Cultural Sources of Law and Conditions of Political Power. Internal Colonialism and the Case of Legal Acculturation of Silesians

The article addresses legal pluralism, namely the interaction of norms resulting from either custom or law, which takes place in the face of emancipation processes in Polish Silesia. It concerns legal conceptualizations of regional autonomy and the negotiations of the legal status of the regional group that aims at a higher level of sovereignty. Namely, investigating the relationship between cultural and legal norms, I analyse the judicial procedure regarding the way of adjudicating and defining Silesianness. Considering the existence of multiple parallel ethnic identities in Poland, I strive to illuminate the question of the legal definition of Polishness and the normative dimension of legal definition. I bring to light the making of the adjudication in the Polish justice system, and thus highlight the mechanisms present in the legislative process and rationalisations operating wherein. I am interested in the consequences of these processes for establishing the legal and the factual status of different groups. The conception of identity used by modern jurisdiction derives from the definition of the dominant group (of Poles) and works towards strengthening its status against the status of other, parallelly existing groups whose self-identities do not fall squarely within the hegemonic construction. My hypothesis is that the process of interpreting the law in force in Poland follows subjective ideas and is often drafted in programmatic terms.

Help and Cooperation during a Pandemic Time. Outline of the Problem

The article presents the results of research, the axis of which were help initiatives taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. A characteristic feature, and previously unheard of on such a scale, is the initiation, and often full implementation of these activities in the virtual world. The time of the pandemic has blurred the clarity of the categories of those most affected or most in need of help in the events that took place. Another feature of the observed events is their phased. Its elements are spontaneously emerging groups that undertake aid actions. Restoring the “state of normality” and taking over the aid activities by institutions established for this slowed down and weakened the participation of ordinary people in organizing spontaneous activities. The time lived has the features of Turner’s liminality, and assistance groups can be described by the term Communitas.

Laughter Community of Museum Employees (A Research Note)

The subject of the article is the occupational humor of museum employees and the laughter community connected to it. The author shows which aspects of work in a museum trigger off comical effect according to the employees themselves. The research material comes from the author’s personal experiences as well as the interviews with other staff members and Facebook fanpage Muzealnicy. The author tries to answer the question concerning the cultural and social functions of the laughter community of museum employees. The theoretical framework of this analysis is provided by K. Żygulski’s concept of the “laughter community”.