Założenia teoretyczne i metodologiczne badań nad tożsamością kulturową mieszkańców starych dzielnic miast Górnego Śląska. Uwagi wprowadzające

Abstract

This article is envisaged as an introduction to the problem matter dealt with in the sketches collected in this volume. The scope o f questions considered comprehended three dimensions recognised by the authors as basic in the cultural identity, i.e. the feeling of separateness and the altitude to outsiders (the dimension „us — them”), a complex of fundamental values, their hierarchic order together with „validating” systems, the dimension of „social memory”. Research was implemented in the classical convention of field monography. The empirical material collected using the method of freely conducted interviews with intentionally selected respondents, was analysed in the frame-work of the overall social-cultural context reconstructed on the basis of the observations of the participating person, searches in official documents, field searches and talks with social experts.