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The Institute of Sociology was established in 1994. Previously, sociologists were employed mainly at the Institute of Social Pedagogy of the Pedagogical University of T. Kotarbiński and at the Institute of Management of the Zielona Gora University of Technology (formerly the Higher School of Engineering).
The Department of Sociology of Education functioned at the Faculty of Pedagogical Sciences of the Pedagogical University, headed by prof. dr hab. Richard Borowicz. There was also the Department of Sociology, in the 1990s headed by dr hab. Francis Pastwa. At that time, sociological subjects were taught to students of pedagogical faculties.
The initiator of organizing studies in the field of sociology was the Rector of the WSP prof. dr hab. Jerzy Baksalary. The mission of organizing an independent Institute of Sociology was entrusted to prof. dr hab. Ryszard Dyoniziak (died 2009). He also became its first Director. The function of the Deputy was taken over by dr hab. Francis of State. The first students of sociology in Zielona Gora (46 people) started their studies on October 1, 1994. These were five-year full-time studies with two specialties: sociology of territorial communities and sociology of institutions. At that time, the Institute employed 8 people. Their research focused on the problems of sociology of upbringing and family, contemporary problems of social structure, professional prospects of young people and selected issues of sociology of culture.
Since 1994, many people have worked or been associated with the Institute. Each of them contributed to the unique character of this place. The Institute has become a "place" for researchers, students and administrative staff associated with it. In the initial phase of the institute's existence, the role of prof. dr. hab. Edward Hajduk, prof. dr. hab. Leszek Gołdyka (in the period 1996-2004 director of IS), prof. extraordinarius, dr hab. Danuta Markowska (died 2015), prof. dr hab. Janina Stankiewicz and dr. Andrzej Czarkowski. Among the employees who do not belong to the current group of IS employees, apart from the people mentioned above, one cannot forget about such figures as: prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Alek-Kowalski (head of the Department of Sociology of Knowledge in 1997-2001), dr hab. Irena Machaj (for three years she was the deputy director for scientific affairs, in the years 1994-2004 the head of the Department of Territorial Communities), dr hab. Anna Wachowiak (employee of the Institute of Sociology in the years 1998-2009; she was the head of the Department of Sociology of Education and Family), dr hab. Renata Suchocka (in the years 2000-2003 she headed the Department of General Sociology), dr hab. Jan Sikora (in the years 2001-2004 head of the Department of Sociology of Organization), dr hab. Zbigniew Rykiel (in the years 2004 - 2006 he headed the Department of Sociology of Territorial Communities), dr hab. Hans-Peter Mueller (in 2006-2014 he was the head of the Department of Sociology of Territorial Communities), dr hab. Krystyna Janicka (in the period 2004-2014 he was the head of the Department of General Sociology), prof. dr hab. Kazimierz M. Słomczyński (in the period 2004-2010 he managed the work of the Department of Methodology of Sociology) and dr hab. Marta Zahorska-Bugaj, Dr. Jerzy Białas, Dr. Danuta Chmielewska-Banaszak, Dr. Mieczysław Juda, Dr. Szymon Krzyżaniak, Dr. hab. Jacek Kurzępa, Dr. Żywia Leszkowicz-Baczyńska, Dr. Bolesław Suchocki, Dr. Katarzyna Szafer, Dr. Barbara E. Zagórska, Dr. Mirosław Zdulski and Dr. Aleksandra Jawornicka-Nowosad, Dr. Iwona Kaczmarek-Murzyniec, Dr. Dominika Motak, Dr. Anna Piglowska-Jamrozowicz, Dr. Agnieszka Szafranska. One cannot miss Janina Lewandowska, MA, who ran the secretariat of the Institute in the first years. Since 1996 (until today) the secretariat of our Institute has been handled by Agata Szymandera, MA.
An important figure in the history of the Institute was prof. dr hab. Wladyslaw Kwasniewicz. From the very beginning of the institution's formation, he was its mentor, advisor and ambassador of the Zielona Gora sociological community in various scientific bodies. As a visiting professor, he gave lectures for employees of the university and students of various faculties in Zielona Gora, and conducted seminars. For his activities for the Institute, he was honored by the Rector of the Pedagogical University in Zielona Gora with the medal of T. Kotarbiński. After his death (2004), his son Krzysztof Kwaśniewicz, fulfilling his father's will, donated the professor's library collection to the Library of the University of Zielona Gora.
An extremely important role in the development of our Institute was played by prof. Kazimierz M. Słomczyński and dr hab. Christina Janicka. These two experienced researchers and outstanding scientists, with a well-established position in the country and abroad, joined the Institute's team at the most critical moment for it. They not only contributed to its survival in the "period of uncertainty", but also introduced a "new spirit" and showed new opportunities for scientific development to many employees of the Institute. Thanks to them, the Institute set out on new waters and gained wind in its sails.
Summing up the first two decades of the activity of the Institute of Sociology in Zielona Gora, five periods can be distinguished in its history: (1) pioneering: from the Department to the Institute, (2) a period of development and personnel changes: in search of one's own identity, (3) a period of uncertainty: personnel problems and their unexpected finale, (4) a period of stabilization: focusing on what is most important and (5) a period of new perspectives: a new opening.
In this context, the most important turning points in the history of Zielona Gora sociology include:
Over two decades of the life of the Institute is a time when the main directions of scientific and research activities and structural transformations were developed in search of the institution's identity, it is a time of developing the educational offer and adapting it to current requirements and state policy as well as educational expectations, but also a time of shaping the sociological environment recognized on the map of Poland.
The most important features characterizing the scientific and research activity of the Institute include the issue of the borderland, resulting partly from the location of the center, the proximity of the border and neighbors across the Oder River, and partly from locating it in areas with interrupted settlement life and socio-cultural diversity of inhabitants, multiplicity of post-migration, their regional and ethnic cultures. This direction of interest is related to the series of conferences Cross-borderness in sociological perspective. The first took place in 1996. They were held under the patronage of two eminent professors of Polish sociology - prof. dr hab. Władysław Kwasniewicz and prof. dr hab. Andrzej Kwilecki. Subsequent meetings of researchers (held in a biennial cycle) specializing in the issues of cultural, socio-economic and institutional changes in border areas, areas of intense social contacts taking place across borders, have become a leading project and a hallmark of the Institute. Nine conferences have been held so far. The 10th jubilee edition of the conference is planned for September 2017. Having a nationwide character from the very beginning, these conferences became more and more international over time, being a platform for exchanging experiences and scientific conclusions from empirical research and theoretical reflections conducted both in Poland and in various European countries. The conferences were co-financed from public funds, e.g. Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Polish-German Foundation for Science. Individual editions were organized by various teams of the Institute's employees. From the very first conference, the entire project was co-organized by the Lubuskie Scientific Society, which has been providing valuable support to this project to this day.
The aftermath of the conference is a publishing series under the same title, which consists of hundreds of dissertations and analyzes (a list of all publications in this series: Cross-borderness in a sociological perspective. Borderlands and centers of contemporary Europe, ed. Zielińska Maria, Trzop Beata, Series Monografia, vol. IX, Part 1: Annex). Both the conferences and the publishing series resulted in other activities and research projects focused on cross-border issues.
Since 2009, the Institute has been a co-organizer of a series of international conferences Bukowina Scientific Meetings. In 2014, the main organizers of the conference were: the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Sociology of the University of Zielona Gora. Just like Transborderness... also this series is related to the issues of the borderland. In this case, the subject of interest is the distant borderland in Ukraine and Romania (from the Polish perspective, the former "Kresy Kresów"), a territory with which Poland directly bordered in the interwar period, and its culture was brought to Poland by post-war migrants. The conference takes place in a five-year cycle and is well known among researchers of the Bukovina phenomenon and emigrants from this region in Poland and abroad. It is attended by representatives of various humanities and social sciences from Central Europe (Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine) as well as the United States and Israel. Its fruit is a series of publications. The co-publisher of the last two volumes is the University of Zielona Gora.
The Institute is also known as the organizer and co-organizer of other scientific conferences. These include: a series devoted to the sociology of knowledge, conferences of Directors of Sociology Institutes, conferences of the Sociology of Youth and Education section of the Polish Sociological Society, a series of Zielona Gora Meetings with Demographics, a series of conferences on social economy and revitalization, and others. The Paradoxes of Our Freedom conference is worth mentioning among them. Polish society 25 years after June 1989 (Zielona Gora, 3-4 June 2014), under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland.
Important scientific activities of the Institute also include the organization of seminars, debates and lectures attended by many outstanding figures from the world of science, politics and local government administration. Among others, the Institute hosted Prof. Prof. Henryk Domański, Kazimierz W. Frieske, Bohdan Jałowiecki, Władysław Misiak, Marek Okólski, Paweł Starosta, Antoni Sułek, Jerzy Szacki, Barbara Szacka, Zbigniew Tyszka, Wielisława Warzywoda-Kruszyńska, Marek Ziółkowski and others. The employees of the Institute engage in commenting and explaining current social events on the Radio and in the press, they are experts in government and local government organizations, they perform many important social functions acting for the benefit of local communities.
The most important conference event organized by the entire team of the Institute's employees (and at the same time members of the Polish Sociological Association) was the 13th National Sociological Congress, which took place in Zielona Gora in 2007. It was a great distinction for the sociology community in Zielona Gora, but also a great challenge. The honorary patronage over the event was taken by the President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, who also participated in the opening of the Congress. From the formal point of view, the main organizer of the 13th National Sociological Congress was the Polish Sociological Association, whose Branch was established at the beginning of the Institute's operation (in December 2016, the 20th anniversary of the Zielona Gora PTS Branch took place). Throughout the years of its existence, the employees of the Institute were active members of this association, performing important functions in the Main Board and various formations appointed by it (e.g. competition jury). The current President of the Zielona Gora PTS Branch is Dr. Joanna Róg-Ilnicka.
In 2014, the Institute was given a new structure. The former departments (Sociology of Knowledge, Sociology of Territorial Communities, General Sociology and Methodology) were replaced by the following organizational units: Department of Theoretical Sociology, Department of Methodology and Empirical Sociology - within its structures the Youth Research Department, Department of Applied Sociology together with two laboratories: Social Networks Laboratory and the Social Revitalization Workshop.
At the Institute of Sociology, as a research unit located at the WPPiS, there is the Lubuski Center for Social Research, which since 2006 has been carrying out social research, preparing expert opinions and diagnoses, cooperating with other employees of the Faculty and the University of Zielona Gora. LOBS is a response to the situation of demand for a research unit specializing in professional social research in the western part of Poland. The Center uses the theoretical competences and research experience of academic staff (not only sociologists). Projects implemented in it are also an excellent opportunity for students to acquire professional practice.
In the first decade of its existence, sociological studies were very popular. In 1995, sociology was one of the two most popular fields of study at the Pedagogical University in Zielona Gora. The demand for the course was so high that in 1997 extramural studies were launched. At the end of the second decade, this trend collapsed. While in 2005, in the face of the departure of four independent employees, the problem was to maintain the appropriate staff minimum, in the era of demographic decline, the number of sociology students is a challenge.
The changes in the didactic process made in recent years were the result of adapting it to international standards. Therefore, uniform master's studies were terminated (2009/2010). They were replaced by three-year first-cycle studies leading to a bachelor's degree and two-year second-cycle studies leading to a master's degree. At the first-cycle studies, students can choose the specialization of "Animation of social networks" or "Social revitalization". At the second-cycle studies, they can choose between the specialties: "Social data analyst" and "Social communication". For several years, the offer includes "40+" studios. The Institute has enriched its didactic offer with an English-language path for foreigners. In the years 2013-15, two editions of postgraduate studies financed by the European Social Fund were organized: "Social Economy" and "Social Revitalization".
In 2015, the Faculty obtained the right to confer the degree of doctor of social sciences in the field of sociology. Since then, the Institute has been conducting third-cycle studies.
From the beginning, the Institute has been a place where students also work on a non-scientific level. They are representatives in various student institutions, both university (e.g. student government) and supra-university (e.g. European Students Forum AEGEE), actively participate in the Zielona Góra student movement (e.g. in cabaret activities), are members of various youth associations. Currently, students have the opportunity to publish their scientific texts in the ANTEA Studenckie Zeszyty Naukowe i Artystyczne journal.
Since the first years of the Institute's existence, employees have been celebrating successive anniversaries. Then they organize scientific conferences, social meetings, integration trips. For many years, people associated with the Institute organized Christmas and New Year's meetings in December. Social life at the Institute of Sociology and on its outskirts, and a kind of informal folklore associated with it (Webery, Baumany, Sociobranie and others), the memory of various situations, events, spaces and, above all, people associated with the Institute clearly prove that it is not only a scientific and didactic institution, it is also a place with its own genius loci.
The good tradition of the Institute is the organization of sightseeing trips, usually organized on the occasion of the end of the next academic year. The trips are also attended by people cooperating with the Institute, family members and friends of employees.
The development of the Institute, its atmosphere and its current shape have been contributed to by all the people who worked here or collaborated with the unit in different years. The Directors were of particular importance in this respect. They were: 1994-1996 prof. dr hab. Ryszard Dyoniziak, in the period 1996-2004 prof. dr hab. Leszek Gołdyka and the longest serving Director of the Institute, dr hab. Maria Zielinska, prof. UZ, who led it for the last twelve years (2004-2016), facing various challenges and problems that arose during that time, but always leading the Institute to calm waters. From October 2016 to September 2019, the position of the Director of the Institute was held by dr hab. Beata Trzop, prof. UZ, taking over the reins at the beginning of the "period of new perspectives".
In October 2019, the Council of the Institute of Sociology entrusted the function of Director of the Institute to dr hab. Dorota Szaban, prof. UZ.
