WORKSHOP: Workshop on Malinowski

 The Commission on Legal Pluralism has announced a workshop on “Malinowski’s Concept of Law from the Native’s Point of View.”

Bronislaw Malinowski’s 130th Birth Anniversary International Workshop. Time: 12-13 September, 2014. Place: Cracow (Poland).

Organizers: Department of Sociology of Law, Jagiellonian University, Cracow (Poland) and International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati (Spain). Participants are invited to send for information about participation in and to submit a short (300 word) abstract of the paper by 1 June 2014. For more information:

Workshop Overview

Kaspar Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) does not need special introduction. A lot has been written about his achievements as a “founding father” of the new paradigm of social/cultural anthropology, cofounder of mature functionalism (defined as a specific kind of social theory, as well as a particular method of scientific analysis) and the participant-observer technique. Malinowski’s views on religion, magic, totemism and culture occupy prominent place within the social sciences. Against this background, his writings on the (primitive) law are being less noticed and less discussed. His concept of law hasn’t been fully recapitulated yet. The Bronislaw Malinowski’s 130th Birth Anniversary is an excellent occasion for making critical evaluation of his legal concepts. Cracow –the town where he was born and grown up –seems to be perfect place for this event. The aim of the workshop is to create a discursive space for researchers interested in Malinowski’s views on the law. The papers presented on workshop could be concentrated on following topics: (1) the problem of dynamics of his legal thought, (2) the relationship between his and others conceptions and works (eg. Petrazycki’s), (3) the type of legal functionalism established by Malinowski, (4) his biological-based view on legal phenomena, (5)influence of his legal concepts on anthropology and legal science, (6) use of participant-observer technique to study legal institutions, (7) relation between modernism (Mloda Polska) and Malinowsi’s ideas. There are only examples of potential areas of the planned workshop. We invite all scholars interested in Malinowski’s thought as well as in application of his ideas to participate in the workshop and in this way pay intellectual homage to him.

The workshop fee is 50 EUR.

dr Mateusz Stęień email –

mateusz.stepien@uj.edu.pl