Nr 5-6 (482–483) 2014
Spis treści 5–6/2014
Numer monotematyczny: POLSKA W CZASACH NIEPEWNOŚCI
OD REDAKTORA TEMATYCZNEGO NUMERU – Paweł Poławski
MANOWCE INSTRUMENTALNEGO ROZUMU – Kazimierz W. Frieske
RYZYKO I NIEPEWNOŚĆ: KRÓTKA HISTORIA ROZRÓŻNIENIA – Karol Pogorzelski
REFORMY PAŃSTWA OPIEKUŃCZEGO I WYTWARZANIE NIEPEWNOŚCI – Paweł Poławski
OCENA ODDZIAŁYWANIA TECHNOLOGII W ERZE NIEPEWNOŚCI – WYZWANIE POZNAWCZE JAKO WYZWANIE POLITYCZNE – Agata Stasik
POKOLENIE POWOJENNEGO WYŻU DEMOGRAFICZNEGO I ECHA WYŻU DEMOGRAFICZNEGO (BABY BOOMERS I POKOLENIE Y) – PERSPEKTYWA STAROŚCI – Zofia Szweda-Lewandowska
BEZPIECZEŃSTWO CZY NIEPEWNOŚĆ DZIĘKI RÓŻNORODNOŚCI? PRZYPADEK SYSTEMU ZABEZPIECZENIA EMERYTALNEGO – Dariusz Zalewski
RYZYKO I NIERÓWNOŚCI DOCHODOWE A ZAGROŻENIA LEGITYMIZACJI SYSTEMU SPOŁECZNO-GOSPODARCZEGO – Jędrzej Stasiowski
ELASTYCZNOŚĆ JEST – A CO Z BEZPIECZEŃSTWEM? FLEXICURITY PO POLSKU – Maciej Pańków
KAPITALIZM NA SWOIM. ROZWÓJ RYNKU KREDYTÓW HIPOTECZNYCH W POLSCE JAKO PROCES FINANSJALIZACJI GOSPODARSTW DOMOWYCH – Mikołaj Lewicki
KLASA ŚREDNIA I DOŚWIADCZENIA ELASTYCZNOŚCI – Maciej Gdula
„OKALECZONE POKOLENIE”: MŁODZI NA RYNKU PRACY Z PUNKTU WIDZENIA MOP – Piotr Ostrowski
NOWOŚCI WYDAWNICZE IPISS
DIARIUSZ POLITYKI SPOŁECZNEJ
Od redaktora tematycznego numeru
Wiele wskazuje na to, że współczesne społeczeństwa stają się nie tylko „społeczeństwami ryzyka”, ale i „społeczeństwami niepewności”. Procesy demograficzne i konsekwencje mniej czy bardziej planowanych zmian na rynku pracy powodują, że trudno przewidzieć i skalkulować nie tylko indywidualne plany życiowe, ale i określić przyszłe podstawy dobrobytu gospodarstw domowych. Te same procesy sprawiają, że planowanie polityki społecznej staje się w wielu obszarach wielce utrudnione, a rewizji wymaga używane przez badaczy i praktyków polityki społecznej pojęcie „ryzyk socjalnych”. Z ryzykiem radzimy sobie przy pomocy tradycyjnych systemów zabezpieczenia socjalnego. Czy jednak odpowiednie instytucje są przygotowane na nowe zjawiska i problemy, jakie w strukturze społecznej generuje sytuacja niepewności?
Wspólne dla autorów tekstów w tym numerze „Polityki Społecznej” są pytania o to:
- jakie są podstawowe wymiary niepewności we współczesnej Polsce?,
- na ile adekwatnie jesteśmy w stanie rozmaite ryzyka zdiagnozować i opisać?,
- jakie są konsekwencje pojawiania się rozmaitych wymiarów niepewności dla polityki społecznej?,
- w jakim stopniu da się nimi świadomie zarządzać?.
Konsekwentnie, przedmiotem zainteresowania autorów są nie tylko kwestie opisowe i uchwytne empirycznie prawidłowości, ale i problemy koncepcyjne – w szczególności sens terminów, które – często bezrefleksyjnie – funkcjonują w publicznych i profesjonalnych dyskursach.
Wydaje się, że niepewność (podobnie jak rozmaite ryzyka społeczne) dotyka w nierównym stopniu różne grupy społeczne. Na generacyjny wymiar ryzyka zwraca się w ostatnim czasie szczególną uwagę, przede wszystkim ze względu na problemy społeczne dotykające wyraźnie osoby wchodzące w dorosłość, szukające usamodzielnienia i zakorzenienia na rynku pracy. Łącznie teksty stanowią przegląd i próbę uporządkowania refleksji nad międzypokoleniowymi zróżnicowaniami konsekwencji niepewności i oferują refleksję nad tym, na ile mamy tu do czynienia z problemem strukturalnym, a na ile z bardziej przygodnymi czynnikami kształtującymi sytuację kolejnych kohort wiekowych polskiego społeczeństwa.
Drugi ze wspólnych wątków jest wyznaczany przez pytanie o to, w jakim stopniu rozmaite typy niepewności generowane są przez specyfikę zmian społecznych oraz procesów modernizacyjnych zachodzących w Polsce. Wydaje się, że z dzisiejszej perspektywy można już trafniej rekonstruować rozmaite niezamierzone konsekwencje przemian, a także ich funkcje ukryte. Warto też szukać odpowiedzi na pytanie, na ile niepewność towarzysząca procesom modernizacji odgrywa rolę negatywną, na ile zaś – paradoksalnie – lęk przed wzrostem niepewności pozwala stabilizować podlegające przemianom instytucje. Zmiany społeczne mają charakter zarówno endo– jak i egzogenny. Warto zatem zastanowić się, na ile problemy i napięcia społeczne obserwowane w dzisiejszej Polsce stanowią pochodną warunków zewnętrznych, na ile zaś mają swą lokalną specyfikę.
Kwestie powyższe były przedmiotem dyskusji w czasie konferencji „Polska w czasach niepewności: modernizacja instytucji i problemy pokoleń”, zorganizowanej w listopadzie 2012 r. przez Komitet Socjologii PAN i Instytut Socjologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. Teksty zawarte w niniejszym numerze „Polityki Społecznej” są kontynuacją tej dyskusji.
PAWEŁ POŁAWSKI
Instytut Pracy i Spraw Socjalnych
Instytut Socjologii, Uniwersytet Warszawski
Social Policy
Table of Contents No 5–6/2014
POLAND IN TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY
PREFACE – Paweł Poławski
INTRICACIES OF INSTRUMENTAL REASONING – Kazimierz W. Frieske
uncertainty: a short history of the distinction – Karol Pogorzelski
WELFARE STATE REFORMS AND THE PRODUCTION OF UNCERTAINTY – Paweł Poławski
TECHNOLOGY IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY – EPISTEMOLOGICAL CHALLENGE AS POLITICAL CHALLENGE – Agata Stasik
BABY BOOMERS AND THE Y GENERATION: THE PERSPECTIVE OF OLD AGE – Zofia Szweda-Lewandowska
SECURITY OR UNCERTAINTY THROUGH DIVERSITY? THE CASE OF THE PENSION SYSTEM – Dariusz Zalewski
RISK, INCOME INEQUALITIES AND THREATS FOR THE LEGITIMACY OF A SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM – Jędrzej Stasiowski
WE HAVE FLEXIBILITY, BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY? FLEXICURITY THE POLISH WAY – Maciej Pańków
CAPITALISM ON ITS OWN. THE RISE OF MORTGAGE CREDIT MARKET AND THE PROCESSES OF FINANCIALIZATION OF HOUSEHOLDS – Mikołaj Lewicki
MIDDLE CLASS AND EXPERIENCE OF FLEXIBILITY – Maciej Gdula
“SCARRED GENERATION”: YOUTHS IN THE LABOUR MARKET BY THE ILO – Piotr Ostrowski
We recommend the papers:
Kazimierz W. Frieske
INTRICACIES OF INSTRUMENTAL REASONING
In the first part of the paper plurality of ‘narrations’ concerning reality is indicated both in public debates and core social sciences. In the second part author suggests that diversity of such ‘narrations’ is founded either on ‘progressive’ thinking including our beliefs in possibility to manage public affairs with such means as ‘rationalization’, forecasting, risk assessment, evidence based decision making, etc. or on uncertainty and social institutions providing patterns of coping with such uncertainty.
Keywords: narrativism, rationalization, progress, risk, uncertainty
Karol Pogorzelski
UNCERTAINTY: A SHORT HISTORY OF THE DISTINCTION
Frank Knight is considered the author of the distinction between risk and uncertainty, but the meaning of both of these concepts has changed. In the attempt to solve the problem of profit, Knight distinguished two types of economic events: insurable and uninsurable. The first he dubbed “risk” and the second – “uncertainty”. Both concepts, however, he perceived as ideal types, with a full range of intermediate situations in between. Later economists, notably John Hicks and Milton Friedman, began to perceive risks and uncertainties as dichotomous concepts relating respectively to the situations in which you can or can not apply probability calculus. They saw economics as the domain of risk rather than uncertainty.
Keywords: risk, uncertainty, probability, insurability, Frank Knight, John Hicks
Paweł Poławski
WELFARE STATE REFORMS AND THE PRODUCTION OF UNCERTAINTY
The text shows how managerialism related to various paradoxes and inconsistencies of the welfare state reforms interfere with new areas of uncertainty. The reforms have not solved the problems that affect the welfare state for nearly half a century, nor they increased social security and stability of welfare institutions. What’s more – the state itself creates areas of of uncertainty, contributing to the strengthening of existing inequalities and social divisions. The situation in Poland does not differ in this respect from the general trends. The text is a review and refers to the U. Beck concept of “Manufactured uncertainties”.
Keywords: governance, Uncertainty, risk, welfare state, new public management, governance
Agata Stasik
TECHNOLOGY IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY – EPISTEMOLOGICAL CHALLENGE AS POLITICAL CHALLENGE
Capability to create innovative technologies is commonly perceived as a basis for sustainable economic and social development. However, due to potentially destabilizing effects of new technologies, it is crucial to exercise risk and uncertainty assessment. Acknowledgment of limits of scientific predictions in case of radical innovation in complex environment results in withdrawal of absolute trust in experts’ judgment. It may lead to more inclusive process of assessment in the framework of “hybrid forum”. Creation of more inclusive institutions with real power to influence the technological policy may be perceived as a challenge parallel to the development of technology – not less important part of authentic modernization of the state.
Keywords: uncertainty; risk; technology impact assessment; innovations; participation
Zofia Szweda-Lewandowska
BABY BOOMERS AND THE Y GENERATION: THE PERSPECTIVE OF OLD AGE
Under consideration of this article are the possible scenarios of the last stage of life cycle of two generations – baby boomers and children of baby boomers. The uncertainty associated with the lack of stability and predictability of medium and long term influence the choices and decisions made by the baby boomers born in 1980s. The decisions and choices about career paths and family affect the old age of the current 20– and 30-year-olds. The uncertainty related to daily life makes the young people do not decide to start a family and having children. Occupational instability and low income affect health. These two factors – employment and family status – are the main determinants of the future old age of this generation – lonely, poor and reliant. On the other hand, baby boomers, whose life was characterized by a higher – than today – certainly and predictability future, are approaching old age. Aging of this generation will be – compared with the next the generations – richer and not so lonely.
Keywords: life cycle, baby boomers, children of baby boomers, employment and family status
Dariusz Zalewski
SECURITY OR UNCERTAINTY THROUGH DIVERSITY? THE CASE OF THE PENSION SYSTEM
This article is concerning the changes of polish pension system set in motion in 1999. The pension systems has been divided two pillars, established on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis on the one hand, and ‘funded’ financing on the second. This division was described in new program system “Security through Diversity”. The main conclusion is, on the base of theory of social systems, that the pensioners security depends on broadly defined environment of pension system rather than internal configuration new pension system.
Keywords: polish pension system, internal configuration
Jędrzej Stasiowski
RISK, INCOME INEQUALITIES AND THREATS FOR THE LEGITIMACY OF A SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Author presents arguments, based on the theoretical concepts and other empirical works, for the hypothesis that growing income inequality increases the risk of weakening the legitimacy of a political and economic system: growing income inequalities can lead to real conflicts or cause weakening of democratic institutions by undermining their legitimacy, what can be seen in the decline of a support for the government institutions. Given thesis is illustrated by the results of the analysis of the Polish survey data: people who perceive and negatively evaluate income inequality, present at the same time less favorable opinions on the political and economic system, which authorizes existing inequalities.
Keywords: income inequality perception, political legitimacy, risk
Maciej Pańków
WE HAVE FLEXIBILITY, BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY? FLEXICURITY THE POLISH WAY
Since 70ies the fordist model of industrial relations, which had emerged after the Second World War and ensured stable employment and social guarantees for employees, has collapsed. Globalised economy dictates new, flexible labour regimes. Enterprises strive to gain freedom to dismiss employees, if their further employment is not viable. The idea of flexicurity, or flexible security, assumes that public policy compensate these tendencies. Agreements ought to be flexible, but also offer transparent rules of the game. People losing jobs can count on support in requalification and seeking new employment opportunities. They should also obtain benefits making possible to cope with a difficult situation. It appears that these assumptions are difficult to fulfil, especially in new EU member states, including Poland.
Keywords: labour market, flexicurity, employment protection, employment flexibility, social protection
Mikołaj Lewicki
CAPITALISM ON ITS OWN. THE RISE OF MORTGAGE CREDIT MARKET AND THE PROCESSES OF FINANCIALIZATION OF HOUSEHOLDS
„Family on its own” – a label of the government’s program supporting young mortgagors defines neatly the social, political and economic transformation, associated with the housing question in Poland. Tighter and more complex intermingling of financial and housing markets indicates processes of the households financialization: universal banks’ capitalization through the mortgage debt of households seems to delineate future tendencies that push the banks towards households’ offers rather than towards provision of capital for commercial investment. The state, deregulating the market and pulling back from an active role on the housing market throughout 1990-ties and at the threshold of the new millennium, has become much more active in promotion of the stronger dependencies between financial and housing markets, mainly through the governmental programs supporting individual (households’) inverstment in the purchase of an apartment but also – taking a specific role of the “FIRE – extinguisher” on the financial market securing its liquidity in times of crisis. As a consequence, as my hypothesis claims, households in Poland will be submitted to the processes of their “liquidation”.
Keywords: Housing question, financialization, mortgage, financial markets, liquidation of the household
Maciej Gdula
MIDDLE CLASS AND EXPERIENCE OF FLEXIBILITY
Article presents the effects of research on life trajectories of young middle class representatives confronted with flexible working conditions. The research was based on collecting life-stories with representatives of different fractions of the middle class. Two different trajectories of the middle class are identified. The differences concern the character of link between education and labor market, stability of labor relations and possibilieties of carrier planning. Analysis of middle class trajectories enables to present the complexity of flexible life and working conditions when it comes both to structural features and the character of personal experiences.
Keywords: middle class, flexible working conditions, biography
Piotr Ostrowski
“SCARRED GENERATION”: YOUTHS IN THE LABOUR MARKET BY THE ILO
According to the International Labour Organisation the world is facing a crisis of youth employment: young people are three times more likely to be unemployed than adults. According to ILO data we are dealing with a situation in which more than 75 million young people around the world are looking for job. The ILO speaks of ‘scarred generation’ of young people who are faced with a dangerous mix of high unemployment, progressive inactivity and precarious work in developed countries, as well as continuing high levels of poverty in developing countries. The article is an analysis of the debate, which took place during the 101 Session of the International Labour Conference in 2012, when the analysis of the situation of young people in the labour market and an attempt to develop recommendations were taken. The representatives of the social partners and governments from around the world took part.
Keywords: ILO, youths, labour market, decent work, social dialogue
Furthermore:
Diary of Social Policy