Uwagi o roli i ewolucji polskiej refleksji wokół społeczeństwa obywatelskiego

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe characteristic aspects, origins and changes of civil society concepts in Polish sociology after 1989. Using the form of essay the author raises the issue of functions and dysfunctions of the Polish reception and mentions such like phenomena as: depoliticisation, semiotic flexibility and the reduction of the civil society to the organisations of the third sector. The essential aim of the paper is to present evolutionary stages of the Polish discourse. The overview contents description of three stages: the affirmation stage, critical stage and contemporary stage. The last one is characterized by the replacement of the civil society notion by more general and normative neutral term “forms of social self-organization.” The discourse on civil society in Poland has been in crisis for a decade. That is why further efforts to develop a model of the civil society in post-communist countries should be continued.