The Vicious Cycle of Metaculture: The Paralysis of the Social Sciences
Studying dynamic social processes is like trying to catch a river with a sieve. Contemporary science has fallen into the vicious cycle of metaculture: a lack of adequate data hampers the development of theory, while anachronistic concepts prevent the recognition of new phenomena. Consequently, the researcher of "living culture"—the sphere of practices that have not yet solidified within institutions—operates with categories that deform the subject of their work. This article analyzes why we must abandon rigid statistical frameworks in favor of a methodology based on participation and dynamics.
Public Statistics and the Fetishization of Data: A Dead Image of Culture
From the perspective of Statistics Poland, culture is reduced to budgets, building counts, and attendance figures. This is a dead image of a living culture, akin to studying fossils instead of living organisms. Such an approach leads to data fetishization—the dogmatic belief that what cannot be counted simply does not exist. Zygmunt Bauman described this phenomenon as the primacy of quantity over quality.
The problem is exacerbated by the colonization of the lifeworld by the system. As Jürgen Habermas noted, bureaucratic logic displaces spontaneous communication, flattening the complexity of human actions. Research institutions, constrained by bounded rationality, opt for the simplest