The article analyzes the attitude of the Polish society to nuclear energy as an important energy source in the future and emphasizes the social dimension of the processes, by relating them to the sociology of energy. The attitude to nuclear energy is presented in comparison to other conventional and non-renewable energy sources, such as coal, oil or gas as well as renewable energy sources (RES) obtained from the sun, air or water. The ways of thinking and fears of the Polish society towards nuclear energy are presented in relation to the processes of energy transformation in Poland. The author indicates the main assumptions of the energy transformation and presents social ideas about the future of the energy sector in Poland. In the empirical dimension, the article concerns the sphere of social awareness and uses the results of surveys conducted by the Public Opinion Research Center (CBOS) in the period from 1987 to 2021.

The aim of the article is to indicate the need for a diagnosis of socio-cultural conditions of running a craft business by women. Local handicraft, culinary traditions, etc. are also an important resource for the development of women’s entrepreneurship with a craft profile. The problems of the article include the ‘common set’ of two research areas: crafts and women’s entrepreneurship in rural areas. The focus of the paper will be on the issue of the functioning of crafts in rural areas based on an empirical analysis of the scale of functioning of craft enterprises run by women. Concurrently, the subject outlined in this way is related to other issues, such as counteracting depopulation of rural areas based on the activation of local entrepreneurship. The potential of women’s entrepreneurship development in rural areas should also be indicated, among others, by tightening cooperation between Country Housewives’ Associations (koła gospodyń wiejskich, KGWs) and crafts organisations. The social effects of cooperation between crafts and KGWs will result in stimulation of entrepreneurship (especially female entrepreneurship) in rural areas, which will then contribute to rural development. These effects support the creation of new forms of small and medium entrepreneurship corresponding to social economy, which are defined as an element of creative economy. This will trigger the process of creating new jobs and may constitute an important mode of support for vocational education, increasing the chance for the local youth to smoothly enter the labour market. Likewise, the generation of local human and social capital resources cannot be overestimated. By mobilising and integrating key actors in the area, it will contribute to better management of local resources.

The article presents the results of research on the issues of Poland’s energy transformation from a sociological perspective. The exploratory analysis covered the attitude of the Polish society to the energy transformation, i.e. a change in the methods of generating energy in Poland, which results from the climate policy adopted by the Polish government.1 The aim of the article is to present social awareness – the social expectations and perceptions of Poles regarding the energy transformation understood in this way – to determine whether the opinions and views of the Polish society are in line with the planned and implemented energy transformation processes. The article provides an answer to the question about the Polish society’s attitudes towards the energy transformation and energy sources – to what extent the attitudes towards the proposed solutions to the problems are positive, and to what extent negative. For this purpose, the method of analysing the existing statistical data was used The basis of the secondary data analysis are the results of public opinion polls, carried out by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CBOS) in the period from 19872 to 2021. The sociological perspective adopted here assumes that the energy transformation is not only an economic but also a social process. For this reason, public support, in particular the positive attitude of respondents to new energy sources, is considered an important element of its success.

The aim of the article is to define the attitude of Polish parliamentary political parties towards the method of energy production, as well as to present the social perception of changes in the energy sector. The structural connections between parties, based on their energy concepts, were presented by the so called “affiliation networks”. Discourse Network Analysis, used in the study, also allowed to identify the most frequently co-occurring concepts expressed by different parties over the past fifteen years (coal, natural gas and renewable energy sources). As a result of the analysis, differences in the parties` approach to the energy issues were determined (among others: division between Law and Justice and Civic Platform since 2011; support for the exclusion of coal as an energy source made by Left and Civic Coalition in the year 2019). In order to present social attitudes towards the energy transformation data created by the Public Opinion Research Centre were used. According to the data, the main concern revealed by Poles regarding the energy transformation process is the possible rising cost of the energy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of social life and the economy. The aim of the article is to present the opinion of growers from the Sandomierz region on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fruit production, as well as to determine their sense of agency (impact on local and national matters) and to indicate their point of view about public institutions and non-governmental organizations’ support for Polish agriculture. The quantitative and qualitative study was conducted during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The obtained results indicate that the impact of the pandemic on the fruit growers was not significant. Nevertheless, fruit producers consider the support of public institutions as insufficient, and at the same time formulate high expectations towards them.