25.10.2011, AT 7 PM

 

Meeting 1: MODERNIZATION 

 

The series of meetings as a part of the “Art&ScienceMeeting” programme will focus on the relations between science and the development of social and cultural life over the centuries. Guests at the meetings will be scientists examining the history of the idea – scientific ideas under the influence of which societies, philosophical views and the ideas of culture change.

 

Host: Krzysztof Miękus

 

MODERNIZATION – nowadays, all Polish politicians talk about the economy and the “modernization” of society. It is nothing new – “keeping up with” the West has been the obsession of the elite of poor and marginal countries, including Poland, for at least two centuries. There were various Polish ideas for the “keeping up”, the reason being that modernity and the way towards it was imagined differently in the sixties and differently in the nineties. However, they always used to have a lot in common, in days of economic planning as well as in days of liberalism. It was still under the world debate and there were always projects, which people tried to realize – from Latin America to Asia. Poland was no island – our bumpy road to modernity is a lot less special than we think it is.

 

Adam Leszczyński – (born in 1975) historian and journalist. A columnist for “Gazeta Wyborcza” and the assistant for the Institute of Political Studies PAN. He belongs to the team of “Krytyka Publiczna”. He published in “Polityka”, “Newsweek”, “Przekrój”, “Tygodnik Powszechny”, “National Geographic” and “The Guardian”. He is the author of a few books including two historical monographs about the social history of PRL (the Polish People’s Republic) and the “Naznaczeni: Afryka i AIDS” documentary. Now he is writing a book about modernization – about the relationship between the Polish visions of modernity in the 20th century and present world ideologies.