Przegląd Socjologiczny (Sociological Review) is published by Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe and financed by Ministry of Science and Higher Education and by Dean of Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz.
We wish (.) to manifest that the journal does not express the views of any "trend" or "school" but represents Polish sociological movement in general. / Florian Znaniecki in reference to the preparation of Volume 1 of "Sociological Review," October, 1929/
Przegląd Socjologiczny (Sociological Review) is the oldest sociological journal in Poland. It was founded in 1930 by Florian Znaniecki, the eminent Polish and world sociologist. The journal has been a quarterly for many years now. Most of the issues are dedicated to one or a few themes, but the journal is open for submissions and publishes multi-topic issues every year. At least one issue a year is published in English with contributions from foreign authors. Only original texts are published and all articles are evaluated by external reviewers. The particular issues are edited by the members of the editorial team and by the invited guest editors. Particular attention is paid to contemporary societal transformations, as well as sociological research methods and techniques.
Between 1930 and 1938 there were seven volumes of Przegląd Socjologiczny published and the journal was at that time the only Polish journal dedicated entirely to sociology. The authors who published their works in Przegląd at that time, such as Aleksander Hertz, Ludwik Krzywicki, Stanisław Ossowski, Stanisław Rychliński, Florian Znaniecki, became well-known and are a part of the history of social sciences. To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the journal there was a special issue published in 2010 – issue LIX/1 – where some of the reprints of the articles from before WWII were included (the complete lists of the articles published before WWII can also be found in this issue).
In 1946/7 in Łódź issue eight was published, edited by Józef Chałasiński (in cooperation with Florian Znaniecki who was at that time in the USA), which included some of the articles prepared for publication in 1939. Issues IX and X were also printed before, as a result of the Stalinization process, all the Polish departments, studies, research centres and publishers dedicated to sociology were liquidated (sociology was declared a “bourgeois science”). The “October 1956 Thaw” brought sociology back as an academic discipline. Józef Chałasiński and his co-workers began reissuing Przegląd Socjologiczny under the auspices of Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe (ŁTN). Additional journals were also founded: Kultura i Społeczeństwo (“Culture and Society”) – also by Józef Chałasiński, Studia Socjologiczne (“Sociological Studies”). The scientific scope of the journal was at that time formed by Chałasiński and his co-workers. This was especially noticeable in the 1960’s, when Chałasiński – as a result of the restrictions for criticism towards PZPR policies concerning science – was removed from the positions he held at PAN (Polish Academy of Science) and the University of Lodz.
After Chałasiński’s death, Jan Lutyński became the editor-in-chief of Przegląd Socjologiczny in 1979. Together with him, his co-workers from the University of Łódź: A. Kłoskowska, J. Kulpińska, W. Piotrowski and J. Szczepański, also joined the editorial office. In the 1980’s Przegląd Socjologiczny was focused on presenting sociological research on transformations which were happening in Poland, which led to problems with censorship. The glaring example was the issue covering the proceedings of the VI Polish Sociological Association Congress (September 1981 in Łódź), which was planned as part of volume XXXV, and was eventually published as the first issue of volume LV in 2006. A few years after Jan Lutyński died (April 1988) there were still issues of Przegląd Socjologiczny published which had been prepared by him.
Between 1989 and 2015 Jolanta Kulpińska was the editor-in-chief of the journal. The beginning of her term of office coincided with the political transformation in Poland, including the abolition of censorship. As a result, the pressure form censorship ceased to exist ; the threat of holding-up the publication of next issues of the journal (what took place in the 1980’s) also disappeared, and the new editor-in-chief freely designed the scope of the next issues. In the beginning of the 1990’s, for obvious reasons, the socio-political themes dominated the content of Przegląd Socjologiczny. Later, the scope of the journal widened to almost all sociological problems. In the second decade of the 21st century, the plan of publishing at least one issue in English, one multi-topic issue and two themed issues (all together four issues per year) stabilized. The process of selecting the prominent authors and external reviewers strengthened the journal’s standing as one of the most important sociological journals in Poland.
Since 2016, Marek Czyżewski has held the position of editor-in-chief. The procedures initiated by professor Kulpińska, where the editorial team works intensively with authors on the article’s final outcome, have been consolidated. This feature is a positive characteristic of Przegląd Socjologiczny which distinguishes it from many other scientific journals, which are becoming to a greater extent merely a link between authors and external reviewers. In Przegląd Socjologiczny the external reviews are considered, but the final opinion about an article (or its further versions) is expressed by the editorial team. The editorial team has also been enriched by the members from outside the Łódź milieu, and the journal is also gradually internationalizing.
