Ewa Kosowska

The imported imponderabilia

Academic community has always been concerned with scientific research and educational effectiveness. Since the Middle Ages a proper functioning of university has been determined by adequate and firm infrastructural, legal and financial support guaranteeing its stability in face of political, social and educational problems. With an emergence of university as a cultural institution of high importance to the European social life, some typical problems appeared, e.g. staff under-
investment in academic units and centres, recurring decline in educational level, impoverishment and insecure prestige of scientists, changeable demand for university courses, more or less oppressive censorship, etc. Last years have brought red tape overgrowth and overwhelming procedures that operate within formal indicators which determine what is and what is not to be regarded as scientific, what kind of research is to be supported and continued and what does and does not become ethic for an academic. The following tendency can be observed in the area of financial distribution, in the favoured ways of conducting scientific studies and in corporative rules of work organization. It is also visible in the choice of areas within the sphere of particular groups (e.g. national, European, local or social). University people try to comply with the demands, which, in turn, results in limiting the space for creative individual actions, so indispensable in academic work. The “return to Europe” syndrome in the countries lacking everyday contact with the world recognised academic centres, has revealed itself in fascination with methodological and interpretative news. It is problematic that chasing the lost time has become a constant imperative visible in following intellectual fashions, even if new trends are of purely figurative function. The imported imponderabilia have become an essential host for Polish humanities to sponge off. The remaining question is whether there exists an alternative solution for the introduction of our original impact into the international academic world. [przeł. Justyna Pacukiewicz]