«You need to believe that you could achieve something extraordinary — and this is the unique formula of true success»

Interview with Piotr Sztompka conducted by Serhiy Kurbatov

Abstract

In his interview Professor Sztompka describes his biography as a researcher and a public intellectual, shows the role of famous modern sociologists in this process, tells us about his family relations to Ukraine and analyzes its perspectives in European and world contexts, shares his thoughts about education and other factors of social transformation. Professor proposes the theory of «cultural trauma” as only one of the approaches to the phenomenon of post-communist transformations. Basing on it he tries to explain the crucial European events, including the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. As a complex theoretical construction this approach presupposes that the transformation processes are heterogeneous by their nature and include the movement up and down. The mechanisms of overcoming the cultural trauma are grounded within the framework of the given theory.