Center of Figurational Research

Figurative Research Center website:  https://figurational-research.ws.uw.edu.pl/

The Centre is an interdisciplinary research unit bringing together researchers interested in historically oriented process sociology, especially those conducting research in figurational paradigm in the broadest sense. Figurational sociology, developed by Norbert Elias, looks at the relationships between individuals and the forms of their socialisation in dynamic and structurally diverse social arrangements, called ‘figurations’. Elias explored how changes in customs and aesthetic standards and in attitudes towards violence are linked to the formation of state and national habitus. His sociology is historically oriented; it focuses on the formation of mental and social structures in a long-term perspective, watching relations between individuals, their interdependencies and hierarchies change. 

Figurational sociology focuses on power relations and interdependencies between individuals and groups. Its focus are long-term social processes that should not by reduced to static typologies. The Figurational sociology addresses a wide range of topics, it is interdisciplinary, open to various methodologies and always in search for ever new sources of knowledge about social life. 

The members of the Centre carry out research projects devoted to, among others:

• the formation of a national habitus in Poland after 1989 
• global figurations of human rights in the context of abortion law 
• illiberal constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe
• the attitude of the communist Polish authorities and the Catholic Church towards homosexual priests
• transformation of discourse on sexual harassment in postsocialist Poland
• national socialisation in Polish schools.

Our partners are

• Norbert Elias Foundation, Amsterdam
• CLARIN-PL (Common Language Resources & Technology Infrastructure)