Meanings of Civic Activity By Polish Activists

In the ever-changing context, it seems an interesting question about contemporary functioning, or understanding of the concept of citizenship. In my paper I am going to present results of my studies, which allowed me to formulate conclusions related to the specific differences in defining the role of the activist between members of diverse types of Polish civic organizations. Thus, it turned out that the most common understanding of activity in organization is perceiving it as work. Often it is special work, distinguished by low wages. A special feature of this type of work is also good, friendly and often non-hierarchical relationships between members of the organization. However, the activists of different types of organizations were distinguished by their own understandings of being an activist. Thus, through research in organizations of a non-governmental (the so-called third sector), economic (employers' organizations and trade unions) and political type (social and political movements), it became possible to identify both common and specific features of the picture of contemporary civic activity.