Article is devoted to reflection on mutual relationship between social theory and empirical sociology. Special attention is paid to look at the beginnings of the of sociology as a scientific discipline tce, historical and cultural circumstances it was created in, when sociological thought was growing out of the ground of positivism. The starting point of this part of the text is the fact that the father of sociology, Auguste Comte, drew his attention to the particular importance of creating theory in the process of exploring the mechanisms that rule social life. Another issue this article focuses on, are controversies regarding contemporary sociology, especially unjust plea that social scientists place first the specific, individual case studies, without taking care of their theoretical context, of what the social theory says about it.

This article focuses on perspectives for collecting and interpreting empirical data in co called reflexive anthropology. The author focuses on those perspectives of development strategies of collecting empirical data, which will, make our anthropological interpretation more transparent and will allow to analyze the interpersonal and intrapersonal context of field experience production. Moreover, those strategies could be supported by theory of field experience interpretation. According to James Davies, Vincent Crapanzano and Michael Jackson every emotions and subtle mental states evoked by ethnographer during the fieldwork can be used to inform how to interpret the life worlds we want to understand. The pivotal point of the paper lays in suggesting the “twice thick description”, i.e., merging the auto‑ethnography of responding to strangeness and assumptions of radical empiricism of William James.

Despite many years of research on conflicts which have been undertaken in many institutions around the world, and despite the ever happened conflicts, so these short‑range as well as those that determine the lives of people around the world, the theory of conflict, explanation of its social functions, dynamics and methods of solving still are waiting to be developed in a unifying different foundations approach (P.T. Coleman, K.G. Kugler, L. Bui‑Wrzosinska, A. Smith, R. Vallacher, 2012). Article attempts to identify those elements of various theories of conflict, which combine and do not differ researchers and proposed by them approaches to the conflict. The presented analysis is a review, which goes back to the beginning of sociological discussion on the conflict, to explore common assumptions and conclusions of the researchers, despite their different disciplines and empirical research fields. The aim of the argument is an attempt to indicate what influence on the conflicts dynamics.

In the paper has been presented a concept of utopia. Utopia is conceived of as an image of a possible social world (possible history). This concept is a radical generalization of the traditional understanding of this notion. Some arguments have been formulated to support the thesis that the generalized concept of utopia can be useful in studying past, presence and future of social world. It has been stressed that so conceived of utopias cannot be foundations of utopianism.

The article covers the relations between liberalism and bipolitics in the light of Michel Foucault’s thought. The French author conceptualises liberalism and biopolitics as strategies of power and governmental rationalities related to population and individuals. Liberalism, using the discourse of freedom, makes freedom a condition for governing „the society of individuals”. Biopower with its discourse of security focuses on strengthening the state but also vitality of individuals and the whole population. The text comprises the analysis of three main relations between both governmental rationalities. Firstly, liberal freedoms are possible under the condition of the existence of a stable state with its biopolitical‑military apparatus of security. Secondly, when there is a conflict between security and freedom (it was presented a brief analysis of media discourse related to the ebola epidemic and the refugee crisis) liberalism becomes a critique of the negative biopolitics by advocating individual rights and „strangers”. Thirdly, both biopolitics and (neo)liberalism can be understood as governmental strategies focusing on ruling the society with a view to consolidate a dominant political and economic system. Liberal individualisation of humans turns out to be a modern form of a soft subjugation, whereas biopolitics supports the free market and biocapitalism.

Any sociological analysis investigating the present without the historical context becomes an empty shell of science and loses its influence on the study of social mechanisms operating continuously at various times and places. Aron’s interdisciplinarity is best expressed by variety of disciplines he has practiced. Lucien Febrey described him as an economist, a sociologist and a politician, while emphasizing the powerful influence he has exerted on historians too. Moreover Aron is also remembered as an efficient commentator — intellectual. The aim of the study is to examine how Aron used the principles of historical sociology in his sociological research. Was his work a historical sociology or not? The answer is substantial not only in terms of history of sociology but also to settle whether Aron’s sociological legacy can be used today as a sort of pathway to put the sociology out of the crisis resulting from its Industrial Age roots.

The paper advocates for development of the theory of societal collapse. It consists of three main parts: analysis of related concepts already present in sociological vocabulary, conceptualizations in other social sciences’ disciplines and already developed theories of societal collapse. The concepts near to societal collapse analyzed in the paper are social disorganization, anomy and crisis all of which overlap with collapse when extremal severity of phenomena described by those concepts occurs. Presence in other disciplines covers collapse of Roman Empire, Fallen States, Eastern Island and Neo‑Malthusianism. The theories of societal collapse discussed in this paper include Arnold Toynbee’s theory of civilizations’ break down and disintegration, Oswald Spengler’s decline of the west and similar conceptualization by Florian Znaniecki. Recent theories recalled in the paper cover Joseph Tainter’s theory of diminishing marginal utility of social development and Jared Diamond’s theory of societal collapse.

The author puts forward the thesis that belles lettres is one of the potential sources of knowledge about the social world which are still underappreciated by sociologists. Literature furnishes at least inspiration for the description of social phenomena. In a special way it engages the problems associated with the use of metaphors drawn directly from literary works to represent sociologically recognizable regularities. In this case the means of problematization could be associated with a literary figure (the Snow Queen, Don Quijote), metaphor (the world as a theatre) or when the title of a research work may constitute a direct reference to literature (“Wrestling against the world”, “A tournament of humpbacks”). In all of these cases a literary image becomes a starting point, a germ of a sociological analysis or its illustration, and thus a means of familiarizing oneself with the social world.

Work and family (besides health and honesty) are the most important values in the most people’s life. Human activity revolves around these two areas — work and family. It is not unusual that the work is done at the expense of the family, or the family absorbes so much, that there is no time for professional development. This article aims to show the place of work and family in the modern people’s life. It also shows if there is possibility to have a balance between this two areas in the light of concept of work‑life balance.

The article presents selected theoretical perspectives codependency syndrome, operating on the basis of therapy ‑oriented extension of social and psychological competences. However, you can use them separately to explain the function of a person living with addicted to chemicals, but also can be used complementarily; it gives the possibility of objectification and greater insight into the “world” a person involved in relationships with person to be addicted.

The aim of the article is presentation of research results which were conducted for the scientific project “Repair your University” at University of Silesia in summer semester in the academic year 2014/2015. The research mainly concerned the issue of students’ participation in academic life and their actions connected with university management. Authors presents research results which consider two areas: the activities of both student research circles and students’ union.

This article contains a presentation and analysis of definitions of singles in an international as well as in Polish social science. It presents substantive and methodological assumptions and shows the results of the most significant researches concerning singles in Poland.