Redeveloping history in postsocialist Poland

Abstract

This article analyzes the reorganization of public memory space in postsocialist Poland and how the state and municipal councils use it to legitimate themselves. Drawing on research conducted in Gdańsk, the birthplace of the social movement (Solidarność) that questioned the legitimacy of the socialist state in the 1980s, it examines the proposed redevelopment of the shipyard where the movement was formed. While the redevelopment sets out to create a public memory space, it is rife with contradictions, for it involves demolishing many buildings associated with the movement. What legitimated the municipal council’s authority over its memorial landscapes was not so much its rediscovery of complex local histories as it was its ability to define the local past in “material” terms.

Double devaluations: Class, value and the rise of the right in the Global North

“…What can be concluded above all is that Western capitalist governance has learnt from its failures in dealing with the financial crisis, as shown by recent IMF and OECD recommendations. 4 For example (without a claim to completeness, excuses to those omitted): Buzalka, 2008Buzalka, , 2018Buzalka, , 2020Cammeli, 2017;Keskula, 2015;Koch, 2016Koch, , 2017Makovicky, 2013;Pasieka, 2016Pasieka, , 2017Shoshan, 2016;Stacul, 2014Stacul, , 2018Szombati, 2018a;Teitelbaum, 2017;Thorleifsson, 2017Thorleifsson, , 2019. See also Bangstad et al, 2019. As in all similar work in other disciplines, there is an alternating and overlapping use of terms and focus from 'far Right' to 'populism' to 'illiberalism' to 'neo-nationalism'.…”

The neo‐nationalist ascendency: further thoughts on class, value and the return of the repressed

“…For example (without a claim to completeness, excuses to those left out):Buzalka (2008Buzalka ( , 2018Buzalka ( , 2020;Cammeli (2017);Keskula (2015);Koch (2016Koch ( , 2017;Makovicky (2013);Pasieka (2016Pasieka ( , 2017;Scheiring (2020);Stacul (2014Stacul ( , 2018;Shoshan (2016);Szombati (2018);Teitelbaum (2017);Thorleifsson (2017Thorleifsson ( , 2019. See also: Bangstad et al (2019).…”