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Paper short abstract

Presented paper shows how the post-1989 economic transformation in Poland reshaped work and identity. Former Chodzież porcelain factory workers face insecurity yet build strong work-based identities, preserving industrial heritage and memories through micro-stories and nostalgia

Paper long abstract

The economic transformation in Poland after 1989 led to profound changes in company management. For many employees, this political shift caused temporary or permanent unemployment, forced relocation, and the need to find new ways of earning a living through retraining, while employee rights were weakened (Leyk, Wawrzyniak 2020). These changes also affected workers at the Chodzież porcelain factory, which operated from 1855 to 2020 and underwent multiple transformations shaped by Poland’s political situation and the global economy.

My research focuses on former employees of the Chodzież factory, examining how macro-level economic and political changes affected their individual socio-economic situations. The economic transformation in Poland altered the socio-cultural framework defining values (Dunn 2004). While not all former employees were “losers” of systemic transformation, many still experience economic insecurity while constructing a strong identity based on work in porcelain production. Employment at the factory shaped both personal and local identity, influencing belonging to the social group of factory workers and the city community. Deindustrialization since the early 1990s rendered factory workers increasingly invisible, though not entirely absent (Jacyno 2022 [introduction to: Beaud, Pialoux 1999]).

Bottom-up initiatives by former workers and city residents commemorate Chodzież’s industrial heritage through events and private museum collections. Micro-stories of everyday life in the factory are crucial for remembering both tangible and intangible traces of industrial history, intertwining memory, non-memory, and nostalgia (Ratkowska-Widlarz 2011).