Not only The Polish Peasant. Znaniecki’s Poznań School of Sociology as a sociological and a research issue

Abstract

Just like Émile Durkheim in Bordeaux, Florian Znaniecki established in Poznań his own School of Sociology. By referring to the school, it is meant educational, research, academic and organisational activities on the part of F. Znaniecki and his co-workers in 1920–1939, undertaken primarily in two institutions: the Poznań University and the Polish Institute of Sociology established also in Poznań. While the city was the heart of the School’s operations, its influence was much stronger. This was reflected in the initiatives which integrated various sociological circles in Poland, maintaining contacts with other academic centres, specifically in the US, engaging in academic work or establishing own research institutes in new locations in Poland and abroad by Znaniecki’s disciples. The article indicates selected major characteristics of the Poznań School of Sociology including the adoption of a specific viewpoint represented by Znaniecki about sociology and forging closer bonds between him and his disciples. In the final part, the article indicates certain detailed issues which, when explained, would let us better understand the nature of the development of Znaniecki’s school and, in a broader approach, Polish sociology and its relations with European and American sociology.