The concept of social capital is gaining increasing popularity among economists and governance practitioners. This is due to the recognition of the fact that a high level of social capital is important for the creation of socio-economic development of countries or territories – economic areas with a high level of connections between entities, organisations and residents. The formation of social capital, understood as the ability to cooperate with various social groups and operate efficiently within these groups, depends on the political system as well as the adopted norms and attitudes, education, styles of management in business organisations and public sphere entities, family ties, motivation to act, etc. The aim of the paper is to indicate various limitations of social capital development and to demonstrate that it is important to involve different communities in its formation In addition, attention is drawn to the fact that social capital generates externalities that are essential for the efficiency and eff ectiveness of governance in territorial systems, both in the economic and public utility sphere.

The article presents one of contemporary forms of Polish migration to other countries enabling migrants to gain new skills and experiences, namely the migration of Polish women taking part in the Au-pair program. The analyzed data were gathered through in-depth interviews with former participants of the Au-pair program in germany – one of the main destinations of this kind of migration from Poland.

One of the most important business areas of the company is the management of working capital. Energy companies that produce electricity and heat are the main consumers of steam coal, so their decision concerning stock levels is a major determinant of supply schedules. These decisions depend on legal and technical requirements as well as economic aspects. The seasonality of coal consumption jointly with pre-purchase costs and storage costs has a straight impact on delivery scheduling in a parabolic way. There is a divergence in expectations regarding delivery schedules among the coal market participants (energy, mining, transport companies). The purpose of this article is to present the concept of pricing of steam coal and transport service on the Polish market, assuming the use of price incentives, resulting in delivery scheduling during the year. The article presents selected theoretical content in the field of coal logistics and working capital management in the company, the expectations of the steam coal market participant regarding delivery schedules have been identified. The proposed concept of pricing steam coal and transport service should be discussed further in scientific and expert work.

The selection of appropriate financial sources by enterprises is one of the key tasks faced by the management board. In the presented article, the Authors decided to verify the capital structure of companies from selected European economies and to compare this capital structure between developed and advanced developing markets. The research was conducted on 18 European economies, taking into consideration data for 2017 and five variables defining the structure of financing. The results of the analysis show that the economies in the basket of developed countries are characterised by a higher level of indebtedness, with the major difference in taking on interest-bearing liabilities.

The main thesis of this paper is the assertion that, in contrast to the prevailing opinion about the decline or deep crisis of the intelligentsia, it is precisely this social group—and especially its elite—that is the dominant actor in social life. This thesis emerges from an analysis of the role of the intelligentsia, using ‘longue durée’ categories and also the broader international perspective of ‘world system theory’, in which Poland is assigned to the (semi)-periphery. Elements of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory, particularly the idea of cultural capital and the field of power, are an important theoretical poin in the author’s argument. In this view, the structurally privileged position of the intelligentsia in Poland is understood as an aspect of the specific configuration of the Polish field of power, in which—at least since the end of the First World War—cultural capital turns out to be the strongest and most stable dimension in the creation and reproduction of elite social positions.

The article contains considerations on the historical evolution of globalization in the context of the rivalry between two basic concepts of economic system: pro-state option and pro-market option. The author assumes that globalization is a permanent feature of human aspirations. In the beginning of modern era it was interlocked with the alternating dominance of pro-market and pro-state tendencies, and it continues to appear in the same form until present times. The liberal economic thought has expressed these opposition in the state versus market formula. Over the last five centuries there have been five stages of alternating dominance of pro-market and pro-state forces, connected with globalization. First was the mercantilism with the significant role of state, and its antithesis was the XIX-century free-competition capitalism. Two last stages – the neo-liberalism dating from 1980 to 2008 and its antithesis from 2009 to 2019 – have been presented in detail. The previous stages are shown only as historical background. The analysis is preceded by the outline of a theoretical model of globalization connected with the alternating dominance of pro-state and pro-market tendencies, which can be seen as value added to the legacy of economic thought devoted to the relationship between market and state.

This article focuses on the question of the relation between the subject of The Modern World-System by Immanuel Wallerstein and the theoretical object of worldsystem analysis as a multidisciplinary approach that he proposed for history and the social sciences. The importance of this approach as well as its theoretical deficiencies are shown by examining two unanswered critiques of the first volume of The Modern World-System — one coming from Robert Brenner and the second from Fernand Braudel.

Academic culture is a set of rules (norms and values) regulating the institution of the university. The central component of academic culture is autonomy both in the sense of independence from external interference and the capacity to decide on research, teaching and organization of the university. Autonomy is endangered by the interference in academic culture of other cultural complexes characteristic for modern society: corporate culture, business culture, bureaucratic culture, financial culture, consumer culture. The resulting cultural clash is the reason for current crisis of the university. The defense of autonomy is the ethical and professional duty of scholars.

For development of the knowledge-based economy, potential and quality of university education are an important factors to increase a competitiveness of local, regional, national and international scales. To shape the modern economy, the development of university education and studies corresponding with contemporary socio-economic challenges play an important role. As a result, the formation of scientific and academic centres, which are the basic elements of knowledge-based of economy, determines the improvement of the human resources quality and the increase in innovativeness of spatial systems on various scales. The author has discussed the issue of changes in university education in Poland and its role in socio-economic activation of regional systems, and also defined the structure of major studies in regional (voivodship) systems. This paper research has initiated wider investigations which aim will be to answer to what extent the actual university education structure corresponds to contemporary and future socio-economic needs and competences. this level of education in Poland has to face with the growing globalization processes and increasing spatial competitiveness, not only in a regional scale, but also in the national and international ones, and actual reforms of Polish education and science system.

Financial management in a capital group is very important for its growth and operation. Liquidity risk management can be analyzed regarding their static and dynamic dimensions. The process can also be facilitated by cash management products offered by financial institutions. One of the mechanisms influencing the increase in cash management efficiency of a capital group examined in this article is cash pooling, notably multicurrency cash pooling. This type of product is based frequently on the virtual consolidation. Its essence is the consolidation of cash available on the accounts of individual system participants. Using this solution the capital group can manage surpluses and shortages achieving the “economies of scale” (cost reduction and maximization of interest income). Available one the banking services market solutions offer consolidation in USD, EUR, CHF, GBP. The article presents the definition of cash pooling and the essence of its operation. Based on the literature analysis, the article lists types of cash pooling and benefits associated with it. Following on from the solution described, the article presents a model of multicurrency cash pooling in a capital group, including steps necessary to implement it and proposed technical solutions. The solution is described, can be also successfully applied in capital groups of energy sector. Using multicurrency consolidation is very useful solution in deposits management for transactions concluded in international commodities exchanges.

The article considers the issues of the value of invested capital, methods of its measurement and its growth mechanisms. The author draws attention to relationship between the value of capital and the paradigm of economics, which ultimately indicates the existence of connections between the effectiveness of investment and the philosophy of economics. The main purpose of the article is to identify abnormalities in the valuation of assets by investors due to their incorrect or incomplete understanding of the value growth mechanism, the effects of which may assume significance on a macroeconomic scale.

Housing resources as an element of material infrastructure determine socio-economic development on a local, regional and national scale. Their economic and physical accessibility affects the development of human, social and relational capital, determines the competitiveness of the territory and can be seen as a generator of income both in the individual sense and in relation to the whole society. The article has a theoretical character and its aim is to identify the relationship between satisfying the housing needs of local communities and the development of territorial capital. The article also analyzes factors that allow the qualification of housing resources as a strategic resource for the development of a territory.

In this article I will try to describe the lesson learnt by the corporations from the grass root movements in the cities. In the proposed analysis I will refer to the conception of recuperation and a soul of capitalism – by Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello. Besides it I will refer to the works of these authors who analyse the beginnings and the activism of the city grass-root movements in a context of critique of capitalism and neoliberal system.

In studying contemporary transformations of social relations and family life, researchers and social theorists have been focused on the increased diversity of forms of bonding, coupling and other interpersonal connections. When single people are discussed, either it is to emphasize the disintegration of their ties and the crisis of the family, or their single life is considered as an identity choice. The aim of this text is to look at the experience of singleness not by choice among contemporary corporate employees in Poland and to try to set this experience against the background of a broader social reality, especially the reality of professional work. The text also examines the relationship between relational forms (including being single) and the social system in late capitalism. The experiences of people who are not single by choice are discussed and contrasting variants for people whose single situation is associated with low interpersonal skills and for those with an interactional proficiency are distinguished. In the conclusion, the authors are looking for patterns of connection between being unwillingly single and operating on the late capitalist labour market.

The corporate cost of capital is used by valuators to discount future flows of income from an entity in order to derive a present-day, forward-looking value of that entity. The cost of capital is therefore determined as the weighted cost of the various sources of funding, being typically equity, debt and preference instruments. The tricky and important part is estimating the cost of equity, which usually needs the application of finance models. The study on the texts on mineral valuation or mineral project evaluation demonstrates that the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is a general model for estimating the cost of equity. However, according to shortfalls and problems relating to it a relatively similar and simpler model i.e. the single-index market model is proposed. The single index market model is an important tool in contemporary research in finance. Much of the importance of the model follows from its 'beta' parameter which, ideally, measures the sensitivity of returns on a security to changes in a market model. To estimate the cost of equity of the mining and cement companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) The single-index market model is selected because of the shortfalls and problems of the CAPM as well as the lack of commercial services for determining the market premium. The regression analysis as well as the statistical analysis is carried out using Excel spreadsheet. The statistic significance of the model is tested using t and F test statistics. The results showed that the independent variable (the rate of return on the market index) has a genuine effect on the dependent variable (the rate of return for the stock) and there is a statistically significant linear relationship between the two variables at significance level of 5%. Finally, the cost of equity formining and cement companies is estimated 25.0% and 31.0% respectively. Knowing the cost of equity, calculating the discount rate will not be very difficult.

Based on a study of Polish migrants living in England and Scotland, this paper explores how Polish families who have decided to bring up their children in the UK make initial school choices. The Polish parents taking part in our study generally had low levels of social and cultural capital (Bourdieu 1986) upon arrival in the UK: they had limited networks (predominantly bonding capital) (Putnam 2000) and a poor command of English, and lacked basic knowledge of the British education system. Meanwhile, this is a highly complex system, very much different from the Polish one; moreover, school choice plays a much more important role within the UK system, especially at the level of secondary education. We found that while some parents acted as ‘disconnected choosers’ (Gewirtz, Ball and Bowe 1995) follow-ing the strategy they would use in Poland and simply enrolling their children in the nearest available school, others attempted to make an informed choice. In looking for schools, parents first and foremost turned to co-ethnic networks for advice and support; nevertheless, parents who attempted to make an informed choice typically lacked ‘insider knowledge’ and often held misconceptions about the British education system. The one feature of the system Polish parents were very much aware of, however, was the existence of Catholic schools; therefore, religious beliefs played a key role in school choice among Polish parents (with some seeking and others avoiding Catholic schools). The ‘active choosers’ also made choices based on first impressions and personal beliefs about what was best for their child (e.g. in terms of ethnic composition of the school) or allowed their children to make the choice. Parents of disabled children were most restricted in exercising school choice, as only certain schools cater for complex needs. All in all, the Polish parents in our sample faced similar barriers to BME (Black Minor-ity Ethnic) parents in exercising school choice in the UK and, regardless of their own levels of education, their school selection strategies resembled those of the British working class rather than of the middle class. However, the risk of ‘bad’ initial school choice may be largely offset by a generally strong pref-erence for Catholic schools and parents’ high educational ambitions for their children.