Marlena Rycombel

Alterka – Resistance Money? On “Wymiennik” – community currency Warsaw system

The article describes “Wymiennik” – Warsaw system which uses the alternative currency “alterka”. The main aim of the paper is to think over how the creators of the initiative understand their resistance to consumption practices and to what extent their activism leads to socio-economic change. The categories by Marek Krajewski concerning on nonconformist lifestyles are used; it turned out that the most useful concept is “discreet resistance”. To get knowledge about “Wymiennik” I conducted 12 in-depth interviews and two years of participatory observation, furthermore I analyzed materials published or recommended by the creators of the system. 

Direct Democracy as Unfulfilled Management Model of grassroots and Non-profit Initative ‘Wymiennik’ (Warsaw Community Currency System)

The article asks the question if the vision of participative management in ‘Wymiennik’ – articulated by the founders of the system and described in “Wymiennik Community Rules” – relates to the practical realization of the participation model. The author shows problems associated with introducing the idea of direct democracy on the example of the grassroots, urban, and niche ‘Wymiennik’ initiative and referring to the experience of the Occupy Wall Street movement described by Manuel Castells. The conflicts within the Warsaw community will be shown, which were the effect of the experiment with the management model. The term consensus as stasis made by Marcus Miessen will be used.

Kapuściński non-fiction as a political biography. The leftism of Kapuściński in the context of the discourse on Polish People’s Republic

In the article, the author is surveying the scientific discourse on political threads embraced in the Kapuściński non-fiction biography written by Artur Domosławski. This discourse spectacularly reveals the wider problem with the discourse on the Polish People’s Republic. There will be indicated how presuppositions concerning Ryszard’s Kapuściński leftism (valorized the leftism positively or negatively) position the interpretation of the book Kapuściński non-fiction. Various typologies of the discourse on PRL will be enumerated and the problem of whether the biography written by Artur Domosławski eludes the classical narration on real socialism will be discussed.