The book presents a collection of articles authored by several members of the Warsaw School of Political Theory, affiliated with the University of Warsaw. The team of scholars, whose roots extend to ...the 1970s when professor Artur Bodnar founded the Political Theory Research Group at University of Warsaw’s Methodical Centre for Political Science (COM SNP), has been conducting research under the leadership of professor Miros³aw Karwat. The school’s most distinguishing features include: the acceptance of the directives and principles of methodological holism, the acceptance and creative development of holistic integral definitions, the application of sociocentric spatial analyses, and a critical approach to the “cratocentric” tradition.
The work is devoted to the definition of solutions for skyscraper office buildings in Warsaw against the background of the latest global technology of vertical communication systems. For this ...purpose, the paper presents the examples of research by design of four high-rise buildings in Warsaw, which indicate the adopted methodology of developing optimal solutions in the field of elevator service as well as the results of research and finally selected systems. The aim of the research was to achieve the initial criteria for the system’s operation. The research was carried out by iterating and varianting various configurations of the system and checking it as the basis for building core solutions. Solutions that met the defined criteria were optimal in terms of building efficiency and rental flexibility. Empirical research and its results are presented against the background of world achievements. The results indicate that both the research methodology and the systems used follow the contemporary development of the latest globally present solutions.
The REDD program (“Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation”) was launched in 2007. Two years later it was modified into REDD+. Since then, numerous sub-national initiatives have ...implemented REDD+ or REDD+-like mechanisms. Now, shortly before the COP (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties) in Paris 2015 it is timely and necessary to analyze insights and to draw upon lessons learned. This study reviews multi-national REDD+ studies by applying qualitative content analysis using the UNFCCC Warsaw Framework for categorization.
Experiences with the implementation of core REDD+ topics like institutional responsibility and results-based financing are mostly not encouraging. Monitoring systems require further development, and guidance for jurisdictional approaches is lacking. Experiences with reference levels, permanence and leakage have hardly been reported. More general topics like stakeholder participation, tenure clarification and biodiversity co-benefits are in turn more advanced. But these are not necessarily effects of REDD+ components in the projects. The projects obviously offer a platform to advance classical development issues.
We conclude that financial signals from the upcoming COP in Paris are essential to encourage further development and implementation. This supports conclusions in accordance with the UNFCCC session in Bonn 2015 stating that methodologies are now complete and implementation must begin. Additional conclusions are drawn for specific topics of the Warsaw Framework. Authors claim that REDD+ should stimulate and support transformational change.
•Hundreds of projects currently implement features of the UNFCCC REDD+ framework.•Experience with the specific REDD+ tools on the project level is not yet convincing.•Classical development issues are more advanced.•Future implementation on the national level should keep a focus on transformational change.
The essay critically examines the participatory excavation project The Cut (2015) performed in the former ghetto area of Warsaw in relation to the artists-in-residence program administered by POLIN ...Museum of the History of Polish Jews. By investigating the spatial, social and historical framing of the artistic intervention and the discourses it mobilizes, the author contests the underlying presumption that participatory art inherently produces democratic and positive social and spatial relations. The author argues that unaddressed socio-historical contexts of Polish-Jewish relations in such art genres may lead to re-production of the oppressive patterns of culture that include exclusion and appropriation.
The University of Warsaw has a collection of ancient Egyptian objects, including four human mummies (200334 MNW, 236805/3 MNW, 236806 MNW, along with the mummy remains under two numbers KMS St. 0089 ...and KMS St. 0096 from the coffin 236804 MNW). They were donated by various persons in the nineteenth century. This paper establishes their dating, history, provenances, and research history in the context of the university’s antiquities collection, interests in ancient Egypt, and the development of Egyptology in Poland, especially in Warsaw. Previous studies on the subject were problematic owing to the limited and dispersed nature of sources and the fact that some of them were ambiguous and sometimes contradictory. Since then, more information has become available, especially computed tomography and X-ray scans of the mummies made by the Warsaw Mummy Project in cooperation with the National Museum in Warsaw. This has allowed further elaboration on the history of the collection and to re-establish identities of some of the deceased.
Chaotically developed post-socialist suburbs need retrofitting by providing residents with a local central space. This research aims at developing a typology of suburban local centres, describing the ...most common central spaces according to adopted criteria, as well as identifying which type of local centre has the most potential to be perceived as such by suburbanites and how suburban municipalities plan central spaces. The research was conducted in six institutional Warsaw suburbs representing the most common types of local centres of a neighbourhood catchment area. The research has shown that spatial criteria differentiate local centres more than social criteria. Concentric layouts attract different non-residential functions more effectively than linear ones. When recognising some spaces as central, the legibility of the broader spatial arrangement and the presence of key objects with centre-forming functions seems to be important. Factors that distort such recognition include the excessive dispersion of buildings, shops, and service points; peripheral or random location of the main activity node; poorly designed and equipped central spaces; and the proximity to large-scale shopping centres and recreational areas/objects. When looking for a model of retrofitting post-socialist suburbs through strengthening neighbourhood centres, it is worth recalling the concept of the so-called “third places”.
Theoretical background: Since presenting Fama’s research on market efficiency, scientists have been investigating any anomalies that interfere with market efficiency. The use of information asymmetry ...by insiders is just such an anomaly. A lot of scientific papers have been written in which the impact of insider transactions on the rates of return was described. Our extensive and comprehensive work completes Polish literature in this area. Purpose of the article: The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of disclosing information about insider deals on the movement of the share price. We examined the impact of the disclosure of information about the change in shareholding by the president of the management board, members of the management board, chairman of the supervisory board, or members of the supervisory board (collectively referred to in this work as insiders) on the price of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). Research methods: The study was carried out using the method of event studies and statistical analysis with the use of computer programming for calculations and data analysis. The analysis covers the period of 10.5 years: from January 1, 2010 to July 16, 2020, in which we took into account ESPI announcements issued by companies from the WSE main market. During the audited period, companies listed on the WSE spent over 400,000 ESPI messages, 743 of which met the criteria for the study, and we took these into account. Main findings: The research described in this article confirms that the published announcements about the change in share ownership by insiders constitute important information for investors investing on the WSE and have a significant impact on the share price – they are price-setting.
Notes of a Curator at the National Museum published in 1970 in the second volume of the book Struggle for Cultural Goods is the only generally available testimony to saving the Wilanów historic ...monuments by Jan Morawiński, a forgotten hero from the times of WW II. Additionally priceless because of Morawiński documenting the looting of 137 paintings belonging to the pre-WW II Branicki collection at Wilanów. The above-mentioned Notes were published by the Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy after the manuscript kept in the private archive of the author’s daughter Agnieszka Morawińska. The notes, however, resemble pieces of paper torn from a notebook in which an earlier chapter is missing. The missing chapter does exist, yet for unknown reasons was omitted in the two-volume Struggle for Cultural Goods. Warsaw 1939–1945 edited by Prof. Stanisław Lorentz. The present paper is based on Morawiński’s hand-written testimony, supported by archival sources and recollections of his colleagues from the National Museum in Warsaw (MNW). From August 1939 to August 1944, Jan Morawiński, together with others, was involved in saving precious museum exhibits in the Museum building, but also throughout Warsaw. He was involved in packing the historic monuments into crates which were to help them survive the toughest times, and he helped to put out fires at the Museum, risking his own life. Moreover, he rescued the Royal Castle collections during the hardest bombing of Warsaw, transporting them to the storages in Warsaw’s Jerozolimskie Avenue. For his dedication he was awarded the Virtuti Militari Cross of the 5th class by Gen. Juliusz Rómmel. After Warsaw’s surrender, he was assigned Head of MNW’s storerooms and inventories: when Director Lorentz was absent, he acted as his deputy. In the first period of the Nazi occupation he courageously faced German officials. Furthermore, he headed the clandestine action of inventorying and documenting German destructions and plundering. The knowledge amassed in this way was extremely helpful in the restitution of the looted historic monuments, not only museum ones. He also contributed to documenting the destruction of the Warsaw Castle. Imprisoned by the Nazis, he went through Gestapo’s hands at Daniłowiczowska Street in Warsaw. Later on, he became manager of the Museum of Old Warsaw in the Old Town, at the same time acting as a guardian of the Wilanów collection. Following the defeat of the Warsaw Uprising, he participated in the so-called Pruszków Action in whose course he was badly injured.
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