Suchergebnisse

The aim of this article is to explore whether—from the subjective perspective of people born before the end of WWII—systemic transformation brought about significant changes in their individual lives, and if yes—what was the meaning of those changes for them. In particular, I examine how experiences related to the events that preceded systemic transformation in Poland or took place during its most intensive stage are reflected in contemporary biographical narratives of 49 persons aged 72 or more, for whom the period of professional activity, in whole or in major part, occurred in the times of the Polish People's Republic. I perform the analysis in three steps. First, I investigate the place of systemic transformation in the narratives, and consider the reasons why it is relatively often absent or poorly reflected there. Second, I present thematic motifs prevailing in those interviews where references to the systemic change appear. In the third step, I investigate the meaning of experiences connected with transformation for the narrators, the accompanying emotions—some of them still persisting—and ways in which the narrators incorporated those experiences into their biographies. The underlying narratives come from people who were drawn for a nationwide quantitative panel survey many years ago, in 1987, and participated in it for the next 25-30 years.

Pension systems based on an insurance model were originally designed for male breadwinners who worked under permanent contracts without career breaks. Since their inception, women's participation in the workforce has increased significantly, but on average, their employment career paths are still shorter and less linear compared to those that men enjoy. Demographic changes have prompted many countries to reform their pension systems to ensure long-term financial sustainability. And to varying degrees, such reforms also have looked to address the issue of short careers. In Poland, reforms introduced in 1999 brought about significant changes to the rules governing pension entitlement. That led to the emergence of a new category of retirees—those who had contributed to the pension system for a short period and consequently received very low pensions. This article provides an overview of an exploratory qualitative pilot study conducted in 2018 with nine women who were in receipt of benefits from the Polish universal pension system, which amounted to less than the so-called 'lowest retirement pension' being granted at that time. The analysis makes recourse to the concept of employment career and its connection to retirement to identify various life-course determinants that contributed to their situation. These factors include childhood and adolescent adversities that affected educational attainment; domestic and caregiving responsibilities coupled with cultural expectations and insufficient institutional support; the labor market situation, and the inability to document certain employment periods. The research material indicates that a significant portion of the work performed by the interviewees throughout their lives did not translate into a pension benefit, as it either involved unpaid domestic and caregiving duties; or work performed without formal contracts.

Sociological, qualitative, biographical research is distinguished by its interest in the case. At the same time, this research seeks—often through case studies—to understand or explain supraindividual, repetitive phenomena which are, to some extent, general. In this article, we look at how cases are treated in biographical sociology. We present our own empirical experience, consisting in autobiographical narrative interviews with participants of a nationwide panel survey, who were randomly drawn to the panel many years ago. We show the possible consequences, both methodological and theoretical, of this way of selecting cases, quite unusual for biographical sociology. We wonder whether and to what extent the experience of the "ordinary person," the Everyman, can be reflected in sociological works based on the biographical method.

Artykuł jest wstępem do zbioru prezentowanych w tym numerze tekstów na temat różnych sposobów i możliwości powtórnego wykorzystania materiałów pochodzących z jakościowych badań społecznych. Zastanawiamy się, jak taka powtórna analiza wpływa na pogłębienie refleksji metodologicznej na temat działalności badawczej w terenie, statusu samych danych i kontekstów ich wytwarzania oraz tworzonej na ich podstawie wiedzy socjologicznej. Próbujemy również podsumować sześć lat działalności Archiwum Danych Jakościowych przy IFiS PAN oraz opisać zmiany, jakie dokonały się w tym czasie w podejściu do dzielenia się materiałami badawczymi zarówno u nas w kraju, jak i za granicą.