ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Sustainability Beyond the Iron Curtain: A Brief History of Sozology

• In Event: Histories of Climate and Environment 2: Knowing

English Abstract

Sozology represents a distinctive Polish scientific tradition dedicated to environmental protection that emerged during the Cold War era but has received limited international recognition. Derived from the Greek sṓizō (to rescue or save), sozology was conceived as an interdisciplinary science integrating natural and social sciences to address environmental degradation caused by human economic activity. Rooted in Poland's centuries-long conservation tradition dating back to medieval edicts and nineteenth-century geological scholarship, sozology achieved formal definition in 1966 through Walery Goetel's foundational work at the University of Mining and Metallurgy in Kraków. The discipline gained considerable momentum in the 1970s, particularly following the 1972 UN Stockholm Conference, establishing itself as a unified expert framework designed to provide governments with comprehensive environmental consultation incorporating both scientific and ethical dimensions. The discipline operated within a soft anthropocentric paradigm, emphasizing human welfare protection through environmental preservation, and rejected anti-growth approaches in favor of reconciling industrial development with environmental mitigation. However, sozology's influence declined sharply after Poland's transition from communism in 1989, despite the tradition's significant contributions to the country's ecological policy formation during the Round Table negotiations. Subsequently, the term underwent substantial transformation as scholars from Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University reinterpreted sozology through philosophical and theological frameworks, particularly under Józef Marceli Dołęga's conception of "systematic sozology." This intellectual trajectory reflects broader questions about transnational scientific discourse, the geopolitics of knowledge production during the Cold War, and how scientific traditions navigate ideological transitions. Understanding sozology's rise and decline offers valuable insights into the history of environmental science and the mechanisms through which scientific paradigms gain or lose international legitimacy.

Author

• Jan Możdżyński, Polish Academy of Sciences