Conducted by: Luboš Studený
Interview with: Prof. Jacek Maria Kurczewski (* 11. 01. 1943 Edinburgh)
July 29, 2025 online This interview with Polish sociologist Professor Jacek Kurczewski, conducted by Luboš Studený on July 29, 2025, explores Kurczewski’s involvement in the international Images of the World in the Year 2000 research project coordinated by Johan Galtung and Andrzej Siciński during the 1960s and 1970s. Kurczewski recounts his early academic background at the University of Warsaw, shaped by empirical sociology and the liberal post-1956 intellectual climate. Invited by Siciński for his methodological expertise, he describes how Poland’s relative openness—having the only officially recognized public opinion research center in the Eastern Bloc—enabled participation in the project despite censorship and bureaucratic hurdles. Kurczewski reflects on the interplay between politics and scholarship under communism, detailing the shifting alliances between Marxist and non-party academics, and the impact of the 1968 political purges on sociological research. He highlights the peculiar mixture of intellectual freedom and political constraint, where handwritten questionnaires bypassed censorship while international communication remained restricted. Discussing cooperation with Western partners such as Galtung, he recalls both admiration for Galtung’s methodological rigor and tension arising from ideological differences. Kurczewski situates his own focus on peace research within broader sociological and legal studies, contrasting it with Siciński’s futurological orientation. The interview provides insights into the micro-history of an international research collaboration operating within the limits of Cold War academic politics.