(Mis)understanding Social Activism in Poland

In 1989, at the start of the systemic transformation, there were in Poland organizations that from the point of view of the formal definition belonged to the 3rd sector. The majority of them had been founded before the 2nd World War: surviving the period of the socialist regime distorted their spirit and they they functioned. Thus in 1989 the decision was made to leave the old one on its own, and invest into creating a new one, based on the best practices from the West. To avoid connotations with the old organizations, the new language was adopted: the notion of NGO instead of "social organization", "volunteer" instead of the old Polish word "ochotnik" etc. This resulted in poor aculturation of the new sector, and artifacts in measuring the development of civil society in Poland.