Sociography or Rural Sociology?

The author raises the question of the beginnings of Polish rural sociology, the legitimacy of binding its genesis only with the year 1918 and the restitution of independence. In the first part of the article he critically analyzes a quite commonly dominant view, according to which numerous dissertations on the social life of a village appearing 100 or even 200 years earlier cannot be considered sociological (at most sociographic). He puts forward the thesis that in a situation where contemporary rural sociology is grappling with a crisis of identity, and losing the institutional back-up, it is desirable to discuss this controversial issue again. In its second part - performing exegesis of selected studies on the Polish countryside and Polish agriculture from the 18th and 19th centuries - tries to prove that it is difficult to deny them the sociological status, as the knowledge they contained was: methodically acquired (means using research methods and techniques); expressed in a language containing defined terms, referring to theoretical systems; and enabled to answer different types (descriptive, explanatory, prognostic and practical) research questions