A New Book on the Entrepreneurial Class in Poland
Open for Business: The Persistent Entrepreneurial Class in Poland, by Elizabeth Osborn and Kazimierz M. Slomczynski, that was recently published by IFiS Publishers in Poland, is now available worldwide through Amazon.com. An extensive sociological study of Polish entrepreneurs during the post-communist transformation in East-Central Europe it should interest both social scientists and business professionals not only in Poland and other post-communist states but also in the United States and other economically well-developed countries. Focusing on the entrepreneurial class the authors examine the emergence of a capitalist system through an extensive analysis of survey data and accompanying narrative interviews. Osborn is an associate professor of sociology at St. Mary's College of Maryland; Slomczynski, a professor of sociology and political science at The Ohio State University, is also affiliated with the Polish Academy of Sciences.
(PRWEB) March 14, 2005 -- Open for Business: The Persistent Entrepreneurial
Class in Poland by Elizabeth Osborn and Kazimierz M. Slomczynski has recently
been published (January 2005) by IFiS Publishers in Warsaw, Poland, associated
with the Polish Academy of Sciences (ISBN 83-7388-063-1; paperback, 280 pp.) and
is available worldwide through Amazon.com. Professor Henryk Domanski, director
of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences,
writes: “This is the first comprehensive sociological study on the emergence and
formation of an entrepreneurial class in Poland through the course of the
initial and advanced phases of the post-communist transformation. [The authors]
concentrate on entrepreneurial class recruitment patterns during the transition
from a command economy to a market economy … using both qualitative and
quantitative methods. … [The authors] … have written a book of fundamental
importance. It is insightful work that examines the roots of the rising middle
class, and traces the ambitions, insecurities and anxieties of its members.”
The book studies the entrepreneurial class in post-communist Poland from
a broad historical perspective, documenting its development and persistent
endurance during the radical social change from a controlled, centrally planned
economy to a market economy. The authors situate this class in the context of
general issues involved in the transformation. Their comprehensive analysis of
data—obtained from national surveys and panel studies on social structure and
mobility as well as personal interviews with entrepreneurs, managers, and heads
of business organizations—demonstrates how the entrepreneurial class in Poland
took advantage of economic liberalization at the close of the communist era,
thus contributing to the emergence of a solid basis for a capitalist
system.
The post-communist transition, undergoing in East-Central Europe
since 1989, created a novel opportunity to examine the emergence of a capitalist
system through an extensive analysis of survey data and accompanying narrative
interviews. Osborn and Slomczynski’s book offers insight into the formative
processes of capitalism by focusing on a social class acting as the first-line
promoter of a political and socioeconomic system that has been long established
elsewhere. Thus, this book will be of interest to social scientists and business
professionals alike, not only in Poland and other post-communist states but also
in the United States and other economically well-developed countries. The book
is grounded in sociology but—since it studies processes that are essential in
other fundamental formative changes—it should interest academic and non-academic
economists and political scientists in addition to sociologists. The book will
appeal to business people in Poland and other capitalist countries, both old and
new, because of its insight into the formative mechanisms of business world
phenomena they had previously learned to take for granted.
Elizabeth
Osborn is an associate professor of sociology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Among her other works are contributions to a two-volume series on the
post-communist transition in Poland: Social Patterns of Being Political and
Social Structure: Changes and Linkages (IFiS Publishers, 2000 and 2002,
available through Amazon.com), edited by her co-author. Kazimierz M.
Slomczynski, a professor of sociology and political science at The Ohio State
University, is also affiliated with the Polish Academy of Sciences. Like Osborn,
he specializes in the social transformation of post-communist societies as well
as in cross-national studies on social structure and inequality, work and
personality, and political sociology. He is author or co-author of numerous
books in these areas as well as articles in leading American and European
journals specializing in sociology and political science.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb216828.htm