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Within sociology, there are many different research styles, and a multiplicity of methods. Opinions are divided on feasibility, sensibility, and the appropriate ways of combining them, especially at the level of data rather than conclusions. As for contemporary biographical methods, some of exponents (e.g., ROSENTHAL, 1995) have postulated that an interviewee's life story should be compared to the actual course of the life in question (i.e., the life history). Researchers, however, rarely have access to data beyond narratives. In this article, we look to outline intra-sociological splits in order to provide background and context for two biographical narrative interviews which have been conducted with long-standing respondents to the Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN). These interviews, in turn, will be juxtaposed with the data derived from survey interviews, a valuable source of additional information about the interviewees, at least in some areas. Finally, we reflect on the potential benefits of such comparisons not only for proponents of the biographical methods but also for survey researchers. We draw on some of our methodological and theoretical considerations previously published in Polish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the book „O tym nie wolno mówić..." Zagłada Żydów w opowieściach wspomnieniowych ze zbiorów Dionizjusza Czubali ["We Are Not Allowed to Speak About It..." The Extermination of Jews in Memoirs from the Collection of Dionizjusz Czubala], selected and edited by Piotr Grochowski, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK, Toruń 2019, 236 pp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is inspired by a close reading of the recently published volume Żołnierze ludowego Wojska Polskiego. Historie mówione (Soldiers of the Polish people's Army. Oral histories) by Jarosław Pałka and Kaja Kaźmierska (Łódź, 2018) and continuously refers to it. Rather than a standard book review, it is a critical essay which positions this publication, and the documentation project standing behind it, in the context of Polish oral history research field. The latter has been expanding dynamically in recent years, gaining more and more recognition also among academic historians. One of its essential characteristics, to which this volume attests, is its methodological anchoring in biographical sociology. This field of research has a long academic tradition in Poland (though its current versions tend to adopt 'Western' ideas and research patterns) and offers scientific credibility to, still often insecure, oral history research. The text claims that scientific legitimisation of this kind does not necessarily lead to a convincing interpretation. The method, no matter how neutrally it may be presented, is not free from the authors' value judgements and non-source-based historical knowledge (and imagination). The text, therefore, suggests a reading of the book - which is vastly a selection of edited, historically footnoted and narratively ordered oral history sources (biographical narrative interviews with the title soldiers) - that partly goes against the authors' interpretations. Altogether, it makes up an exercise in (oral) historical hermeneutics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay tells the story of a very specific experience of labor in the Polish shipyard industry, which faced radical economic, social and, here particularly important, cultural transformations. Analyzing biographical narrative interviews with shipyard workers and engineers, and referring to visual historical sources (pictures, movies), I am showing decomposition of the ethos of shipyard work. That ethos was built, on one hand, upon feeling of participation in a complex social drama, whose main actor was - imagined and (becoming) real - huge vessel ("the biggest movable think created by man"). On the other hand - on proudness of doing very sophisticated, intricate, craft. This anthropological analysis of working experience, is not avoiding confrontation with "socialist propaganda", very strong in this field, as well as with participation in "Solidarność carnival", which was experiences of the most of my interviewees. Both these historical contexts do not weaken, but rather strengthen, meaningfulness of the shipyard labour for their work (and lives). But what strengthen this feeling is radical decomposition of shipyard work sense, which took place in the last years - though there are modern vessels and other sophisticated sea constructions produced in Gdynia today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Filipkowski offers a preliminary proposal to inscribe oral history into broader philosophical contexts. Oral history is understood as a practice in the humanities that is based on the pretextual experience of the human encounter, which in turn represents a precondition for any dialogue aiming to understand the Other. Filipkowski brings oral history to bear on the hermeneutic tradition and on reflections on coincidence and accidentality as developed in the field of philosophical anthropology. The notions of coincidence and accidentality are inextricably inscribed into (human) existence. They are used to analyse a specific biography, allowing us to look at it from the perspective of fate, while narrations about it can be seen as meaning-making articulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including Polish historiography, communism over there and civilizational change.