Social and spatial mobility in biographical and generational experience of the small town’s inhabitants

 

The aim of the project is to identify and analyze social and territorial mobility in biographical and generational experience of a small town residents in the context of the modernization processes during the communist period, during and after1989/1990 systemic transformation as well as after 2004 Poland’s accession to the European Union. Applying research tools and concepts developed in migration studies and the studies of labor market and social mobility, we assume the existence of multiple linkages between socio-cultural phenomena observed locally and in other, often remote, locations. These connections can be observed in the form of the so-called translocal and transnational social spaces.

Applying methodological perspective of case study, we will conduct in-depth biographical research combined with the monographic analysis and ethnographic observation. The study will be carried out in Giżycko (WarmiaMazury Voivodship). Life trajectories of secondary schools graduates, from selected graduation years, from the last five decades will be traced. This will enable us to identify the way in which mobility processes affect the lives of local communities, increasingly intertwining them with linkages with other levels of social life.

The project enriches the tradition of regional and local studies in Poland by opening up to the perspectives that analyze the relationship between locality and migration, changes attributed to the formation of translocal and transnational social space as well as social mobility. It will provide us with the knowledge about the processes of mobility and their impact on small town’s social space in the long historical duration. It will also contribute to the analytical capture of an important dimension of changes in the country which struggles with the legacy of the actually existing socialism on one hand and aspirations to the “Western European” living standards on the other.

 

Duration

2017 - 2020

Source of funding

National Science Centre Poland (OPUS 11)

Publications