Sociology of Housing in Poland - Genesis, Development and Future Prospects

The sociology of housing is understood by the author of the paper as a science concerning the social dynamics relevant in housing, living and inhabited space context. The goal of the paper is to remind the role of Polish sociology of housing in process of showing the importance of the land use planning and combining the qualities of social and physical space in development of the inhabited space. The article also concerns the genesis and the achievements of sociology of housing in Poland as well as the history and the conditions of housing policy in Poland and in Western Europe. The article also contains proposals of future reorientation of the sociology of housing in the global dimension. The future development of settlement infrastructure, which forms the fundaments of settlement policy, may become a substantial platform for authentic and genuine sustainable development. The settlement infrastructure concept has a potential for balancing the development of the living space, which is determined by the inhabited space, and thus for genuine sustainable development. The aim is to notice the crucial role of the housing policy in modeling the development of the inhabited space. To achieve this the future objectives of sociology of housing in terms of monitoring and diagnosing the social space and physical relations are highlighted. The future sociology of housing should encompass the sociology of settlement - town's and village's sociology as well as rural areas sociology, thus transgressing the boundaries of inhabited space in general and urbanization space in particular. It should evolve into sociology of entire living space