Admitted to the ISA: 1956

Origins
The Polish Sociological Association (PSA) has two predecessors: Polish Sociological Institute and Polish Sociological Society, both founded by Florian Znaniecki in 1927 and 1931 respectively. Their activities were interrupted by the II World War. The Polish Sociological Institute resumed its work in 1945, but in 1951 was liquidated by Stalinist authorities. In 1956, during ‘the October thaw' a group of sociologists led by Stanislaw Ossowski organized a Sociological Section within the Polish Philosophical Association. The Section became a collective member of the ISA (Ossowski was an ISA founding member). In 1957 it was transformed into an independent Polish Sociological Association with Stanislaw Ossowski as its president and Jan Szczepanski as his deputy.

Internal organization
The PSA is the scholarly and professional organization of Polish sociologists. Its objectives, as formulated in its Statutes, are to promote the development of sociology to proliferate sociological knowledge, to shape the professional ethics of the sociologists and to represent the interest of its members in the sphere of their scholarly and professional activity.

The PSA draws its membership mainly from among the sociologists working in the academic and other research institutions, although the membership applications from all sociologists are accepted. The PSA has today over 900 members, i.e. approximately a fourth of total number of sociology graduates in Poland. Since 1994 the PSA accepts membership applications from all social scientists who study Polish society, regardless of their citizenship (about 30 foreign sociologists have already joined the Association). The PSA has 13 regional chapters, in Warsaw (the largest one) and in all other university centers.

The PSA promotes the group activities in any area of interests where there is a sufficiently wide interest among the membership. As interests change, new specialist section (research committees) are formed and others terminate their activities. Current sections are: Rural and Agriculture Sociology, Urban Sociology, Labour Sociology, Sociology of Medicine, Sociotechnics, Sociology of Law, Sociology of Social Deviance and Control, Sociology of Religion, Public Opinion Research, Social Research Methodology, Social Anthropology, Social Work and History of Sociology.
The PSA is run by a President and a Board consisting of 15 members elected for three years by the General Assembly of Delegates which is the Association's highest authority.

Awards
The PSA awards annually Ossowski Prize for the best book written by sociologists of the younger generation. Znaniecki Prize is given annually for the best M.A. thesis in sociology, and Award for Scholarly Criticism is given for the best book review or critical essay. The Association also confers the dignity of honorary foreign member, recently received by James S. Coleman, Melvin Kohn, Stanislaw Andreski, Richard Grathoff.

National Sociological Congress
The most important events in Polish Sociology are national congresses; organized since 1931 they are the main scholarly undertakings of the PSA.

Publications
The PSA publications include the proceedings of its conference (in Polish) and The Polish Sociological Review (formerly "Polish Sociological Bulletin"), edited currently by Joanna Kurczewska. This English language quarterly, founded in 1961, publishes both papers devoted to the Polish sociology as well as general theoretical papers. The PSA also produces a newsletter "Current Information" (in Polish) which keeps the Association members in touch with developments in Polish sociology. It contains a bibliographical supplement, which records the recent sociological publication in Poland.