The Discreet (and Long-Lasting) Charm of the Polish Nobility

Abstract

Elite studies, which would be both critical (in a sense that they do not reproduce self-images created by actors under study) and at the same time rely on substantial empirical material “from within”, are perhaps the hardest job to do for a sociologist . It seems (at least to a Pole) that this is even more so in the case of Poland, where the relations within the intelligentsia élite milieu are even more informal (thus prone to being hidden from the wider public) than in many other European countries – as one can learn it from other works of one of the authors of the reviewed book, Tomasz Zarycki. Despite numerous obstacles, Smoczyński and Zarycki made a successful attempt at analyzing an important part of the Polish field of power (Bourdieu 1993: 161–175, 1996: 261–339) of the aristocracy, nobility, and landed gentry . Although at the empirical core of the book there lies an analysis of social structure and mechanisms of reproduction of a small group (“several dozen post-aristocratic families”), the perspective of Pierre Bourdieu’s field analysis, which the authors adopted among other theoretical inspirations, required them to broaden the scope of the study . Thus, the book includes both a historical and “spatial” (relations with other social groups) context . As a result, the volume presents a valuable insight not only into the functioning of a small but relatively influential aristocratic sub-élite but also – by analyzing its relationship with the intelligentsia – into this hegemonic social class in Poland . As has been already mentioned, the main focus of the book is on the aristocratic/ post-gentry milieu in contemporary Poland. The first chapter though is dedicated ActA Univ. SApientiAe, SociAl AnAlySiS, 9 (2019) 101–104