ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of the book. The context of peripheral location of Central and Eastern Europe is crucial from the point of view of the application of so-called critical theory in countries of the region. In the classical Western context, the configuration of the function of critical thought is based on several assumptions, which may appear as problematic in a peripheral context. The implications of the application of critical theory to an analysis of Central and Eastern Europe seem to depend, to a large extent, on the way we define the focus of our inquiry and its context. Looking at a single peripheral country like Poland, without taking into account its dependencies, could suggest that the main dimension of social stratification has a cultural nature and the dominant strata is the broadly defined intelligentsia.
