“Academic Whim” or “Building Understanding”? Reflections from Anthropological Research on Restorative Justice

The article focuses on restorative justice as a form of contestation against the retributive Western justice system. The emergence of the concept of restorative justice is strongly linked to the development of victimology and the movement fighting for a greater involvement of victims in the criminal proceedings. Embedded in the pattern of oppositions associated with retributive and restorative justice – conflict versus dialogue, power versus community, punishment versus responsibility – are motifs that point to the complexity of the matter of dispute resolution. The article is based on the results of research carried out in the frame of the project „Protecting and Defending the Rights of Victims of Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes: Innovative Paths through Restorative Justice (LetsGoByTalking)”.

* Projekt badawczo-innowacyjny „Protecting and Defending the Rights of Victims of Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes: Innovative Paths through Restorative Justice (LetsGoByTalking)”, współfinansowany przez Fundusz Sprawiedliwości Unii Europejskiej (JUST-JACC-AG-2019-875763), realizowany w latach 2020–2021. Kierownik projektu: dr hab. Monika Baer; współwykonawcy: dr Ewa Banasiewicz-Ossowska, dr Janina Radziszewska.

Direct Democracy as Unfulfilled Management Model of grassroots and Non-profit Initative ‘Wymiennik’ (Warsaw Community Currency System)

The article asks the question if the vision of participative management in ‘Wymiennik’ – articulated by the founders of the system and described in “Wymiennik Community Rules” – relates to the practical realization of the participation model. The author shows problems associated with introducing the idea of direct democracy on the example of the grassroots, urban, and niche ‘Wymiennik’ initiative and referring to the experience of the Occupy Wall Street movement described by Manuel Castells. The conflicts within the Warsaw community will be shown, which were the effect of the experiment with the management model. The term consensus as stasis made by Marcus Miessen will be used.

COVID-19 Pandemic: Inventing Skills and Strategies of Action among Primary Care Practitioners

In the article, I analyse responses of Polish primary care practitioners to the COVID-19 pandemic. I apply and develop the concepts of skills and enskilment to shed more light on the practices and knowledge-making strategies employed by doctors to cope with the challenges the COVID-19 outbreak has brought to their professional practice.