Workers’ Culture – an Unfinished Project: From Scepticism to Historical Cultural StudiesThe research on workers’ culture carried out in Poland from the 1960s to the late 1980s has been recognised in this article as a failure. The author discusses the numerous attempts to conceptualise research programmes and their actual implementation in the fields of sociology, anthropology and the emerging cultural studies. She looks for the sources of their failure, reflecting on its nature and possible causes. She asks whether the failure of the research on workers’ culture was not due to the scepticism of the researchers themselves, who might have overlooked important attempts at demonstrating self-awareness and pro-active attitude on the part of the workers, treating them as politically manipulated and therefore inauthentic. She raises the question about both ideological and methodological reasons behind this stance, the latter having to do with a clash between quantitative research and humanistic orientation. She calls for “preposterous” research (as proposed by Mieke Bal) to be undertaken, which would give a different interpretation of the workers’ various cultural initiatives from today’s perspective. Perhaps this would inspire the creation of a counter-history of workers’ culture.Kultura robotnicza – niedokończony projekt: od sceptycyzmu do kulturoznawstwa historycznegoBadania kultury robotniczej w Polsce od lat sześćdziesiątych do późnych osiemdziesiątych XX wieku diagnozowane są w tym artykule jako porażka. Autorka przypomina liczne próby konceptualizacji programów badawczych i konkretne ich realizacje w obszarze socjologii, antropologii i rodzącego się wówczas kulturoznawstwa. Szuka źródeł tej porażki, zastanawia się, na czym ona polegała i co mogło być jej przyczyną. Stawia pytanie: czy niepowodzenia badań nad kulturą robotniczą nie wynikały ze sceptycyzmu samych badaczy, którzy mogli przeoczyć ważne próby manifestacji samoświadomości i aktywnego uczestnictwa robotników, traktując je jako sterowane politycznie, a więc nieautentyczne. Pyta o przyczyny zarówno ideologiczne, jak i metodologiczne – ścieranie się badań ilościowych z orientacją humanistyczną. Proponuje, aby z dystansu czasowego podjąć badania preposteryjne, pozwalające dziś inaczej odczytywać różne robotnicze inicjatywy kulturalne. Być może byłoby to inspirujące dla budowania przeciw-historii kultury robotniczej.

Participation or Emancipation? Instead of an IntroductionThis article provides arguments why the category of participation should be reconsidered today. The conceptualisation of participation in culture in the area of different cultural turns has led to the development of various strategies for activating a culture participant. The consequences of transforming the assumed passive attitude into active might be regarded, after Markus Miessen, as the nightmare of participation. I consider whether Jacques Rancière’s proposal of “the emancipated spectator” shall be treated as an attempt to get out of this nightmare.

Abstract:It is diffi cult to list all exceptional women who lived in Żoliborz neighbourhood between World Wars. For the above reason, I will not be bold enough to write a collective biography. However, it is worth underlining, that both women and the neighbourhood equally benefi ted from such coexistence. Despite a left wing and social character of Warsaw Housing Association, its space and climate is obviously a masculine projection, however, it is legitimate to hypothesise, that it resulted in the preparation of favourable conditions for the development of urban, public and domestic activity of women living in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, the committed architecture "tailored for human", concern for conditions for women's self-development, the shape of the neighbourhood "tailored for children" and formation of new urban lifestyles, were all the contribution of women, whom I called the designers of life in Żoliborz. I do not refer here to a literary meaning of designers, as a term which brings associations towards architecture or design. Żoliborz in this respect, should be perceived in a larger scale as a social experiment, an educational and emancipative project, meant for, developed and fl exibly introduced to workers, women and children. These three groups were the subject of experiments conducted by the creators of a social neighbourhood in order to test a new, urban culture, based on "a culture of coexistence", and also new styles of living. If the neighbourhood of Żoliborz is perceived as an educational and emancipative project, then we should raise two important aspects: education and projectivity. Therefore, while writing about the women of Żoliborz, who actively co-created new lifestyles and fought for their rights to the city, I will refer to them as designers. I also asked about educational dimension of the neighbourhood in order to draw attention to the question stated by Jacques Rancière, about participation or emancipation. In this context it is necessary to analyse the role of women. Were they indeed the designers of the reality of Żoliborz or were they only a subject of masculine educational strategies? The question is legitimate, because, as pinpointed by Marta Leśniakowska, emancipative postulates of male founders of Warsaw Housing Association were merely a facade, which veiled a constant male domination. Keywords: modernism, emancipation, women, participation, architecture 1 Tekst opiera się częściowo na prowadzonych przeze mnie badaniach nad historią Warszawskiej Spółdzielni Mieszkaniowej w perspektywie studiów miejskich. Na ich podstawie przygotowuję książkę o roboczym tytule Miasto w działaniu. Warszawska Spółdzielnia Mieszkaniowa -dobro wspólne w nowoczesnych czasach.

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