe about academic work and work conditions on average, but there are also no complaints about the two on average. The study identifies also striking cross-country differences in Europe, and there are clearly higher education systems which seem more academic-friendly (e.g. Switzerland) and less academic-friendly (e.g. the United Kingdom), to show two extreme cases. But in general, the academic profession in Europe today becomes increasingly differentiated between various academic professions across generations, research fields and institutional types within the countries studied – although the most common features shared by almost all academics is a growing complexity of the academic enterprise leading to growing uncertainty about its future today due to the fact that higher education systems in Europe have been under powerful reform pressures for the last two or, in some countries, even three decades.

Flaming Flares, Football Fanatics and Political Rebellion: Resistant Youth Cultures in Late Capitalism

The aim of this chapter is to explore the phenomenon of football fanatics in Poland. The analysis is conducted in the light of rapid political, economic and cultural modernisation that Poland has undergone since it joined the European Union (EU). At the heart of our analysis lie football fanatics, young people passionate about football and their clubs — and undoubtedly one of the most interesting yet still largely underexplored aspects of Polish society (Sahaj, 2007). Football fanatics, also known as industrial fans or scarf boys (see Antonowicz, Kossakowski and Szlendak, 2011), are among the most active young people in modern society both on and off the football pitch. In thinking about their role in society it is useful to consider the concept of civil society explored by Alexis de Tocqueville and his seminal book Democracy in America (2000 [1835]), written while he was travelling across America. The French philosopher was positively surprised by the degree of self-organisation and civic activism of local communities. His attention was particularly drawn by a number of voluntary associations, through citizens’ attempts to advocate but also balance various needs and interests in the public realm. These grass-roots activities and civic engagements stood in opposition to what he had experienced in France, in which society relies on the good or bad will of the ruler. If Alexis de Tocqueville was to witness contemporary Poland, he would see a number of fan organisations that attract highly active young people to act in the public realm. Most probably, he would find them to be the beating heart of civil society in Poland.

The Government Response to the Private Sector Expansion in Poland

One of the trademarks of transformation of Polish higher education is its tumultuous and inconsistent path of development driven by the rapid growth of private sector higher education. Such an expansion has been often described as a ‘sudden, shocking and unplanned’ phenomenon which revolutionized the institutional landscape of higher education in Central and Eastern Europe (Levy, 2007, p. 280). Also in Poland, the rise of private higher education is perhaps one of those aspects of the Polish higher education that caused revolutionary and far-reaching changes whose significance can be hardly overestimated. It also attracts scholars’ attention (e.g. Duczmal and Jongbloed, 2007; Antonowicz, 2016; Duczmal, 2006; Kwiek, 2012). However, clearly, there is still a knowledge gap in regards to the analysis of coping with the expansion and with governmental efforts to take control over the process of galloping expansion and securing minimum quality standards in (especially private) higher education.

The Changing Role of Students' Representation in Poland: An Historical Appraisal.

Student representation in Poland has a relatively short but turbulent history. This article offers an historical appraisal of the development of student representation at the national level in the context of rapid and deep structural changes in Polish higher education. Based on a desktop analysis of official documentation, legislation, ideological declarations and background (first-hand) information provided by student leaders, the article reconstructs the establishment of the first independent self-governing student organisation in the country. In so doing, the paper pays particular attention to the emergence, institutionalisation as well as legitimacy challenges facing student bodies either as formalised organisations or more bottom-up (loosely coupled) structures resembling social movements. In addition, the paper sheds light on the Student Parliaments role in the policymaking process, most notably as regards the recent neoliberal reforms. The articles final section speculates about the future of student representation in Poland and suggests avenues for future research.

Missing the goal: Policy evolution towards football-related violence in Poland (1989–2012):

The article aims to analyse the evolution of governmental policy in regard to football-related violence in Poland. The investigation is seen through a broader political prism of the country’s modernization efforts that were symbolically framed by two major events: the partially free parliamentary elections in 1989 and the finals of Euro 2012 co-hosted by Poland. The paper offers a discussion on policy dynamics stemmed from politicization and instrumentalization of the complex problem of hooliganism. By doing so, it demonstrates how, under external political pressure and in search for internal popularity, the governments introduced superficial legal and institutional solutions thoughtlessly imitating policies adopted in other countries (mainly England), and how this approach led to masking and sidelining social problems rather than offering actual solutions.

Polish ultras in the post-socialist transformation

Abstract The world of radical football fans across Europe is dominated by anti-system groups. While their sympathies in the west of the continent are mostly leftist, the ultras in the east tend to display right-wing attitudes. Poland makes a particularly interesting case in point, as the most intensive and emotional ideological criticism of the processes of ‘transformation’ and ‘modernisation’ is to be observed at the stadiums. As a result of historical developments, opposition against the system in the country can only be expressed using Catholic–patriotic symbolism, which in the case of collective actions of radical football supporters has produced sociocultural and aesthetic effects not to be found anywhere else in Europe.

Marginalised, patronised and instrumentalised: Polish female fans in the ultras’ narratives:

Since the 1990s there has been a growing number of female supporters following football clubs and there is little doubt that they have recently become an important part of the audience for both football authorities and clubs. The process of football’s feminisation is neither simple nor is it taking place in a social vacuum, and female fans are encountering well-institutionalised football fandom culture, which is deeply entrenched in stadium rituals. This paper offers an empirical study of roles assigned to women in football fandom culture and the way in which this has been done in order reproduce a “traditional” social order on the Polish football stands. In doing so, it examines the grass-roots ultras’ magazine To My Kibice (We are the fans) that belongs to an increasingly popular type of fan magazine, which was developed from popular homemade football fanzines in the 1980s. The analyses provide evidence that female supporters are either marginalised (not being counted as regular fans), patronised or instrumentalised by their male peers. These strategies are visible both in language and in the social contexts in which women on the stands are described.

Poland, assuring and strengthening the quality of (private) higher education : One of twelve case studies produced as part of the project on structural reform in higher education

This study analyses how different types of system-level (or ‘landscape’) structural reforms in higher education have been designed and implemented in selected higher education systems. In the 12 case studies that form the core of the project, the researchers examine reforms aimed at:• Increasing horizontal differentiation between different types of higher education institutions (for example reforms to introduce or modify the role of universities of applied science);• Increasing vertical differentiation through increasing or decreasing positional or status differences between higher education institutions (for example, reforms aimed at concentrating research in a limited number of universities) and;• Changing institutional interrelationships between higher education institutions (for example, through mergers, the formation of associations of institutions).In each case, the researchers set out to understand the origins and objectives of the reforms examined, the why they were designed and implemented, the extent to which they achieved their objectives and the factors affecting success or failure. The overall objective is to provide policy makers at the European, national and institutional levels with policy relevant conclusions concerning the design, implementation and evaluation of structural reforms

Impossible is Nothing. A Modernisation of the Polish Academy of Sciences

The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education has recently undertaken attempts to reform the Polish Academy of Sciences. Different social actors took part in this long political and legal process. Contrary to the public debate, in which the reforms are being defined as a a component of modernization of Polish science and higher education, the author consider it as means of redistributing the balance of power in the Polish academia. It allows not only to identify changes but also to provide their better understanding. The main focus is directed to the political confrontation between the Polish academic oligarchy and the government.