Dr. Ewa Leś is Professor of Political Science at Warsaw University and Director of the Centre for Civil Society Development at the Institute of Social Policy. In 1992 she was senior-fellow in international philanthropy at the Institute for Policy Studies the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She teaches family sociology, family policy, third sector and social economy systems in comparative perspective. Ewa Leś was co-founder and president of the Polish Association of Social Workers. Her extensive community service experience includes consultation to diverse Polish and foreign public institutions and third sector organizations, among them the Presidential and Prime Minister Offices, the Polish Parliament, the Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the World Bank, OECD LEED Trento Centre for Local Development, UNDP. Prof. Leś has coordinated several major national and international research projects and has been a contributor in numerous conferences and books on Non-Profit Sector, Third Sector, Social Economy and Social Enterprise projects.

Relevant Publications

• Leś, Ewa (1994) The Voluntary Sector in Post-Communist East Central Europe. Washington, D.C.: CIVICUS

The CIVICUS regional report portrays emerging civil society organizations in Central and Eastern Europe right after the overthrow of the communist regimes. The publication includes the sector’s profile, its field of activities and its interplay with private and public institutions, as well as  the sector’s linkages with international organizations and future perspectives.

• Leś, Ewa (2000) From Philanthropy to Subsidiarity. Non-profit Organizations in Comparative Perspective. Warsaw: Publishing House Elipsa

From Philanthropy to Subsidiarity brings together a historical overview of the third sector in Europe and the US and review changes over the past three decades in the relationship between the third sector organizations and the public sector in contemporary social policy. The book offers an in-depth analysis of the doctrine of subsidiarity  and its implementation in current social systems of the countries under study.

• Leś, Ewa (co-editor) (2008), Dimensions of Social Economy. Warsaw: Warsaw University Press.

This publication is a collection of articles on contemporary social economy in Poland, which brings together the findings of the DP EQUAL “We Have Jobs” Project. The book reports the results of  socio-economic surveys on the Polish third sector and social enterprises resources and productivity and an assessment of policies towards strengthening the sector’s training system, financial base and explores the policies for social economy organizations in France and Italy. The book includes a lively and inspiring debate with the outstanding Polish artists on contemporary social issues, such as poverty,  social and political exclusion.

• Leś, Ewa (2013) Non-Profit Organizations in a New Social Policy. Poland in the European context. Warsaw: Publishing House ASPRA

The book argues that a new social policy model based on social investments and participatory democracy has major implications for the third sector and needs a closer connection between public social policy and civil society organizations. The publication presents the government initiatives and policies that have been introduced over the past 20 years in Poland, the UK, France, Italy and Sweden and examines how they have changed the position of the non profit sector in a European social policy.

Projects

Johns Hopkins University Comparative Non-Profit Sector (1997-2001) The project findings have revealed that, despite the remarkable upsurge of the non-profit sector in Poland after 1989, it has represented a significant but small presence in the economic system. The data indicated that a large share of the Polish non-profit workforce was engaged in expressive organizations as opposed to service activities - a result of the communist legacy and ambiguous policy initiatives towards the civil society organizations after 1989. Role: Polish coordinator (1997-2001) http://ccss.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/09/Poland_CNP_WP36_2000.pdf EQUAL "We Have Jobs" (2005-2008) Project on strengthening social economy in Poland. The project aimed to build and implement a support system for the Polish social economy sector. The DP has conducted quantitative and qualitative studies of non-profit organizations and cooperatives’ socio-economic potential and introduced new post-graduate training programmes for social economy leaders and staff at the University of Warsaw and regional training workshops. Role: Coordinator Development Partnership http://www.wikipreneurship.eu/index.php5?title=Tu_Jest_Praca

Sławomir Nałęcz graduated in sociology from University of Warsaw. Since 1997 he has taken part in the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project as data expert for Poland (co-author of Defining the Nonprofit Sector: Poland (2000) and the chapters on Poland in Global Civil Society, volume 1 (1999) and volume 2 (2004). Since 1999 he has worked in the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, where he elaborated his Ph.D. dissertation Social Role of Nonprofit Sector in III Republic of Poland. Simultaneously he lectured at nonprofit university Collegium Civitas where he co-authored the pioneer curriculum concerning non-profit organizations (Sociology and management of nonprofit organizations). Between 2006 a 2008 he was leading a research team of the project “We have jobs”; the research resulted in the first book providing comprehensive data on Polish social economy and its subsectors (Nałęcz, S. (ed.) Social Economy in Poland. Research Results 2005-2007, Institute of Political Studies – Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, 2008). Between 2008 and 2014 Dr Nałęcz held the position of deputy director of Social Surveys and Living Conditions Department in the Central Statistical Office of Poland, where he was responsible for statistics on education, health care as well as for the third sector and volunteer work statistics. In 2009 he prepared The Strategy for the development of official statistics on the third sector and social capital, which was adopted by the Board of Public Statistics. During this period Dr Nałęcz led the research work on implementation of the Strategy, which resulted in several publications on the development of social and economic assets of the major components of the nonprofit sector and social economy (e.g. Nałęcz, S., Goś-Wójcicka, K. (eds.) Third sector in Poland. Association, foundations, faith based organizations, organizations of business and professional selfgovernment and employers unions in 2010, Central Statistical Office, Warsaw, 2013). Between 2010 and 2014 he was engaged in working out and promoting the methodology of volunteer work measurement (member of Technical Expert Group on the Measurement of Volunteer Work, expert to European Economic and Social Committee for the opinion on Statistical tools for measuring volunteering, speaker at 5 conferences within the European Volunteer Work Project, leader of the team which carried out implementation of the measurement of volunteer work in Central Statistical Office of Poland, co-editor and co-author of the book Volunteering through organizations and other types of unpaid work outside own household – 2011 (published by Central Statistical Office, Warsaw, 2013). In years 2014-2016 Dr Nałęcz has been taking part in the EU 7^th Framework project Third Sector Impact working on the widened definition of the Third Sector in the context of Poland as well as estimating and analyzing data for the non-profit sector, cooperatives and other social economy entities for the Third Sector/Social Economy as well as for several fields of the sector activities (Leś, E., Nałęcz, S , Pieliński, B. Factors of Growth and Obstacles for the Third Sector in Poland. Conclusions from the TSI Research, Elipsa Publishers, Warszawa, 2016). Nowadays Dr Nalecz – participates - as a leading researcher – in a project Integrated System of Social Economy Monitoring, which aims at combining data from all kinds of public databases and registers with results of organizational surveys carried out by official statistics to produce a set of indicators for monitoring development of Social Economy in Poland. To make the results internationally comparable the system is expected to contain a satellite account on nonprofit institutions and other social economy entities according to the standards set forth in the UN Handbook of Non-Profit Institutions in the System of National Accounts

Relevant Publications

• Leś, E., Nałęcz, S., Wygnański, J.(2000), Defining the Nonprofit Sector: Poland. Working Papers of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, no. 36. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, co-authors:

• Leś, E., Nałęcz, S., Toepler, S., Sokolowski, W., Salamon, L. (2004) Poland. In: Global Civil Society Volume Two. Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector. Bloomfield: Kumarian Press

• Nałęcz, S., Bartkowski, J.,(2006) Social and Economic Potentials of the Civil Society Organizations in CEE after 1989. In: Eliason, S. (ed.) Building Civil Society and Democracy East of Elbe.

• Nałęcz (ed.)(2009) Social economy in Poland. Results of the research carried out between 2005 and 2007. (Gospodarka społeczna w Polsce. Wyniki badań 2005-2007). Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN (Institute of Political Studies at Polish Academy of Sciences), Warszawa.

• Nałęcz, S., Goś-Wójcicka, K, (red.)(2013) Volunteering through organizations and other types of umpaid work outside own household (Wolontariat i inne formy pracy niezarobkowej poza gospodarstwem domowym - 2011). Główny Urząd Statystyczny (Central Statistical Office), Warszawa.

Projects

EQUAL "We have jobs" Research project on the social economy in Poland which resulted in the first book providing comprehensive data on the Polish social economy and its subsectors (Nałęcz,  S. (ed.) Gospodarka społeczna w Polsce. Wyniki badań 2005-2007, ISP PAN, Warszawa). Role: Project Leader  

Bartosz Pieliński is an Associate Professor at the University of Warsaw’s Institute of Social Policy. Here he has taken part in several research projects dedicated to the role of civil society in the Polish social policy. He also works at the Korczakowska Foundation, an organization dedicated to the promotion of Janusz Korczak’s legacy. Pieliński earned his PhD in Political Science at the University of Warsaw.  Based on his research, he published various articles in a number of Polish journals.

Relevant Publications

• Pieliński, B. (2013). Institutionalisms in social policy research (Instytucjonalizmy a polityka społeczna). Problemy Polityki Społecznej. Studia i Dyskusje, 22 (3), 25-43

• Pieliński, B. (2012). On the limits of the self-fixing society. Social economy and social exclusion (O granicach samonaprawiającego się społeczeństwa. Ekonomia społeczna a wykluczenie społeczne). In: K. Wódz, K. Faliszek, A. Karwacki, M. Rymsza (Eds.) New priorities and tendencies in social policy - occupational activation and integration (Nowe priorytety i tendencje w polityce społecznej – wokół integracji i aktywizacji zawodowej) (pp. 121-142), Toruń: Wydawnictwo Edukacyjne Akapit.

• Pieliński, B. (2011). The role of a leader in development of the social economy (Rola lidera w rozwoju gospodarki społecznej). In: K. Piątek, K. Szymańska-Zybertowicz, The professional social work. The new paradigm or an unfinished task? (Profesjonalna praca socjalna. Nowy paradygmat czy niedokończone zadanie?) (pp. 185-196). Toruń: Wydawnictwo Edukacyjne Akapit.

• Pieliński, B. (2010). On the inevitability of convergence. The history of the transformation of the social policy models in East Asia. Kultura i Edukacja, 79 (5) 2010, 167-189.

Projects

The International Comparative Social Enterprise Models (ICSEM) Project (from 2014) Centre d’Economie Sociale HEC Management School, University of Liege Role: Partner http://www.iap-socent.be/content" target="_blank">http://www.iap-socent.be/content The Philanthropication through Privatization Project (since 2010) The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University, The East-West Management Institute, New York Role: Associate http://ccss.jhu.edu/philanthropication-thru-privatization-a-way-to-build-charitable-assets