Telling the Great Change. The Process of the Systemic Transformation in Poland in Biographical Perspective
Telling the Great Change. The Process of the Systemic Transformation in Poland in Biographical Perspective

Author(s): Kaja Kaźmierska, Katarzyna Waniek
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences, Culture and social structure
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: systemic transfromation in Poland; biographical analysis; narratives; social processes; individual experiences
Summary/Abstract: The book is pioneering in Poland, but also in Central Europe. It shows the mechanisms of adaptation to the systemic transformation in Poland after 1989, based on the analysis of narratives of people born in 1960, 1970 and 1980 who are representatives of diverse social milieus and have different professional and life experiences. The reader will find here a model application of the biographical research methodology developed by Fritz Schütze for a series of case studies, which makes this publication the most extensive work using the indicated method for research on transformation. The authors of the individual chapters, emphasizing the individual agency of the subjects, avoid the pitfalls of neoliberal discourse shifting responsibility for their fates onto individuals. Apart from the analysis of autonomous ways of agency, they show various potentials of losing control over one’s life, biographical trajectories, as well as biographical resources, mainly of a family nature, which serve to deal more effectively with the consequences of systemic transformation. The book has received funding from the National Science Center, Poland under grant agreement No. UMO-2013/09/B/HS6/03100 “Experience of the Process of the Transformation in Poland.A Sociological Comparative Analysis Based on Biographical Perspective”The book presents results of the research project titled: Experience of the Process of the Transformation in Poland. A Sociological Comparative Analysis Based on Biographical Perspective funded by the National Science Center in Poland (No. UMO-2013/09/B/HS6/03100). The project was conducted in the Department of Sociology of Culture (University of Łódź) in 2014–2019. The research team included: Kaja Kaźmierska (principal investigator), Katarzyna Waniek, Jacek Burski, Joanna Wygnańska (from the University of Łódź), Piotr Filipkowski (IFiS PAN) and Maciej Melon.

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