Artykuł powstał w ramach projektu badawczego nr 2016/23/D/ HS2/03442 pt. "Konstruowanie wizerunku uchodźców w polskim dyskursie publicznym", finansowanego przez Narodowe Centrum Nauki.

No abstract

Women at universities and the Covid-19 pandemic. Comparative research on women’s work The presented publication is a summary of the project “Women at universities and the Covid-19 pandemic. Comparative research on women’s work”. The project was carried out at the University of Warsaw in partnership with the University of Milan from September 2021 to August 2022. The research study is based on purposive sampling. It fits into a rather bleak and pessimistic picture of the modern university as an institution “in crisis”. The pandemic exacerbated the state of instability by revealing the tensions between the pursuit of progress and constraints, if only financial, and the strong habit to the traditional model of work. The university is not only a place to study, but also to work. And this aspect, more specifically, women’s work, was the focus of our research. We talked about women’s work at the university not only with female academics, but also with administrative, technical and IT support staff. We wanted to find out more about the experience of working under pandemic conditions and the challenges of post-pandemic reality. We believe that the women’s needs recognized in the course of the study and the proposed solutions (recommendations) can provide practical inspiration for change at universities that aim to improve gender equality and build more equal workplaces.

Institutional intercultural openness is a crucial part of urban inclusion policy towards migrants. In cities with a long history of social and cultural diversity such as Berlin, London or Amsterdam, intercultural openness provides migrants with full or partial participation, initiating activities in the metropolitan space, access to public resources, and social security. In Warsaw, a relatively new inflow of economic migrants from Ukraine, who constitute a large and heterogeneous group, has necessitated changes in municipal cultural and integration policies to facilitate the needs of the new group of recipients. In our article, we focus on results from 91 interviews with Ukrainian students living in Warsaw conducted between 2019 and 2020. We analyse whether, how and why young immigrants from Ukraine use the offer of Warsaw’s cultural institutions; what their expectations are and how their cultural participation is connected with their acculturation and integration. Our research shows that despite the fact that Warsaw tends to build up its culturally open policy for diverse participants, it is not adjusted to the needs of young Ukrainians. As a result, this new diaspora begins to create its own conculture (not to be confused with counterculture). We understand this phenomenon as a set of cultural practices initiated by a minority group of migrants in their new place of residence, which result from the national cultural script of this group. Through these practices, this group cultivates the community, without any connection to the dominant (national) culture of the wider society they belong to or in the space of which its members live. On the one hand, the diversification of a municipal cultural offer allows migrants to find their preferred places and events within Polish culture, although on the other hand, it creates a space for the development of concultural practices that can lead to ghettoisation.

Contemporary discussions about the European countries' problems of hosting masses of migrants are the leading themes of various cultural and educational debates, in particular, around the reflection on humanitarian solutions to the problem of mass influx of foreigners coming to Europe. The question is raised on processes of adaptation of citizens with different nationalities and cultures, as well as on current understandings of the idea of multiculturalism, tolerance and respect for human rights. The aim of the article is to show the topic, still nor studied to greater extend, on how local communities engage in the integration and inclusion processes towards migrants and asylum seekers. The 19th example of the Hull House project from Chicago, USA shows how the problem was addressed by local social networks at a time when Europeans were migrating. The authors ask in this context, whether and to what extent, in modern times, the active role of local communities and their citizens is and/or should be more significant in actions and debates on national and international social policies towards migrants. A number of contemporary local initiatives in Poland are shown as the examples of the ordinary residents response to the possibilities and implementations of local actions aimed at integrating and engaging new comers in the society.