Remembering and Belonging: Jewish Heritage and Civic Agency in Poland's Haunted Urban Spaces
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Abstract
In the context of Poland’s recent illiberal turn, large cities have been important stages where the fault lines of the
national imaginary that run through Polish society have become apparent. In this article, based on ethnographic
research in the Polish city of Wroclaw, we focus on individual cultural agents who have engaged with the
marginalised Jewish heritage of the city in constructing diverse imaginaries of urban belonging. Their work, carried
out against the backdrop of exclusionary nationalist agenda of the Polish state, illuminates the power of human
agency to harness cultural heritage as a social and political resource for the present. We show how through their
urban-based practices, these cultural agents challenge the Polish hegemonic heritage discourses that exclude the
Other from the national imaginary.
national imaginary that run through Polish society have become apparent. In this article, based on ethnographic
research in the Polish city of Wroclaw, we focus on individual cultural agents who have engaged with the
marginalised Jewish heritage of the city in constructing diverse imaginaries of urban belonging. Their work, carried
out against the backdrop of exclusionary nationalist agenda of the Polish state, illuminates the power of human
agency to harness cultural heritage as a social and political resource for the present. We show how through their
urban-based practices, these cultural agents challenge the Polish hegemonic heritage discourses that exclude the
Other from the national imaginary.
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Geographic Coverage
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Volume/Issue
10(3)
Page Number / Article Number
128-146
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Bibliographic Information
Remembering and Belonging: Jewish Heritage and Civic Agency in Poland's Haunted Urban Spaces. 2020: 128-146. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-1486
