Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This study addressed the experience of living in a post-socialist society through fieldwork carried out in Poland. Using a range of ethnographic and discursive methodologies, the relationship between the town of Nowa Huta (literal translation ‘New Steelworks’) in Southern Poland and the wider socio-economic transformations of the last fifty years was considered. Nowa Huta played a key part in post-war reconstruction both as the home of Poland’s largest steelworks and by being promoted as the nation’s first socialist town. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with inhabitants in order to consider the town's role in the construction, contestation and collapse of the socialist system in Poland. Secondly, the impact of these large-scale economic and social transformations was examined in the context of everyday life and work in Nowa Huta. Some ‘expert’ witness interviews were used but more emphasis was placed on developing a body of work based on life story or life history interviews. The collection includes an archive of images as well as interview transcriptions.

Main Topics:

This data collection consists of in-depth/semi-structured interviews covering work, work history, working conditions, family, social and support networks, free time, post-socialism, Poland (Nowa Huta and Krakow), community and transformation.

Purposive selection/case studies

Volunteer sample

Face-to-face interview

conducted in Polish