ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITIES IN THE VILLAGE AS A NEW INTELLIGENTSIA OF THE POLISH VILLAGE [Dedinske alternativne komunity ako nova inteligencia polskej dediny]

The article focuses on the social activities of the so-called 'new-settlers societies' ('nowoosadnicy') in contemporary Poland. They are the societies of the persons coming from the big cities, who are well-educated artists or scientists. They decided to live in the countryside because of their ecological ethos. They build the neighbourhood communities and they cooperate together in many spheres such as organising the educational projects addressed to the peasants. The topics of these projects mostly deal with the ecology or culture. The article reviews the projects developed by the 'new-settlers' associations and juxtaposes them to the peasants' cultural preferences, which sometimes differ from these projects. The authoress poses the question about the adequacy of cultural activities of such environmental societies in contemporary Polish countryside.