The economy creates society, economic system does it to a greater degree. The text aims to show the neoliberal system in Poland as an actual effect of the transformation. This system means that the principles of neoclassical economics are transferred to the other areas of science. For the economy it postulates free market and focus on entrepreneurship. Neoliberalism as a basis for a new, adopted to it society means far-reaching changes in the lives of the people, their relationships, the culture, the public sphere and disappearance of the traditional ideologies in favor ofadaptive behavior. The text is based on experience and other texts.
The analysis of Julia’s (b. 1984) case, empirically grounded in the autobiographical narrative interview method, will discuss the mutual influence of the individual experiences and the collective processes that result in a precarious life situation being a stage of the trajectory of suffering process. It will be argued that the generation born between 1980-1990 that entered their adolescence period (and, at the same time, labor market) in a very specific socio-cultural context, framed by the dynamics of interrelated processes of political transformation, vibrant modernization, globalization, and, last but not least, development of neoliberal ideology, has been the first one in Poland to be exposed to the deep and overwhelming biographical changes. They have been oftentimes connected with the feeling of biographical trap and the experience of precarious balance of everyday life that-to a large extent-is a consequence of belonging to intensively multiplying social words with their divergent stocks of knowledge at hand, clashing ideologies, conflicting moral standards, dissonant rules of conducts, and expectations. Additionally, in the discussed case, I will deal with a biographical irony: Julia is both-a zealous propagator of allegedly universal attitudes of neoliberalism and a victim of this subtle mode of power. All these contradictions and tensions are clearly seen in the formal features of her (as well as many other people born in the 80’s last century) renderings, which are nonlinear, incoherent, emotionally overloaded, and full of fading-out phenomena.
Artykuł ten, odwołując się do analizy autobiograficznych relacji dwóch trzydziestoletnich kobiet (artystki i lekarza), podejmuje próbę zarysowania pewnych wymiarów analitycznych związanych z doświadczaniem konieczności sprostania oczekiwaniom rodziny oraz – znacząco odmiennym – wymaganiom kapitalistycznej gospodarki rynkowej. Istotna jest tu przynależność narratorek do pokolenia, którego proces adolescencji i wchodzenia we wczesną dorosłość (tym samym na rynek pracy) przebiega w specyficznym kontekście historycznym, społecznym i kulturowym, którego ramę stanowią dynamiczne i wzajemnie powiązane procesy transformacji ustrojowej, wejścia w struktury Unii Europejskiej, intensywnej modernizacji, globalizacji czy wreszcie rozwoju neoliberalnej ideologii. Szczególna uwaga zostaje zatem zwrócona na potencjały bezładu i chaosu ukryte z jednej strony w tradycyjnej rodzinie, a z drugiej w rządzonym kapitalistycznymi regułami świecie pracy. W odniesieniu do drugiego przypadku zostanie pokazane, w jaki sposób neoliberalne mechanizmy promujące takie przymioty, jak: kreatywność, racjonalność, sprawczość, odpowiedzialność i tym podobne systematycznie wytwarzają sytuację biograficznej pułapki i inicjują proces trajektorii, którą w istocie charakteryzują neoliberalne antywartości, to jest niemoc, irracjonalność, bezradność czy samowyobcowanie.
EN
This paper, based on the analysis of autobiographical renderings of two women (a medicine doctor and an artist) being in their thirties, aims at outlining certain analytical dimensions connected with the narrators’ need to meet both expectations of their parents and significantly different requirements of a free-market economy in Poland. It is important to note that the informants belong to the generation that entered their adolescence and early adulthood period (and at the same time—labour market) in a very specific socio-cultural context, framed by the dynamics of interrelated processes of political transformation, joining the European Union, vibrant modernization, globalization, and, last but not least, development of neoliberal ideology. Consequently, special attention is paid to the potentials of disorder and chaos embedded, on the one hand, in the traditional family and, on the other hand, in the world of work governed by the capitalist rules of the game. Moreover, it will be discussed here how neoliberal mechanisms promoting such attributes as creativity, rationality, agency, responsibility, et cetera are in fact a biographical trap that may initiate the processes of the trajectory of suffering. This is characterized by the neoliberal anti-values: powerlessness, irrationality, helplessness, and self-alienation.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.