Council

Chairman – Professor Dr. Mirosław Księżopolski

Lawyer and political scientist, Professor in the Institute of Social Policy at Warsaw University, the former director of the Institute and current chairman of its Scientific Council. Member of the Committee of the Research on Work and Social Policy at the Polish Academy of Sciences. His research interests include international comparative social policy, in particular studies of the Scandinavian model. In 1980 he defended his PhD thesis entitled Ewolucja polityki społecznej w Szwecji w latach 1932-1976. His Habilitation thesis was Systemy zabezpieczenia społecznego w krajach nordyckich (Warszawa 1988). He is the author of a number of publications devoted to strategies of social policy in the world, the European social model, changes of social policy in Poland. Among many books he is the author of Polityka Społeczna – wybrane problemy porównań międzynarodowych (Katowice 1999) and Wspólnie czy osobno? Rozważania o polityce społecznej Warszawa 2013).

Member of the Council – Professor Dr. Wojciech Nowiak

Political scientist, Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (UAM). The main areas of his scientific interest include: specificity of the Nordic welfare states and problems of regional Nordic-Baltic cooperation. He coordinates the Postgraduate Programme of Scandinavian Studies and Baltic Countries at UAM. In 1990 he received a scholarship from the Norwegian government to work as a visiting researcher at Institute of Applied Social Research in Oslo (INAS), in next years also at other Norwegian and Swedish universities. He is the author of a number of publications, including Folketrygden – „kamień węgielny” norweskiego państwa dobrobytu (Poznań 1995) and Nordycki model „welfare state” w realiach XXI wieku. Dylematy wyboru i ewolucja systemu w społeczeństwach dobrobytu – wnioski praktyczne (Poznań 2011).

Secretary of the Council – Dr. Tomasz Mering

Political scientist, Assistant Professor in the Institute of Social Policy at University of Warsaw, Deputy Director for Student Affairs in the Center for the Study of Local Government and Regional Development University of Warsaw. Formerly he worked for the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, and for the Regional Labour Office in Warsaw. From 2003-2004 he received a research scholarship at Stirling University (Scotland). His main areas of interest include: strategies of social development, comparative social policy in Europe and in the world, European Union cohesion policy, and regional labour market policy. His latest publications include: Wspólnotowa polityka spójności społecznej i gospodarczej – ewolucja i perspektywy, in: W. Anioł, M. Duszczyk, P.W. Zawadzki (ed.), Europa Socjalna. Iluzja czy rzeczywistość? (Warszawa 2011); Reforma systemu pomocy społecznej w Wielkiej Brytanii, “Dialog” 2011, No. 3.