No abstract

Tekst dotyczy zjawiska rasizmu we współczesnej Polsce, które zgodnie z tezą autora tekstu, w ostatnich latach się nasila. W wyniku co najmniej dwóch istotnych procesów społecznych (migracje z Ukrainy oraz rozwój współpracy międzynarodowej w obszarze szkolnictwa wyższego) znacząco wzrosła liczba obcokrajowców w raczej monokulturowej do tej pory Polsce. Oprócz tego w związku z tzw. kryzysem uchodźczym oraz zamachami terrorystycznymi w Zachodniej Europie, obcokrajowcy, zwłaszcza zaś muzułmanie, stali się mocno widoczni w polskich mediach. Kontekst ich przedstawiania i bezpooerednie łączenie Islamu z terroryzmem sprawia, że rosną w Polsce nastroje ksenofobiczne i rasistowskie. Zjawisko rasizmu jest w tekście analizowane przez pryzmat tzw. piramidy nienawiści Gordona Allporta, a podstawą empiryczną są przede wszystkim teksty i komentarze zamieszczone na wybranych fanpage’ach tematycznych serwisu Facebook.

The main problems of the integration of immigrants from Ukraine and proposed solutions in the eyes of representatives of the institutions of the Opolskie Voivodeship The article presents the results of qualitative research conducted as a part of the conference titled Diagnosis of Needs and Problems Related to the Integration of Foreigners in the Opole Region, which took place in Opole on May 21, 2019. The research was conducted using a deliberative workshop method. The participants of the workshop were representatives of important institutions of the Opole Voivodeship who face the problem of a large number of immigrants from Ukraine. The participants were divided into thematic working groups: culture and religion, health care, public safety, the labour market and education. The article focuses on general problems that affect the functioning of immigrants in all these areas. In the analysis, the problems were divided into sociocultural (language barrier, cultural diversity, inadequacy of expectations to reality, ghettoization and historical education) and formal and legal problems (lack of systemic solutions and information, lack of knowledge about Polish institutions and legal order, etc.). Stereotypes which appeared in officials’ statements were analysed as a separate problem. The solution to these problems is to set up an Integration Support Institution that can offer support to immigrants with everyday life issues, as well as language or cultural training and provide them with all the information they need. The results give reason for further research, somewhat delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted by sociologists from the University of Opole, in cooperation with the Opole University of Technology on behalf of the Marshal’s Office of the Opole Voivodeship.

The study examines how a regional university, having recently overseen a dramatic internationalization, deals with the consequences of COVID-19, and how the students - many of whom are international and coming from the global peripheries - experience the pandemic. The study is informed by the critical theory of late modernity and capitalism - especially the theory of uncertainty and risk (Beck, 1992; Beck, Giddens, & Lash 1994). It explores the power relations of the communicative dynamic between the administrators managing the crisis and the students perceiving and living it. It is an early-stage research report, published days after a pilot study was run. A survey among international students (including local, tuition-fee paying, and exchange students) was distributed to obtain initial responses. The analysis is complemented by insights based on close observation of the unfolding situation and analysis of the documents issued by the university. The findings explain the uncertainty experienced by international students, characteristic of many CE universities. The study covers the topics of attitudes towards epidemics, information imbalance, perception of security, and evaluation of the responses. The paper concludes with an urgent call to recently internationalized universities for a recognition of the complexity of students’ fears.

Social defining of the risk behaviors is rooted in a diverse, multidimensional world of norms, values, rituals and discourses. Including social contexts of engaging in the risk behaviors and production of knowledge about them allowed us to go beyond standard cause-and-effect descriptions and examine these actions as an essential element of everyday practices and rituals of youth. The aim of this paper was to analyze the risk behaviors of youth in the framework of sociological categories of risk, reflexivity and interactional order. The paper is based on the results of the qualitative study conducted within the project “Problem Behaviors of Youth – Study in the Opole Region 2019–2020,” that attempted to capture the ways of defining and explaining the risk behaviors by the school youth, teachers and counselors. Such a sociological perspective bridges the gap in the prevention scholarship connected to insufficient attention paid to social ways of defining and meaning making connected to the risk behaviors of youth.