Olga Kosińska

One of the phenomena which scope expanded during the period of restrictions related to COVID-19 was a social turn towards the past, observed especially in social media, identified as a nostalgia trend. Understood as a sentimental longing for something that has already passed that causes sadness or pleasure by remembering something and wishing it could be experienced again, nostalgia was one of the tools for dealing with the hardships and uncertainty of the pandemic times. Individual users of social media willingly undertook communication focused around memories, expressing regret for times long gone that had been seen in their idealized form as easier and happier. This trend has been effectively used in marketing focused on nostalgia. It was only effective when it evokes positive memories and evokes good feelings in the recipients that encourages the more to reach for the product or service offered. This specific turn towards this period of time was used as a tool that allowed not having to face terrifying moments and often difficult present, and even more so the unknown future. Thus, uncertain of the future and terrified of the present, the pandemic consumer was all the more susceptible to peaceful and happy images from the past, which both algorithms and commercial entities gave him. In these circumstances, one can point to a specific management of pandemic nostalgia by entities that are essentially external to the individual user.

Capitalism in its contemporary, late form does not break away from its constitutive principles – that is the actions aimed at accumulating resources – but significantly changes nature of the key capital. No longer land or labour, but knowledge, information or technology become the elements determining the position of a person on the market. Under these circumstances, the notion of “non-work” emerges, which includes activities seemingly unrelated to capitalist priorities, but still not in the direct opposition to them. One of the areas of such non-work phenomena was the Polish cultural blogosphere. Its representatives are an example of how people operating in the field of culture – especially on the Internet – combined instrumental and existential values in their activities. For this combination to be effective, it requires the collection and interpretation of relevant data that enables us to measure the achievement level of the goals set. In the case of the surveyed bloggers – also due to the specificity of their work – these measures were often not used properly.

Pet influencers have been an increasingly important element of the online landscape for some time now. Posts published in their name on social media generate huge attention and develop a high numer of followers. In this context, the question arises whether the current definitions of the terms “influencer”and “personal brand” include non-human entities such as animals or virtual influencers? On the one hand, actions taken, for example, by owners on behalf of their pets are aimed at “giving them a voice”. On the other hand, it is not entirely possible, and ultimately the brand created around pets is a kind of resultant of the beliefs and values of the animal’s guardians and what the animal itself seems to convey through its actions and reactions. Based on the analysis of the content of pet influencers on Instagram, this text attempts to determine the models of the brand appropriate for animal profiles in social media. Five of them are distinguished – animals that create “their own corner”on the Internet, animals as alternative voices of their owners, anthropomorphized animals, involved in the area of fashion and random stars. At the present stage, it seems that although such pets can be called influencers, in terms of personal brand, the current definitions should be extended to include non-human entities. Internet activities do not currently allow pets to emancipate and develop independence from human control combined with care.

Difficulties with financing cultural activities are a subject of many analysis throughout the years as well as many attempts of finding a way to construct a balanced cultural policy at both the state and local government level. Facing those, culture is a sector that is at the forefront of attempts to raise funds for independent initiatives in a non-standard way. The article presents the analysis of three cases of cultural projects of a fundamentally non-institutional and bottom-up nature, as well as crossing sector boundaries. It points to the difficulties that such activities face, while identifying the existing potential and willingness to undertake non-financially motivated cultural actions. In connection with development of the phenomenon of self-organization in culture, as well as the privatization and deinstitutionalisation of cultural participation, there is a need to change the approach of financing cultural activities and actively going beyond the existing framework of cooperation in this field. 

Contemporary socio-economic changes affect organizations and management. Management processes more and more often concern spheres and groups that go beyond the “traditional”understanding of the organization. Among them are online communities such as fandoms. Along with the process of organizing, the organizational shadow is emerging. Organizational shadow is defined as “a set of unacceptable features, tendencies, aspirations rejected in the process of socialization” (Kostera 2014, s. 23), the appearance and functioning of which is negated or hidden within the organization. Fandoms are governed by slightly different rules, often more variable and more difficult to identify than in formal organizations. That does not make them free from “shady”elements such as certain people, activities, features and values that do not match the current shape of the community. The article describes fandoms as new, informal organizational forms and subjects of management processes, and then identifies examples of the emergence of organizational shadow within them. These are three main causes of such a shadow manifestation –excessive control (e.g., of the forum moderator), undisclosed actions of administrators of the internet platform used by the group, as well as negligence (e.g., forgetting someone’s contribution to the project). The conclusions indicate the need for a further, in-depth identification of the elements influencing the development of the shadow in non-standard organizational forms.

Projects have a widespread presence in the non-governmental sector. Sometimes, they make it possible to perform tasks which would otherwise remain uncompleted due to insufficient funds, for instance. At the same time, however, the increasingly common phenomenon in smaller NGOs is when one large project swallows the organization along with its more modest initiatives. With time, the Cracow’s foundation under scrutiny, which operates in the cultural sector, has evolved from a self-help organization engaged in a number of minor activities, often completely devoid of external funding, into an entity focusing all its strength and resources on one large annual project funded from grants. In her autoethnography combined with the material from individual in-depth interviews, the author, who is both a participant of and a witness to these changes, describes the process of the main project having supplanted the grassroots initiatives, which has resulted, inter alia, in the disintegration within the foundation. Simultaneously, she provides at least a partial solution to this problem in the form of organizational imagination understood as a management style oriented towards people with all their needs and capabilities as well as towards taking action based on far-reaching trust in people.