Transformacja ekonomiczna a tożsamość kulturowa : stare regiony przemysłowe Europy w procesie zmian - przypadek badań Górnego Śląska w projekcie SPHERE

Abstract

The Silesian Voivodship is a typical area of cultural borderland where different patternsof ethnic and industrial culture blend into a specific new quality. The economic transformationsof the early nineties (20th century) undermined the foundations on which the traditional regionalsymbolic order was laid. The pauperization of mining settlements is a particularly important factoraffecting the process of the contemporary regional identity. Our paper is based on partial researchoutcomes from the project “Space, Place and the Historical and contemporary articulationsof regional, national and European identities through work and community in areas undergoingeconomic REstructuring and regeneration” (SPHERE). Briefly, the project seeks to examine therole of different discursive narratives in shaping ideas and experiences of identity, region and place.Discursive and material ‘effects’ of re‑shapingcommunities through an economic change seek toexamine how the past and present hold possibilities for the future. In the text we also intend to introduceinto epistemological perspective received in SPHERE.