It Was our Live." The Division of the Dobrzeń Wielki Commune in Narratives of Its InhabitantsIn this paper I analyze the dynamics of narratives related to a planned takeover of a couple of villages of the Dobrzeń Wielki commune together with the Opole Power Station by the city of Opole (PL). In this context I focus on politics and ethics of emotions, feelings and aff ects which marked the discursive space and brought varied types of aff ective togetherness in the fi eld of "political. " Because discursive practices of commune's inhabitants were shaped by anticipations of uncertain future, they evoked the "ethics of probability" and the "ethics of possibility. " While the former embodied fears connected to the planned division, the latter expressed hope for "good life. " Th ey both inspired various forms of social protest. However, because concepts of "good life" usually relate to discernable ends and strategies, changing circumstances result in diff erent politics and ethics of emotions, feelings and aff ects. Consequently, when the anticipated takeover became the daily present, the discourses of "authorities" and of "ordinary people" started to diverge. Th is, in turn, brought reconfi gurations of aff ective togetherness, shift ed poles of the fi eld of "political, " and redefi ned the local scene of "politics. " Th e leaders who stuck on ideas defi ning the pre-partition period lost the latest municipal election to a faction who did not dwell on the past, but promised to work collectively for the better future.
Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Wrocław, Poland, the paper analyzes grassroots workings of European sexual citizenship. Against this backdrop, it attempts to problematize a concept of Europeanization as vertical and horizontal diffusion which spreads specific ideas, practices, and institutions among actual and prospective EU Member States. Whereas (neo)liberal LGBT rights, seen as a symbol of Europeanness, have definitely inspired struggles for sexual freedom in Poland, abstract notions of Europe and Europeanization do not form an important point of reference, at least at a local level. Moreover, premises of European sexual citizenship are in many ways contested by non-heteronormative persons unwilling (or unable) to use this frame for the conceptualization of their own experiences. On the other hand, because the EU and neoliberalism constitute significant antagonists of Polish right-wing nationalism, this allows for a certain resignification of interrelated phenomena criticized elsewhere as ‘homonormative’ and ‘homonationalist.’ While these phenomena undoubtedly trigger specific inclusions and exclusions, they also have the potential to contribute to critical citizenship. Consequently, instead of grasping Europeanization in a teleological way, the paper argues for taking it as an image that may fuel social change, variously conceived of.
Résumé En Pologne, si la nécessité de construire la société civile est une question fréquemment évoquée dans le discours public depuis 1989, aux yeux de beaucoup sa structuration reste insatisfaisante. Le débat relatif au mouvement gay et lesbien suscite la même réaction. Les matériaux recueillis par l’auteure au cours de ses enquêtes parmi les groupes de gender et de queer studies d’une université polonaise montrent toutefois que, même invisibles, le genre et la sexualité sont importants dans la Pologne d’aujourd’hui. Mais, pour donner une visibilité à l’invisible, la société civile ne doit pas être assimilée aux seules organisations non gouvernementales qui jouent un rôle de médiateur entre les citoyens et l’État. Le genre et la sexualité ne peuvent pas être considérés comme des catégories identitaires fondant l’activisme politique. Pour construire la cohésion sociale, les liens informels entre les individus, interpersonnels, comptent tout autant. Si la diversité des opinions sur l’identité et l’efficacité des stratégies politiques engendre des conflits, elle n’exclut pas la possibilité d’actions communes en faveur des droits des minorités sexuelles.
New Idioms of Opole Silesia? Social Activities of Women as Problematisations By the use of critical anthropological perspective, in this paper I unsettle specific theoretical and methodological premises of studies on Opole Silesia, which have in many ways determined resultant images of the region in scholarly literature. In this context, I find particularly problematic essentialised approaches toward “(Silesian) women,” and the more recent discourses of “disintegration,” which dwell on depopulation, migration, and collapsing social and family relations, or Silesian culture. To this end, I discuss social activities of women in the Dobrzeń Wielki commune, exemplified by an educational group focused on family issues, an association acting for a local community, a vocal ensemble, and a sporting team. Variously embedded in the late industrial condition, these activities are conceived as problematisations. Seen through this prism, they become significant contexts for emerging “norms and forms” of gender, Silesianity, and/or locality. At the same time, they encourage critical insights into such “norms and forms,” and their contribution to various idioms of Opole Silesia. Such problematisations allow therefore for revealing “discursive gaps” and “risks” (re)produced in the aforementioned literature on the region. By unsettling subjects and discursive forms with which it deals, the proposed ethnographic analysis turns into a tool for “generating surprises.”
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