Aktywność obywatelska na wsi – studium przypadku czterech wsi na Podlasiu

In Central and Eastern Europe societies had problems in self-organising and creating civil virtues during transformation period. Polish citizens are still reluctant to join organisations, it is observed especially in rural areas. However it is people inhabiting rural areas who organize informally most often. This paper presents case studies of four villages in Podlasie region, in which citizens organized protests against closing their children’s primary schools. The analysis concerns group activeness before these protests, forms of the protests themselves, and activeness of the citizens after the decisions concerning the schools were taken by local authorities. It is concluded that willingness to associate and taking proper measures by citizens results among others from earlier experience in self-organising. Sometimes developing social activeness of local communities requires external help (such as mediation) or support of local authorities