Adam Mrozowicki. „Coping with Social Change. Life Strategies of Workers in Poland’s New Capitalism”

Abstract

Reviews the book, Coping with Social Change: Life Strategies of Workers in Poland's New Capitalism by Adam Mrozowicki (2011). This book makes a significant contribution to the growing scholarship on postsocialist change on several levels. First, its Polish author comes from Eastern Europe, a grossly underrepresented region in the discourse on postsocialism, which is dominated by Western scholars. Moreover, the book examines the new Polish capitalism through the uncommon prism of industrial workers—a social group often neglected by scholars both in the East and in the West. Further, it is based on a carefully crafted and comprehensive empirical study of biographies of workers from Silesia, the former core Polish industrial and mining region, as they cope with the results of almost two decades of postsocialist change. Finally, the book advances a new and fruitful perspective on the microfoundations of macrostructural transformations. Author rich biographical material reveals that these pragmatic strategies coexist with a normative orientation toward maintaining elements of their past commitments and social identities, which give moral and social sense to their work and lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)