Narrative Agency and Structural Chaos. A Biographical-Narrative Case Study

The article is an analysis of a single case—a biographical narrative of a Tri-City resident who enters adulthood at the beginning of political transformation in 1989, and whose life path turns out to be an unintentional, dynamic journey between various professions, social worlds and structural positions. This creates a complicated and ambiguous biographical pattern which does not fall into either the socio-economic promotion of the “winner” or into the degradation of the transformation “loser.” The reconstruction of this pattern reveals the hero’s great resourcefulness and entrepreneurship, but also the fragility of the structures stabilizing his life and the volatility of life orientation points. The binder of this biography turns out to be, above all, reflexivity and, what I suggest calling, the narrative agency of the narrator, who can transform his structurally dispersed and chaotic life experiences of the time of transformation into a very original story, making him a strong subject of his own fate. This, however, creates the inevitable tension between the experienced or lived life, life history and the narrated life, life story, prompting us to again pose the question about the commonly assumed, although differently defined, correspondence between the level of reality and the level of its linguistic (in this case—autobiographical) representation

Introduction: what sort of past does our future need?

In this short introduction we set out the aims of the volume, which represents the fruits of two seminars held in the autumn of 2020. The chapters respond to one big thematic issue: how to research and understand historical societal resilience; and one big question: what sort of past does the future need? They attempt to address these through three linked themes: can history be made more relevant to modern policy in respect of environmental and climate challenges? To what extent do our various sources indicate awareness and management of risk and/or the implementation of mitigating strategies in the past? And how can we identify ‘resilience’ in the social praxis of historical agents

Between Life Story and Life History. Contextualizing Biographical Narrative Interviews With Questionnaire Data

Within sociology, there are many different research styles, and a multiplicity of methods. Opinions are divided on feasibility, sensibility, and the appropriate ways of combining them, especially at the level of data rather than conclusions. As for contemporary biographical methods, some of exponents (e.g., ROSENTHAL, 1995) have postulated that an interviewee's life story should be compared to the actual course of the life in question (i.e., the life history). Researchers, however, rarely have access to data beyond narratives. In this article, we look to outline intra-sociological splits in order to provide background and context for two biographical narrative interviews which have been conducted with long-standing respondents to the Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN). These interviews, in turn, will be juxtaposed with the data derived from survey interviews, a valuable source of additional information about the interviewees, at least in some areas. Finally, we reflect on the potential benefits of such comparisons not only for proponents of the biographical methods but also for survey researchers. We draw on some of our methodological and theoretical considerations previously published in Polish

Reanimacje i rewitalizacje : relacje ustne jako czynnik innowacji w badaniach historycznych : głosy w dyskusji

Tekst jest zapisem głównych tez wystąpień wygłoszonych podczas debaty, która odbyła się na Wydziale Humanistycznym Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu 14 listopada 2019 roku. W moderowanej przez Marcina Stasiaka dyskusji udział wzięli: Piotr Filipkowski, Marta Kurkowska-Budzan oraz Tomasz Rakowski. Punktem wyjścia dla rozmowy były teksty panelistów dotyczące kondycji historii mówionej i jej roli w badaniach dziejów najnowszych w Polsce. Kluczowym elementem rozważań stał się potencjał relacji ustnych w proponowaniu obrazów przeszłości odmiennych od utrwalonych w narracjach profesjonalnych historyków akademickich.The paper is a summary of speeches delivered during the debate held on the Faculty of Humanities at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń on 14th November 2019. The discussion was anchored in panelists’ recent texts concerning state of art in Polish oral history and its significance in contemporary history academic research. The key problem discussed was ability of oral history to create innovative, fresh images of the past – especially in the field of professional, academic historiography

What is the purpose of archivization of qualitative data and how others do it?

This article aims at providing base for discussion on building of Polish Archive of QUALITATIVE Data. In first part, I present basic arguments for archivization and secondary analyses of qualitative data when collected. This is illustrated by Paul Thompson’s case who is a predecessor of oral history, and researcher in social history, family, and a founder of exemplary archive of qualitative data in Great Britain. Then, I present in detailed way two prominent European archives: British one called QUALIDATA and Deutches Gedachtnis in Germany. Both them may be regarded as model cases in approaching to creation of the Polish archive. In the last section I present a catalogue of the most important European institutions dealing with archivization of qualitative data, including among them not only those with formal status of national archives but also some minor enterprises. Finally, I refer to rich Polish traditions in qualitative research and first initiatives of archivization, non-academic until now

Technologie Społeczeństwa Informacyjnego

W dobie społeczeństwa informacyjnego i gospodarki opartej na wiedzy, w której wszystkie działania społecznie użyteczne stoją pod znakiem ”e-”, „i-” lub ”@” na czoło zagadnień wysuwają się adekwatne technologie definiowane przez autora jako Technologie Społeczeństwa Informacyjnego. Jak wiadomo, kierunki rozwoju współcześnie rozumianej informatyki coraz mocniej wiążą się z podejściem systemowym do rozwiązywania problemów definiowanych holistycznie, z uwypukleniem aspektów ich użyteczności. Pociąga to za sobą konieczność tworzenia rozwiązań, które w istocie są decyzjami o charakterze negocjacyjnym, a podejmowanymi w systemach o niepełnej informacji z rozmyciami oraz kontekstami społecznymi i psychologicznymi ze względu na wagę czynnika ludzkiego (human-centric approach). Autor na modelu objaśnia, czym są Technologie Społeczeństwa Informacyjnego.In the era of information society and knowledge-based economy, in which all social activities stand under „e-”, „i-” or „@” in the front of problems appear adequate technologies defined by the author as Information Society Technologies. As it is well known, the directions of the development of modern science are more and more related with systemic approach to solving problems defined holistically, with emphasis on aspects of their utility. This involves need to create solutions that are in fact decisions of a negotiation, and undertaken in systems with incomplete and fuzzy information and social and psychological contexts because of the importance of the human factor (human-centric approach). The author presents model which explains what Information Society Technologies are