Strategie życiowe robotników po 1989 roku – praktyczne i etyczne wyzwania archiwizacji kolekcji danych biograficznych
„Life strategies of workers in Poland’s new capitalism” – Practical and Ethical Challenges of Archiving the Collection of Biographical Data

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the experiences of archiving biographical interviews with workers carried out in three historical Silesian regions (Lower Silesia, Opole Silesia, Upper Silesia) in 2001-2004. The dataset discussed was prepared as a part of the “Qualitative Data Archive” project of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy Sciences. It consists of 174 biographical narrative interviews. Documenting workers’ experiences during the transformation period in Poland, the original research engaged with the culturalist tradition within the European working class studies. However, the archived dataset can be reused for the purpose of addressing new research problems. The article tackles two kind of problems related to the preparation of interviews for archiving: (1) ethical problems; (2) technical and methodological problems. It is argued that coping with them makes it necessary to address theoretical, methodological and ethical challenges concerning the relationship of researchers, the researched subjects, the data constructed during research process, their existing and potential interpretations, as well as intended and unintended consequences of making the data public and its reusing in the future.

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