Abstrakt: | The problem of cultural identity has been presented on the basis o f the
local community o f Sławków, a small town situated in the borderland
between Silesia and the Małopolska Region. Its residents are marked by
a strong feeling of internal and emotional bonds with the liv in g place.
Sławków has never experienced bigger migration movements that is why
it is a demographically stable town. The majority o f the residents constitute
native people, which makes it possible to continue traditions. The
historical past contributed to the development o f a specific atmosphere
and colouring o f this town, both in terms o f its looks, and its socio-educational
structure.
The author aims to define and in v e s tiga te the main factors raising
cultural awareness consisting in the sense o f belonging and local identification
among the small-town community. He intends to have a look at
the phenomenon of localness from the “internal” point o f view, taking into
account, at the same time, the influence the objective phenomena have
on the components o f social awareness. According to the principle o f a
humanistic factor it was claimed that the town is a social fact which should
be analysed the way it manifests its e lf in the awareness of the members
of a given community. In other words, the attempts were made to construct
the image o f a town within the sphere o f common experience and
joint actions o f its residents.
The attention was paid to a characteristic o f the culture transmission
system which functions both in the intra-social relations, prominence being
given to direct and informal interactions as well as its institutional activity.
What was analysed constituted socio-cultural activity o f people l iv ing
in this town, and its conditions, as well as the influence o f mass culture.
It was evident that spacious closeness which characterises the community
from Sławków, a specific type o f interpersonal contacts, and a
clearly outlined internal system o f bonds and distances constitute the
plane on which a specific local culture is being created and transmitted. It creates favourable conditions for the group membership, and roots for
the community.
It was established that the sense of social satisfaction and frustration,
related to the experiences of town residents (in terms of socio-economic
conditions, aesthetics, safety) as well as migration tendencies and the
feeling o f stabilization, influences local identity. Also, the attention was
drawn to the attitudes o f social a ctivity reflected in local enterprises. The
main dimensions o f the cultural identity o f the small-town community
were analysed. The emphasis was put on social experiencing and valorising
the local space. The relationship with an ordered space o f a small town
manifests its e lf in the form o f objective ecological relations, as well as
depicts the sense of emotional attachment. The space as value constitutes
the main integrative element. Residents from Sławków find their place
in space owing to symbols as they are a part o f the identification plane.
They refer to their “own history” , to their important group experiences.
These are the element o f collective memory, and, as a means o f conveying
essential information for the group existence, function as identity symbols.
The local historical tradition functioning in the social awareness was
discussed. What was being investigated constituted people’s deep thoughts
and knowledge on their roots, the history of their own community, even
though it is an anecdote or fiction-based legend. Thus, it is not the history
understood as a follow up o f epochs and events, but the history which
is being lived on, and mitologised in a peculiar way. The local historical
tradition is an essential component o f the subjective awareness o f belonging
to the local community, raising, at the same time, the feeling o f one’s
own special value and old-fashionness among Sławków residents. I t is
nobilitating in character, allowing for contrasting their own town with
surrounding places o f a poorer and less colourful past. What was shown
was a dimension o f “familiarity-alienation” , one o f the most important
cultural categories playing a v ita l role in the process of shaping the cultural
identity. Here, the answer to the following questions was searched:
how do the members of the community under investigation define themselves
in relation to strangers, how are “the others’ perceived, and what
constitutes their “otherness” , which factors (norms, patterns of behaviour,
opinions, evaluations) underlie the process o f shaping the sense of one’s
own separateness. The research revealed a stable function o f negative
stereotypes o f strangers (both in local and regional terms), and a stereotype
o f “natives” being positive in the most. The awareness o f community
and cultural separateness was visible in the nicknames given to the
residents o f neighbouring towns and villages. Also, a strong distinction
between “ the native” and “the foreign” was noticed, related to the a ttitudes
o f sitting Sławków community to the people coming from other regions
o f Poland. |