Barbara Fatyga (born 1953) is a sociology and cultural studies professor in the Institute of Applied Sciences at the Warsaw University, an author of long-term researches on youth and youth culture in Poland. Her habilitation dissertation Savages From Our Street. Anthropology of Youth Culture (Dzicy z naszej ulicy. Antropologia kultury młodzieżowej) published in 1999 is one of the most important scientific works on youth subculture in Poland, as well as an inspiring example of anthropological research methodology. Archive gathered by Fatyga is an exceptional set of materials, used by her students, doctoral candidates and co-workers in numerous research projects.
Fatyga comes from Wroclaw where in 1974-1977 she started to pursue cultural studies and specialized in culture theory. Her MA thesis focused on the concept of style (supervised by prof. Stanislaw Pietraszko). Later on Fatyga was a doctoral candidate in the Institute of History of Art and Technology Architecture and an assistant in the Sociology of Science Unit in the Institute of Social Sciences at the Wroclaw University of Technology. At the same time she cooperated with other scientific centres in Poland (from Warsaw, Lodz and Krakow).
In 1986 Fatyga moved to Warsaw; decision was related to her marriage. She was forced to look for an new job. She started to work at the Institute for Youth Problems Research – a government research and scientific institute. Initially she dealt with research on the memoirs of young farmers. The change came in 1988, when she was asked (along with her colleague Jadwiga Siemaszko) to prepare some materials to be used during a discussion on youth problems that was a part of Round Table talks. This way Fatyga started to deal with youth sociology which evolved into thorough research on youth culture in Poland in 1988-1989.
In 1989 Fatyga gained a PhD degree with a dissertation on the concepts of lifestyles in Polish sociological studies (under supervision of prof. Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński).
In 1989 it became clear that her work place will be shut down. In 1991 in cooperation with Małgorzata Adamska and Andrzej Andruszkiewicz she managed to establish the Youth Research Centre in the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at Warsaw University. The Centre managed to employ around 30 people. In 1992 Fatyga became a head of this research institution. At the same time, along with prof. Aldona Jawłowska, she organized a specialization path of „Anthropology of modernity – animation of local activities”. Since then, with help of coworkers and students, she conducted an almost 10-year-old study on youth culture. Its outcome was her habilitation book Savages From Our Street. Anthropology of Youth Culture from 1999. In the 2000s she continued to research youth lifestyles, problems and subcultures. In 2001 she received a degree of university professor. Later she managed big research grants and since 2012 she is a chairman of the board of Living Culture Observatory Foundation – Research Network (Fundacja Obserwatorium Kultury Żywej – Sieć Badawcza). She continues to teach at Warsaw University. She cooperates with various universities, ministries, public institutions and NGOs in Poland and abroad. She is a member of the editorial boards and programme boards in magazines: „Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej”, „Societas/Communitas” and „Psychologia Wychowawcza”. She published around 200 scientific articles. Besides lifestyles, sociology of youth, anthropology of youth culture and theory of culture, she is interested in qualitative research methodology, rural sociology and sociology of science.
Prof. Barbara Fatyga is one of the most meritorious researchers of youth culture in the last decade of socialism and the time of transformation. Between 1988-1989 she was in close contact with many youth groups and movements, which contested the system and the course of changes, but she has never personally engaged in political activity.
