Globalizacja a pogranicze : przypadek szczególny Śląska Cieszyńskiego

Abstract

Globalisation under the conditions of the ethnocultural borderland assumes a special form. The article illustrates the problem using Cieszyn Silesia, i.e. the Polish and Czech borderland as an example. In this territory the problem of identity of individuals and so- cial groups, who live on the border of many cultures, in constant contact with the „other”, is particularly evident. An intensive exchange process of cultural elements in the course of constant and direct contacts is also characteristic. In this way a specific transborder atmosphere is created, with various cultural, social and economic contacts over the poli- tical borders of the neighbouring states. Cultural syncretism of the inhabitants of such an area and the ability to freely move in both cultural spaces is one of the features of these transborder relations. A change of attitudes, including the shortening of the ethnic distance between both neighbouring national groups, is the result of the „open border” after the accession of Poland and the Czech Republic to the European Union. These phenomena have been favoured by the continuous local border traffic, which leads to transgressive behaviour, i.e. transgressing many existing ethnic, cultural and social barriers. Against this background the author presents a new function of the Polish-Czech border as an im- portant factor linking rather than dividing people.