“We Are the Poles from Former Yugoslavia.” Transformation Processes Shifted in Time—The Biographical Perspective

Abstract

<jats:p>This paper is based on the first analysis of the 25 narrative interviews collected from March to November 2018 in small local communities in the Lower Silesia Region. All narrators belong to the families that were transferred from the former Yugoslavia in 1946 to the western lands which were incorporated to Poland. The socio-cultural conditions are significant for local development, so I present some features of localism after 1989 when the state transformation processes started. Next, I discuss the narrators’ self-identity dilemmas and make an attempt to conceptualize “migrating biography” as one of the features of living in a postmodern world.&#x0D; The aim of the whole project, but not described in this article, is to reveal the intergenerational adult learning processes seen from the insider’s perspective, as well as to describe such lives in a psychosocial and cultural context.</jats:p>

Remaking Communities and Adult Learning

“…In 2007, post-Yugoslavian families started to become more vocal in the public space, taking as their point of reference the 19th-century migration of their families from Galicia -part of partitioned Poland under Austrian rule -to Bosnia, and their subsequent (1946) re-settlement into the Western Territories of Poland (Drljača´, 1997;Lis, 2016;Ligus, 2019Ligus, , 2020Strauchold, 2016;Strauchold & Nowosielska-Sobel, 2007). In the descendants' narratives both of these pivotal moments are presented as a repeated exodus, experienced by the same members of their families twice over a period of fifty years, which prompts the descendants to start biographical inquiries into their own ambiguous identity (Ligus, 2019) and efforts to regain lost community knowledge (Ligus, 2020).…”

"We are the human beings with two hearts. The first one lives in Bosnia, and the second is beating in Poland". Intergenerational conceptualizations of identity in the Lower Silesian family – biographical perspective

“…Podaje się, że ok. 15 tysięcy osób wyjechało z Galicji, Wołynia i Bukowiny i ok. 18 tysięcy osób powróciło po zakończeniu II wojny światowej na tereny administracji polskiej (Lis, 2016, s. 40). W ramach niniejszego artykułu nie sposób wskazać wszystkich zawiłych wątków sytuacji społecznej reemigrantów przybywających z byłej Jugosławii, które opisane są szeroko w literaturze przedmiotu, dynamicznie przybywającej od ok. dziesięciu lat (Drljača, 1997;Ligus, 2019;Lis, 2016;Strauchold, 2016;Strauchold, Nowosielska-Sobel, 2007).…”

Retrieving Lost Knowledge: Researcher, “Native Researchers” and Shifts in Participatory Action Research

“…This study was inspired by identity choices of the region's inhabitants, who in 2018 called themselves "We, Poles from Yugoslavia", even though many of them have never set foot in Yugoslavia, a country that disappeared from the world maps in 1995. Since 2007, the group started efforts to become present in the public space, setting as their point of reference the 19th-century migration of their families from Galicia, the Austrian-part of partitioned Poland, to Bosnia, and their subsequent re-settlement into the western territories of Poland in 1946 (Drljača, 1997;Strauchold & Nowosielska-Sobel, 2007;Strauchold, 2016;Lis, 2016;Ligus, 2019). In the descendants' narratives both these turning points are presented as a double exodus experienced by the same members of their families twice over 50 years, which prompts the descendants to start biographical inquiries into their own, ambiguous identity (Ligus, 2019).…”

“…I see Clifford's description as very relevant in my research projects. Whenever I go to the field, i.e., among the local communities, local and emic knowledge of the "natives" clearly positions them as "those who know", while I, i.e., a researcher-outsider, am only a passing, fleeting presence, a guest (Ligus, 2009(Ligus, , 2013a(Ligus, , 2013b(Ligus, , 2019). An attempt to create knowledge through grass-root social practices, a practical kind of knowledge, one that is both applicable and theoretically grounded, while also being universal, was made by Tax (2010), who separated those who created knowledge from those who merely managed it (Foley, 2010).…”

“…On the occasion, I also asked for feedback on the analytical categories I proposed to apply in the analysis. The participants made interpretative and theorizing comments, which I will describe in detail in a separate publication.6 The term 're-emigrants' is one of the identity-related dilemmas the narrators mention in their stories (see: Ligus, 2019).7 I refer to A. Strauss' concept of "biographical work" but, in this article, I follow F. Schütze's (2012a) explanation, i.e., that it is a hard task performed by a person/group, covering a few dimensions: work to understand positive attitudes stemming from the uniqueness of self-identity under permanent construction; work to discover the strongest self-potentials through recalling own lifehistory; work to discover past "dead ends" and false understanding of self; discovering any other possible modes to act, if present; work to achieve more in-depth understanding of the developing self-identity and determine ways to asses such options; work to become self-directed and supportive for oneself, in a way that the unique identity deserves(Schütze, 2012a, pp. 148-150).…”