CfP: Understanding the Poor, after 25 years. Poverty, social exclusion and inequality in contemporary Poland

2026-07-17

More than a quarter of a century has passed since the publication of Understanding the Poor: Past and Present Poverty in Poland, edited by Elżbieta Tarkowska – one of Poland’s foremost scholars of poverty, social exclusion and social inequality. The volume became one of the key reference points for research on poverty and social exclusion during Poland’s post-socialist transformation, and the analyses and research questions it raised continue to resonate today. In 2026, we also commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of Professor Elżbieta Tarkowska, the long-serving Editor-in-Chief of Kultura i Społeczeństwo (Culture and Society), whose scholarly achievements and social engagement continue to inspire new generations of researchers and practitioners.

In connection with these anniversaries, we invite submissions for a special issue devoted to contemporary dimensions of poverty, social exclusion and social inequality. By doing so, we create a space for reflection on how definitions of poverty, approaches to its study, public representations, and the lived experiences of people affected by it have evolved over time. We are interested both in assessing the changes that have taken place in Poland over the past twenty-five years and in identifying the problems that remain unresolved or have taken on new forms.

We welcome contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

transformations of poverty, social exclusion and social inequality in Poland since 2000;
economic insecurity, precarity, and new mechanisms producing and reproducing poverty;
poverty, social exclusion and inequality across the life course: continuity and change since 2000;
poverty, social exclusion and inequality in different domains of social life (housing, health, education);

social policies and their role in reducing or reproducing inequalities;
social assistance institutions and non-governmental organisations in response to contemporary forms of poverty, exclusion and inequality;

lived experiences of poverty and strategies for coping with it;
dignity, agency and subjectivity of people experiencing poverty;

language, discourses, narratives and social representations of poverty, and their consequences for people experiencing poverty;
stereotypes, stigmatisation and processes of victim blaming;

methodological and ethical challenges in poverty research;
the scholarly legacy of Professor Elżbieta Tarkowska and its significance for contemporary research.

We particularly encourage submissions that combine theoretical and empirical perspectives while fostering dialogue between academic community and those engaged in social assistance, advocacy and community-based practice. We welcome both quantitative and qualitative studies, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions.

This special issue is grounded in the premise that poverty is generally not the result of individual choices or personal failure. Rather, it is produced by complex social, economic and political processes. We therefore seek contributions reflecting on the structures that reproduce inequalities, the ways in which they are described, and the possibilities for developing more just social solutions.

We hope that this special issue will serve not only as an opportunity to take stock of research on contemporary poverty in Poland, but also as a forum for critical debate on the future of social policy, assistance practices and public understandings of poverty.

We welcome submissions in both Polish and English. Guidelines for preparing manuscripts for publication in Kultura i Społeczeństwo can be found at: https://czasopisma.isppan.waw.pl/kis/about/submissions

The issue's guest editors are Prof. Jolanta Grotowska-Leder (jolanta_grotowska-leder@sggw.edu.pl) and Dr. Marcjanna Nóżka (marcjanna.nozka@uj.edu.pl).

The issue is scheduled for publication in December 2027. Submissions will be accepted until the end of February 2027 and should be made exclusively through the journal’s website: https://czasopisma.isppan.waw.pl/kis