Watson Institute at Brown University
Public Policy

Between Criticism and Co-action: Meeting the Need for a New Kind of Relationship between Policy Makers and Academia

Aleksandra Goldys, Maria Szymborska, Maria Rogaczewska

Thursday, October 1, 2015

12 p.m.

Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, 67 George Street

Free and open to the public

Aleksandra Goldys, Maria Szymborska, and Maria Rogaczewska, founders of a unit of Warsaw University dedicated to supporting “bottom-up” change in public policies (especially in sport-for-all and public health policies), discuss the similarities and differences of academia’s engagement of social problems in Poland and the EU with the US. Following a discussion of their relative successes, these sociologists will focus on the challenges remaining in developing their distinctive approach to “solidary knowledge” – active “co-action” with local actors and policy makers in making change.

The team is visiting Brown to work with Michael Kennedy (Sociology and International and Public Affairs) and Alan Harlam (Swearer Centrer for Public Service) to explore the travel and translation of social entrepreneurship between Poland and Providence.

Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy

Social Challenges Unit (Centrum Wyzwań Społecznych ISS UW) of the University of Warsaw is one of the centers of the Robert B. Zajonc Institute for Social Studies. It's mission is to:

  • connect external requests for specific knowledge with academia’s resources;
  • for each social challenge, build a team of specialists to support bottom-up change in public policies;
  • maintain and develop a core team fervently dedicated to public sociology, action research, evaluation and well-tailored expertise, focused on lasting impact which emerges from combining of all these processes;
  • create an exceptional space of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit within academia, where outstanding students can gain practical experience.