Social Differentiation of Cultural Phenomena

The issues of social differentiation of cultural phenomena, as considered in the context of our conference's theme, must focus on a number of questions.These questions are related, on the one hand, to methodologies of social history and its autonomy as a fi eld of research in its own right, and on the other, to the theory of culture and methodologies of history of culture and, again, its autonomy as an independent discipline.With respect to Polish medieval studies, these issues are essential, since too little importance, especially in recent decades, has been attached to theoretical foundations of research.Even though medievalists are less to blame in this respect than historians specialising in other eras, most publications characteristically avoid any theoretical considerations more extensive than narrowly understood issues of methodology.Also, the longue dure of dealing with cultural issues in a textbook fashion has been a prominent feature in academic syntheses.Proof of this can be found by comparing the respective chapters of the most recent general synthesis of medieval history by Roman Michaowski and the respective university textbook by Tadeusz Manteuffel, 1 or the successive takes on Polish medieval history by various researchers hailing from different schools and groups. 2

Sociology · History · Sociopolitical Dynamics in Russia