About
24
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Introduction
I am a social and visual anthropologist working in Berlin at the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM) and the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS). I have published on everyday activism, civil society, migrants’ social engagement, visual methods, narratives and practices of diversity, and language and identity. I am (co)author of internationally awarded ethnographic documentaries: “Active (citizen)" and “Spółdzielnia/Cooperative"
Current institution
Additional affiliations
May 2022 - present
Education
September 2009 - January 2014
Publications
Publications (24)
Activism is typically associated with work within charities/NGOs or participation in social movements. This essay highlights activism different from these forms in that it happens without funding or mass mobilisation. Instead, it is powered by the longer-term perspective and day-to-day efforts of ‘activist citizens’. Based on interviews and partici...
Migrant activism is usually assumed to happen within migrant organisations. This récit tells the story of how I came to rethink this concept in the course of producing an ethnographic documentary about someone who cannot afford to engage in the work of organisations. It relates how I started to think of activism as ‘going out of one’s way for the b...
In this four-screen installation using footage originally used in 'Active (citizen)' film, as well as material which was not used in its single-screen 30-minute version, we offer viewers the opportunity to explore and focus on different aspects of the protagonist's life: his everyday work, his relations with other people and institutions in Novi Sa...
Drawing on an evaluation of statistics on language provisions and self-declared language practice, and on longitudinal ethnographic observations, we examine the role of the Polish language in shaping single transactions and durable social bonds and in demarcating interaction spaces among Polish immigrants in a UK metropolitan area. Language choice...
4’ 18’’ short ethnographic film by Piotr Goldstein, Olga Łojewska, and Maksymilian Awuah (2024) created as part of the project VISION: Envisioning convivial Europe.
This Week Doesn't Really Exist explores the experiences of cross-border workers and their daily commutes between the regions of Lubuskie in Poland and Brandenburg in Germany. In their n...
To find out more about social attitudes, we surveyed more than 2,000 young Poles, aged 16-34, in March 2022 and again in May-June 2023. Our analysis found that between 2022 and 2023, increasing numbers of young Poles – now 52%, up from 42% a year ago – believe that refugees should be offered temporary status, with the assumption that they return to...
Young people have experienced profound changes in the way Polish national identity is expressed in public since the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) gained far-reaching control of Polish politics in 2015. This report examines young people’s political attitudes in conjunction with their views on the arrival of over two million refugees from...
As Ukraine’s large neighbour, Poland has so far taken in the most Ukrainian refugees. A new ZOiS survey shows that many young Poles are in favour of protecting them. There is also support for weapons supplies. An overwhelming majority is, however, against direct military involvement.
‘Spółdzielnia/Cooperative’ is a visual ethnography portraying the everyday work of a socially engaged cooperative in Manchester, UK, which in the quest to protect the environment sells organic, fair-trade coffee from a self-made bicycle-trailer, and which is run mainly by Polish migrants. The film is, after internationally awarded ‘Active (citizen)...
Spółdzielnia / Cooperative is a visual ethnography portraying the everyday work of a socially engaged cooperative in Manchester, which is run mainly by Polish migrants. It is, after 'Active (citizen)', the second film of the Visualising the Invisible Project, looking at the activism of migrants and ethnic minorities outside of their community organ...
When Poland’s new Constitutional Tribunal banned nearly all abortions on 22 October, the move immediately sparked demonstrations and strikes across the country. The words Wypierdalać, apostasy, and Berlin help provide an understanding of the dynamics of this political unrest.
Als der neue Verfassungsgerichtshof in Polen am 22. Oktober Abtreibung in nahezu allen Fällen verbot, brachen im ganzen Land sofort Proteste und Streiks aus. Mithilfe der drei Stichworte Wypierdalać, Kirchenaustritt und Berlin lässt sich die Dynamik dieser politischen Unruhen besser verstehen.
It has often been argued that Poland, like other Central and East European countries, lacks civil society and civic commitment. A closer look shows that while Polish activism can be hard to quantify, it takes on various creative forms, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic...
Full text:
https://en.zois-berlin.de/publications/zois-spotlight/pol...
*** PRIVATE LINK TO THE FILM AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST ***
An intimate look at the life and work of a Roma refugee from Kosovo collecting trash on the streets of Novi Sad, Serbia, Active (citizen) is a visual ethnography focused on the material, sensorial and kinaesthetic realities of the protagonist’s work and its political and social significance –...
Active (citizen)
An intimate look at the life and work of a Roma refugee from Kosovo collecting trash on the streets of Novi Sad, Serbia, Active (citizen) is a visual ethnography focused on the material, sensorial and kinaesthetic realities of the protagonist’s work and its political and social significance – the daily activism beyond the scope of...
During a visit to Lodz, Poland I was doing some filming for my projects on ‘everyday activism’ and on social engagement of ethnic minorities and migrants for causes outside their own communities. One of the initiatives I filmed was an informal group of people who took turns to visit, two times every day, Lit – the oldest Great Dane in Poland, who l...
Active citizenship in the post-war Western Balkans has traditionally been studied in the context of either Western-style (and usually foreign-funded) Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) or, more recently, protest movements. This chapter highlights a wider range of better- and lesser-known forms of civil society in the contemporary post-Yugoslav s...
Plato, one of the world’s most important philosophers, is notable for asserting, in the 4th century BCE, that there is no reason why women should be treated differently than men by law, that they should have the same access to education as men and, finally, that they should have the same opportunity to govern. This may encourage the belief that Pla...
Yugoslavia, as its name — “the country of South Slavs” — suggested, was a country whose very existence was based on the ideal of the value of diversity. Different South Slavic peoples and other ethnic groups living among them were to be equal constituents of the country. Despite this narrative, the country collapsed amid the tragic Yugoslav wars of...
This essay addresses three key issues. Firstly, it gives a general overview about how being a Jewish student in Poland is different from being a Jewish student elsewhere. Secondly, it shows examples of several student and semistudent Jewish organizations in present- day Poland. Finally, it presents a brief analysis of changes in these NGOs in the g...
Artykuł ten składa się z trzech części: pierwsza dotyczy teorii migracji Żydów w diaspo-rze, druga-elementów charakterystycznych muzyki orientalnej, w trzeciej natomiast poka-zujemy, jak niektóre z tych elementów przeniknęły do muzyki aszkenazyjskiej. Może to potwierdzać tezę, iż muzyka Żydów środkowo i wschodnioeuropejskich miała pierwotnie typowo...
