Mariusz Kowalski
Articles
Generation cycles in time and space
Przegląd Geograficzny (2016) tom 88, zeszyt 4, pp. 489-510 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2016.4.4
Abstract There are many different domains of science whose elaborated theoretical concepts assume that development (understood in terms of the definite succession of processes and transformations (Taylor and Flint, 2000; Domański, 2005) is of a cyclical nature. Among these concepts, the one entailing generation cycles looks most convincing. Thus, in the view of co-authors William Strauss and Neil Howe (1991, 1997), social change is driven by generation cycles of 15-25 years’ duration, albeit coming together into phases some 80 years long termed saecula. M. Alexander in turn maintains that a saeculum corresponds to one Kondratieff cycle, and has also designated 36-year paradigmatic cycles identical to those found for the New York Stock Exchange. The latter are shown to comprise approximately two Strauss-Howe cycles. It is in turn Wojciech Białek (2009) who has applied the term “generation cycle” to these cycles of roughly 36 years’ duration, given that this length of time concurs with geneticists’ recently established average difference in age between consecutive generations (Tremblay and Vezina, 2000). Where the historical experience of Polish society is concerned, the existence of a 30-40 year generation cycle governing political and cultural life would not represent a truly new discovery. Norman Davies (1984, 1995) notes that: “There is no doubt that the wheel of political fortune in nineteenth-century Poland revolved with a regularity beyond the bounds of mere coincidence”. In his opinion, therefore: “strong credence must be given to the idea that the regular alternation of the two dominant ideologies was closely associated with the rise and fall of successive generations”. (…) “Neither Romantics nor Positivists could ever enjoy a run of more than three or four decades before disillusionment and failure destroyed their supremacy, and gave an opening for the revival of their opponents”. The cyclical character of definite processes observed under both Polish and American conditions in fact emerges as of a universal nature, finding its analogies throughout the world, though first and foremost within the European cultural circle. It is also possible to speak of its far reaching synchronicity, encompassing change on both local and global scales. This is witnessed by successive culminations of cycles with the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, the revolutionary surges of the 1830s and 1840s, the events of the 1860s and 1870s, the turbulences and wars of the early 20th century (notably World War I), then World War II, the great transformations of the 1980s, and the recently observed increase in political tension in various parts of the world (e.g. t e Middle East, Ukraine, etc.). In the economic sphere the symptoms are shifts in the business climate, which can even be calculated by reference to quantitative indicators. Then, in the sphere of culture, it is possible to denote successive periods in literature and the arts. In the political sphere in turn, events that shape the state or territorial order are to be observed readily. The present article thus seeks to propose the existence of a universal and synchronous 36-year generation cycle, which manifests itself in real symptoms in the world of politics, and for instance in the cyclicity seen to characterise intensit of change on the political map of Europe.
Keywords: życie polityczne, pokolenia, cykliczność, zmiany terytorialne, Polska, Europa, świat
[mar.kow@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Citation
APA: Kowalski, M. (2016). Cykle pokoleniowe w czasie i przestrzeni. Przegląd Geograficzny, 88(4), 489-510. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2016.4.4
MLA: Kowalski, Mariusz. "Cykle pokoleniowe w czasie i przestrzeni". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 88, no. 4, 2016, pp. 489-510. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2016.4.4
Chicago: Kowalski, Mariusz. "Cykle pokoleniowe w czasie i przestrzeni". Przegląd Geograficzny 88, no. 4 (2016): 489-510. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2016.4.4
Harvard: Kowalski, M. 2016. "Cykle pokoleniowe w czasie i przestrzeni". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 88, no. 4, pp. 489-510. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2016.4.4
Przegląd Geograficzny (2012) tom 84, zeszyt 2, pp. 279-312 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2012.2.6
Keywords: Afryka Południowa, Kolonia Przylądkowa, kolonizacja holenderska, Polacy
[mar.kow@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Citation
APA: Kowalski, M. (2012). Imigranci z Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów w początkowej fazie europejskiego osadnictwa w Kolonii Przylądkowej. Przegląd Geograficzny, 84(2), 279-312. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2012.2.6
MLA: Kowalski, Mariusz. "Imigranci z Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów w początkowej fazie europejskiego osadnictwa w Kolonii Przylądkowej". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 84, no. 2, 2012, pp. 279-312. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2012.2.6
Chicago: Kowalski, Mariusz. "Imigranci z Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów w początkowej fazie europejskiego osadnictwa w Kolonii Przylądkowej". Przegląd Geograficzny 84, no. 2 (2012): 279-312. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2012.2.6
Harvard: Kowalski, M. 2012. "Imigranci z Rzeczpospolitej Obojga Narodów w początkowej fazie europejskiego osadnictwa w Kolonii Przylądkowej". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 84, no. 2, pp. 279-312. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2012.2.6
Electoral behaviour of Poland’s rural population
Przegląd Geograficzny (2009) tom 81, zeszyt 4, pp. 483-506 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.1.3
Abstract Since 1991, the observed parliamentary elections in Poland have been characterized by great spatial diversity in terms of support for individual political options. Among these options, it is possible to distinguish the right and the elitarian groupings deriving from the 1980’s opposition to the communist authorities, as well as the peasant and left camps to a large extent based around circles linked with the former system. The aforementioned options form two axes of division: an ideological one (left and right), and a socio-economic one (the peasant and elitarian camps). In the five investigated parliamentary elections (of 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2007), it was mostly the peasant option and, to a lesser degree, the right-of-centre and left-of-centre parties that enjoyed widespread support from the rural population, with the elitarians only receiving much more limited backing. In general terms, the population from east-central Poland showed a preference for the peasant option; inhabitants living in the south and partly in the north (the Podlasie and Kaszuby regions) opted for the right, while western Poland supported the left. Among factors responsible for electoral behaviour, the population’s socio-professional profile and historical and cultural conditioning as broadly conceived are of primary significance. Differentiation of these factors has been shaped down the centuries. The period of the Partitions, which took place at a time of fundamental socio-economic transformation related to the transition from the agrarian to the industrial era, was of particular importance. Also crucial was the post-war shift in Poland’s borders, and the ensuing population migration; as well as changes in the system of ownership. The electoral behaviour of some regional groups forming distinct “islands” make it difficult to offer an unequivocal assessment of the major factors influencing electoral preferences. Nevertheless, the studies carried out indicate that there are clear connections between these factors, and that these relations are much stronger in rural areas than in towns or cities. The traditional forms of ownership (including individual farms) are conducive to the maintenance of traditional social structures, thus supporting cultural traditionalism. The profound economic transformations characteristic of Prussian industrialization, subsequently strengthened by the system under the Polish People’s Republic (nationalised agriculture) proved conducive to the erosion of traditional peasant culture.
Keywords: wybory parlamentarne, obszary wiejskie, Polska
[jbanski@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
[mar.kow@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
[m.mazur@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Citation
APA: Bański, J., Kowalski, M., & Mazur, M. (2009). Zachowania wyborcze mieszkańców polskiej wsi. Przegląd Geograficzny, 81(4), 483-506. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.1.3
MLA: Bański, Jerzy, et al. "Zachowania wyborcze mieszkańców polskiej wsi". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 81, no. 4, 2009, pp. 483-506. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.1.3
Chicago: Bański, Jerzy, Kowalski, Mariusz, and Mazur, Marcin. "Zachowania wyborcze mieszkańców polskiej wsi". Przegląd Geograficzny 81, no. 4 (2009): 483-506. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.1.3
Harvard: Bański, J., Kowalski, M., & Mazur, M. 2009. "Zachowania wyborcze mieszkańców polskiej wsi". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 81, no. 4, pp. 483-506. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.1.3
Przegląd Geograficzny (2009) tom 81, zeszyt 2, pp. 173-203 | Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.2.2
Keywords: Rzeczpospolita Szlachecka, przestrzeń władzy, państwa magnackie, Ordynacja Zamojska
[mar.kow@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Citation
APA: Kowalski, M. (2009). Państwo magnackie w strukturach polityczno-administracyjnych Rzeczpospolitej Szlacheckiej na przykładzie Ordynacji Zamojskiej. Przegląd Geograficzny, 81(2), 173-203. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.2.2
MLA: Kowalski, Mariusz. "Państwo magnackie w strukturach polityczno-administracyjnych Rzeczpospolitej Szlacheckiej na przykładzie Ordynacji Zamojskiej". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 81, no. 2, 2009, pp. 173-203. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.2.2
Chicago: Kowalski, Mariusz. "Państwo magnackie w strukturach polityczno-administracyjnych Rzeczpospolitej Szlacheckiej na przykładzie Ordynacji Zamojskiej". Przegląd Geograficzny 81, no. 2 (2009): 173-203. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.2.2
Harvard: Kowalski, M. 2009. "Państwo magnackie w strukturach polityczno-administracyjnych Rzeczpospolitej Szlacheckiej na przykładzie Ordynacji Zamojskiej". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 173-203. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2009.2.2