New Geographies of the Everyday in Post-Socialist Poland

This paper explores the changing experiences of mobility, stability and security in the everyday lives of Nowa Huta, Poland. The paper begins by examining the notions of mobility implicit and explicit in the regime which built Nowa Huta, critically assessing the tendencies to stability and community encouraged by state socialism. It then moves on to discuss the impact of the political and economic changes of recent years on the geographies of everyday life in the town, exploring experiences at scales from the domestic to the national and international, and considering spheres of life including consumption, leisure, work and friendship. The latter part of the paper links the experiences of Nowa Huta to wider experiences in east central Europe and beyond, developing work on globalisation, modernity and mobility.

Presented to New Trends in the Geographical Organisation of Society: Integration and Differentiation within a Unifying Europe, Prague, Czech Republic, 12th-14th June 2003

A draft version of this paper is available here.