Life of Things from the Perspective of Polish Systemic Transformation

Abstract

The main purpose of the paper is to present the “biography” of selected things which appear in autobiographical narrative interviews conducted within the project “Experiencing the Systemic Transformation Process in Poland. A Sociological Comparison on the Basis of Biographical Analysis.” The author discusses different social actions connected with things, for example, the migrations of things, emancipation through things, collecting things, and reconstructs the stages of life of such things as: notebooks, cassette, and video tapes. The considerations are mainly embedded in the context of the People’s Republic of Poland and the process of transformation of the 1990s. The sociology and anthropology of things are theoretical frames of the analysis.

Full text

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©2019 QSR Volume XV Issue 4
46
Renata Dopierała
University of Lodz, Poland
Life of Things from the Perspective of Polish
Systemic Transformation
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.15.4.03
Abstract
Keywords
The main purpose of the paper is to present the “biography” of selected things which appear in autobi-
ographical narrative interviews conducted within the project “Experiencing the Systemic Transforma-
tion Process in Poland. A Sociological Comparison on the Basis of Biographical Analysis.” The author
discusses dierent social actions connected with things, for example, the migrations of things, emanci-
pation through things, collecting things, and reconstructs the stages of life of such things as: notebooks,
cassee, and video tapes. The considerations are mainly embedded in the context of the People’s Repub-
lic of Poland and the process of transformation of the 1990s. The sociology and anthropology of things
are theoretical frames of the analysis.
Sociology and Anthropology of Things; Life of Things, People’s Republic of Poland; 1989 Breakthrough
views conducted within the project “Experience of
the Process of the Transformation in Poland. A So-
ciological Comparative Analysis Based on Biograph-
ical Perspective.”1 Secondly, I discuss chosen aspects
of the systemic transformation process in Poland in
the context of the items described by the narrators.
I refer to three interviews: with Szymon (born 1973,
graduated from Higher School of Art and Design,
academic teacher), Piotr (born 1975, engineer, corpo-
rate worker), and Michał (born 1982, majored in IT
and econometrics, entrepreneur). The things in the
interviews, for example, pieces of furniture, house-
hold appliances, and devices, are mentioned sponta-
neously (are not brought about by the interviewer’s
questions), which points to the signicance of those
items in a biographical experience. Biographical
memory is triggered by and focuses around things
which change with time.
The text starts with a brief description on recogni-
tion of things from sociological and anthropological
perspectives. The following part of the article deals
with: (I) status and usage of things in the society of
shortage economy and (II) technological devices as
harbingers of the systemic change. Considerations
on things are marked by three historical periods in
the history of Polish society: late People’s Republic
of Poland, 1989 breakthrough, and the modern era.
It is not my intention, however, to carry out a classic
interpretation and analysis of narrations in accor-
dance with the principles formulated by Fri Schü-
e, that is, to seek processual structures, reconstruct
1 This article was prepared within the project “Experience of
the Process of the Transformation in Poland. A Sociological
Comparative Analysis Based on Biographical Perspective,”
funded by the National Science Center in Poland, the NCN
project number UMO-2013/09/B/HS6/03100.
argumentative strategies, et cetera, but the applied
theoretical categories were developed by sociology
and anthropology of things, as well as sociology of
media and communication.
Sociology and Anthropology of Things—
Selected Aspects
A life cycle of a thing is typically made of three ma-
jor stages: creation (invention, development, man-
ufacturing), usage (determined by time, varied),
disposal (no longer useful). This general paern is
applicable when things are treated as basically the
same objects. However, when we look closely at
specic objects—isolated items—it appears that the
same thing can work dierently in varied contexts
to manifest its agency (Abriszewski 2010:XXI). They
need new ways to “make them speak, that is, to
make them suggest their description, create a blue-
print for their usage by others—humans or nonhu-
mans” (Akrich 1992 as cited in Latour 2010:112).
Things cannot tell their own biographies—they
are wrien by people (Kopyto 2003). The life of
a thing—linked to an item, its body2—manifests it-
self by actions and their consequences. The fact that
things live means that they trigger, determine, and
authorize actions, enable or prevent them, encour-
age, allow and suggest, but also stop or forbid ac-
tions (Latour 2010:101). Things require individuals
to “do something with them”; such demands are
2 Although things are interwoven with a body, they are some-
how slightly separate from it at the same time; they are mov-
able—the body can move them or set them in motion (frequent-
ly by means of other tools); they are related to social activities
resulting from them or facilitating their coming into existence
(Krajewski 2013:21).
Life of Things from the Perspective of Polish Systemic Transformation
Renata Dopierała, PhD, works at the Department
of Sociology of Culture, Institute of Sociology, Faculty of
Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz, Poland. She
is interested in sociology of everyday life (with the main
focus on problems of privacy and intimacy) and anti-con-
sumerism. Her current research project focuses on the phe-
nomenon of anti-consumption lifestyles.
email address: renata.dopierala@uni.lodz.pl
entail its status, time of existence, and the culture
it belongs to? How do those possibilities manifest
themselves?…Are the objects of dierent age, what
are the stages of their life, and what do their culture
determinants look like? How do things use up with
age and what happens to the object when it stops be-
ing useful?” (Kopyto 2003:251-252). The questions
posed by the author—particularly relating to stages
of life of things, their uses, and socio-cultural con-
texts where those processes take place—determine
the structure of the paper which aims at analyzing
the systemic transformation from the perspective of
sociology and anthropology of things.
The article presents, rst of all, stages of life of sev-
eral things, which appear in autobiographical inter-
Igor Kopyto (2003) notes that things, just like peo-
ple, have their biographies. “When building a biog-
raphy of a specic thing, questions analogous to the
questions about human biographies can be posed, for
example, what are biographical possibilities, which

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eective if they bring about desired eects (Gibson
1977; Mitchell 2005 as cited in Krajewski 2013:69). It
means that things are not outside the social order,
but they are its integral part and actively participate
in it as actors or actants (Latour 2010).
Building a biography of things by actors requires
considering a number of factors resulting from their
mutual relation; things can be used as carriers of
meanings, requisites in status games, instruments in
classifying others (see: Goman 2008; 2011). “Things
are useful in a number of ways: they enable us to
do what we want and need, facilitate communica-
tion, and establish suitable conditions for express-
ing our cultural ties, as well as our individual self
within the community” (Dant 2007:26). Individuals
create unique cognitive and emotional interactions
with things, use them idiosyncratically, present
diverse aitudes to the material world (Krajewski
2013). What those individuals share is inability to
live without things “because we entrust things with
our identity, our society strengthens and embeds
its principles and values underlying our culture in
things and through things, we give things responsi-
bility for our everyday lives” (Sierocki 2008:175). At
the same time, things create secret space where ev-
eryday events freely take place (Rakowski 2008:55).
Their existence is a “secret language” of culture
(Pearce 1995:49); things are unnoticeable parts of our
lives, even though they are frequently closer to us
than people.
Functions of things which are signicant for their
uses—symbolic, economic, esthetic, technical (mate-
rial objects as tools), emotive (evoking emotions by
items), socio- and ideo-functions (communicating so-
cial or ideological meanings), can change, move, or
appear simultaneously in dierent stages of life of
material objects (Krajewski 2013:49). It is also appli-
cable to status (roles) of things, which can be (giving
only a few categories): a tool, decoration, souvenir,
collector’s item, useful thing. Depending on their use
there are items used daily, occasionally, or on special
occasions, for personal use or shared with others. In
terms of their esthetic-functional categories, objects
can appear as handy, prey or ugly, one- or multiuse,
durable or short-lived (Krajewski 2013:80).
Possessing and using things is determined by cul-
ture (in law and customs), similarly to the impor-
tance given to things in specic conditions of the
collective life. They are not assigned to things for
good (though such cases are possible), but they are
rather subject to changes resulting from both dy-
namics of social life (macro level processes) and cir-
cumstances of individual biographies (micro level).
Categories and characteristics of things, complex
meanings aributed to things and interactions with
them are socially determined by local culture codes
(Pearce 1995), just as uses of those items in given
circumstances. Values aached to material goods
can be varied in dierent historical and cultural
contexts; “things often act as stimuli evoking pure-
ly behavioral reactions or items evoking memories”
(Krajewski 2013:32). Further layers of culturally and
socially created meanings result from their dierent
uses; reevaluations in the perception of things are
also related to changes of their status (Waszczyńska
2016). Let me look at a few things which appear in
the narrators’ stories to highlight actions they trig-
gered and how they changed in various social-cul-
tural contexts.
Renata Dopierała
Goods in the Economy of Shortage
With regard to time and culture in which the goods
mentioned by the narrators exist, they refer to late
years of the People’s Republic of Poland—it results
from their teenage years back then. With reference
to material goods this time can be described as
dominated by two phenomena: permanent short-
age of goods (both staple goods and durable goods)
and their rationing (from 1976 to 1985) and, second-
ly, building strategies and practices which facilitat-
ed survival in such social-economic order, particu-
larly creating informal nets of acquiring goods and
exchanging goods and services.3 Initially, from
1976, the only product whose trade was regulated
was sugar. “The scope of regulation started to ex-
tend in 1981 when it was regulated to trade meat,
buer, wheat our, groats, cereals and rice, wash-
ing powder, cigarees, alcohol, chocolate and other
sweets, soap and many articles for infants, such as
semolina, powdered milk, washing powder Cyp-
isek, coon wool, baby soap and olives” (Fuszara
2004a:120). The list is not complete because, due
to recurrent shortages, their substitutes were
launched, that is, articles which were available for
purchase instead of those stated on the cards (e.g.,
it was possible to buy sweets or cacao or coee in-
stead of cigarees or alcohol—these articles were
considered both prestigious and hard to come by).
Other products were also subjected to regulation
and they included: “oil, shoes, carpets, tropical
fruits, stationery items—notebooks, drawing pads,
3 I refer to private and private-public markets for goods—de-
veloping informal networks of connections based on the social
status of individuals, their professional status, social capital as
values which facilitate mutual exchange of services and goods
hardly available on the ocial market (see: Wedel 2007).
crayons, paper cuing pads, pencils, sharpeners,
rubbers, modeling clay, paints and brushes…The
situation began to change in 1983 when regulation
of some articles was rescinded. Subsequently, trade
of washing powder and soap, cigarees and alco-
hol, sweets ceased to be regulated…Further chang-
es took place in 1985 when regulation of trade of
our and grains products and fats were rescinded”
(Fuszara 2004a:121).4
Lack of Goods
Considering the level of deprivation above it is not
legitimate to argue that the presence of goods was
silent (Pearce 1995). Interpreting this description
backwards—lack of goods was noticeable in the
narrators’ stories. There are references to shortages
of one of the rationed goods in the interview with
Szymon, that is, notebooks and the whole range of
stationery items, and in another excerpt to lack of
wallpaper:
N: Even now I have err some notebooks, ‘cause we
used to keep supplies. ‘Cause when they delivered/
there was a delivery of goods to the stationer’s, and
you had to buy notebooks or some other devices or
school materials, then we bought as much of it as
we could, not as much as we needed, but as much as
4 To ensure fair division of consumer staples, the authorities in-
troduced the mechanism of regulation between 1976 and 1985
and in specic areas of the country and it embraced a range of
grocery and industrial articles which entitled to do the shop-
ping on the basis of rationing cards, stamps, and allocations.
The regulation did not quite succeed, however, in realizing
the “fair” distribution, there were malpractices concerning
selements of ration cards and fraudulent allocations (see:
Zawistowski 2017:440-493); additionally, there were also mul-
tiple exemptions from the system because there were many
categories of privileged people due to their profession, social
function (see: Fuszara 2004b).
Life of Things from the Perspective of Polish Systemic Transformation

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we possibly could get hold of. Therefore, I still have
some notebooks, still blank, which I have kept since
my primary school time, they are lying some place
and they are nice. It’d be a pity to throw them away,
it’d be even a pity to write in them now, ‘cause they
are, you know/ err I guess you can try to put them
somewhere like Allegro and see if anybody takes an
interest in it. Nevertheless, now they are souvenirs
in a way we bought such notebooks, rubbers/ well,
it’s funny but now all products are Chinese err and
they amount to shoddy quality, don’t they/ I mean
not only ‘cause China produces almost everything.
Electronic equipment and more and less advanced
technologically. But, generally this ood of Chi-
nese products is associated negatively. I remember
that back then there were/ err there was a delivery
of Chinese stationery materials, for example, and it
was somehow aractive. Fragrant Chinese rubbers
or some markers or some rulers or there were some
3D err gadgets and it was/ incredibly aractive. So
it is incredibly changing, you know, its perception.
I guess that back then err Chinese economy was
functioning slightly dierently, you know, but, but,
but those Chinese products were delivered to Po-
land and they were a kind of wind from the world.
***
N: I remember when the Martial Law was an-
nounced, it was when we were wallpapering in our
at and my mum’s friend and her husband came
over. It was Sunday and I remember that they were
wallpapering because they had lile time so we
were wallpapering. I remember that wallpaper, it
was ugly and had a brown owery paern. The wall
was wallpapered/ because you had no choice back
then, you know, quite simply. Previously there had
been some bathroom wallpaper in the living room,
tile paern, as ugly as it gets, it was coming o the
wall. My mum would say she would have to pull it
down and they stuck a brown owery one.
Let me point out a few aspects of the life of note-
books. They were hardly available on the market
back then which illustrates severe shortages in the
economy of the People’s Republic of Poland. The
demand could not be satised, but it also entailed
a set of phenomena resulting from an imbalance of
supply and demand. The consequences of restric-
tions on availability of goods5 result in, for exam-
ple, longer consumption processes which consist-
ed of several stages: looking for available goods
(visiting many stores, searching information about
deliveries to stores), wait time (long queues), unin-
tentional substitutions (using substitute products),
and resignation from purchase if obtaining a given
product became too dicult or impossible (Ma-
zurek 2010:19). Supply decits were not merely an
economic event, but also a social problem which
reected divergence between propaganda promis-
es of satisfying people’s needs and a real ineec-
tive economic policy (Mazurek 2010:20-21).
5 This experience, obviously, did not befall all members of soci-
ety equally. Another narrator, Michał, says:
N: My err grandfather/ my granddad was err a director of an
energy plant for some energy area so err in the time of PRL
I don’t remem/ I can’t remember that err it was such a bad
time. I don’t/ I can’t recall, can’t recall such err big, you know,
problems or err shortage of (.) (smacking lips) / Heck then,
I guess, it seems to me that err somehow we weren’t suering
from a lack of something, but, you know, I mean, everybody
err all people didn’t have such various err various elements,
dierent articles, which are also available nowadays
I: Hmmm.
N: So what, what was available then my parents well, well
I can’t remember if there were, if there were any / any prob-
lems, but err it got stuck in my mind, you know, such pic-
tures of those/ pictures of that time.
Living in the economy of shortage (as opposed to
shortages in the economy, see: Kornai 1985) called
for inventing consumer strategies, which relied on
“making supplies” (it did not apply only to statio-
nery products, but virtually all kinds of goods:
long- and short-lived). It showed foresight which
made it ne cess ary to b uy wh at ever was ava ilable on
the market in legally regulated quantities without
much consideration for the current and real needs,
thereby breaking the elementary mechanism of
purchasing—need-realization-satisfying the need.
(I leave aside the dominant, but by no means the
only model existing in consumer societies: creat-
ing a need—purchase—disappointment—a new
need, see, e.g., Bauman 2009). Such stocked articles
were some form of material security (in case those
products become unavailable on the market); they
could also be used for exchange within informal
social networks. Functionality of products, as well
as their quality and esthetics (which is well illus-
trated by the statement on wallpaper), and their
uses (bathroom wallpaper in the living room)
were subordinate to their availability on the mar-
ket. The thing that additionally draws aention in
the narrator’s statement are positive connotations
linked with goods produced in China, which are
currently associated with low-quality mass pro-
duction. They also symbolize contacts with anoth-
er culture through material objects. The life cycle
of a product is related to the biographical memory
of an individual which is visible in the way the
article is perceived, its uses (desirable items vs.
worthless things), and in assigning signicance to
them (aractive vs. shoddy), which result from bi-
ographical experiences and macro systemic trans-
formations.
This excerpt illustrates a sentimental-nostalgic di-
mension of things—a network of meanings remem-
bered from childhood/youth in particular. A note-
book is an everyday use article which hardly ever
deserves a mention. Notebooks, which would be
a pity to get rid of, change from everyday use goods
to symbolic items (which leads to suspension of their
pragmatic function), and become collector’s items.
Loss of use value, whereas its primary function was
actually never realized (after all, a notebook is for
writing in it, so its rapid use due to its limited capac-
ity makes it useless soon), paradoxically gave it an
emotional function—the notebook became a keep-
sake. It is striking that it is a blank notebook which
contains no content, and therefore it represents
merely a potentiality. The value of a notebook usu-
ally stems from its contents wrien on its pages. As
contents lose relevance, the medium become useless
with the exception of contents of emotional or in-
strumental value (e.g., diary, memoirs), then it lasts
a long time. Blank, unwrien pages saved the note-
book from destruction and disappearance; passing
time paradoxically enhanced its value. A used writ-
ten notebook would probably be useless, waste pa-
per (see: Processing and Collecting Things further in
this article). Having gained a new status—a valu-
able item—it became an object for contemplation
which brings back memories.
However, an intention to sell old notebooks on Al-
legro indicates another, dierent, commercial func-
tion of those goods. On the one hand, they are ex-
traordinary, but, on the other hand, they could pres-
ent market value (they could be sold or exchanged)
which is applicable to ordinary goods (Kopyto
2003:253). In the case in question, those categories
Life of Things from the Perspective of Polish Systemic Transformation
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overlap—the owner expects that the market value
aributable to this unique item will be the same to
potential buyers. We also observe a process of x-
ing and negotiating the price (Latour 2010), which is
inuenced by the distance between culture where
the article was created and the present day, when it
gains new worth.
As regards actions triggered by notebooks which
also illustrate their lifecycle, there are several stages:
after being manufactured they were transported to
retail outlets where clients bought them. Then they
were being used to some degree (e.g., by Szymon)
as originally intended. Each of those stages brings
about human actions and interactions with the arti-
cle (writing, buying, transporting); when the action
is not taken, the product becomes an idle resource
(notebooks lying around somewhere) and enters the
transition period (to be discussed below).
Processing and Collecting Things
Olga Drenda denes late PRL as practically waste-
less culture. “There were hardly any plastic carri-
er bags, so if you happened to see one, it probably
came from Pewex or abroad and was reused many
times. I found it very interesting to read statements
about collections of packaging which had decora-
tive functions in Polish ats, whereas abroad they
were regarded as ordinary rubbish. It applies par-
ticularly to cigaree or drink packaging. There are
collections of beer or zzy drink cans in the pho-
tos from 1980s” (Drenda 2016:34). Speaking about
waste we mean “all things (or substances) which we
would like to have to dispose of. Becoming waste,
things lose their useful function. Waste materials
are an amorphic mix of things, which have de facto
ceased to be things” (Izdebska 2017:32). Analyzing
lexical transformations of the terms “waste” and
“rubbish,” Roch Sulima (2015:90) refers also to Et-
ymological Dictionary of the Polish Language which
says that “rubbish”—since the 15th century—has
been a discarded thing, ruined, worthless, useless,
refuse. Waste, on the other hand, suggests that rub-
bish has been objectied.
An institution which contributed to the minimaliza-
tion of waste (although it was not its primary goal)
were to buy-back recycling centers (also known as
waste paper recycling centers) that Szymon speaks
about. This institution was a middleman where the
client could receive some goods (e.g., toilet paper)
in exchange for their waste materials (see: Lipiński
and Matys 2014) or a voucher to pay for goods in
specic shops.
N: And my mum rst worked in glassworks, and then
changed for an oce work err and then when there
were, you know, when it was possible err (.) to set up
a private business she franchised a waste paper recy-
cling shop. It was a moment when there were/ err (.)
now it’s obvious, but now you look at it quite dierent-
ly, but back then, eighty/nine/ninety/ it was the begin-
ning of the ‘90s. ‘89, ‘90, it was also a feeling of some
discomfort, my sister and me thought it was a shame.
It seemed to us that a waste paper recycling shop or
waste materials was the biggest shame, you know.
And it was the time when it was possible to earn well
on it. And err mum took over that shop with some-
one and they collected not even from those people/
you know/ it wasn’t even retail amounts. Of course,
they were bringing it, got toilet paper for it/ because
it was hardly available, there were vouchers, they got
coupons/ I was often spending time there, I was going
there as a child, as a teenage err during the holidays
or something I would stay there and take this waste
paper and write out some coupons in exchange for
some kilos. And it was possible to go and use that
voucher to buy tape cassees or tights or something
else. Some stores oered products available only in
exchange for vouchers for waste materials. It was, you
know, it was an aliated shop. You either got toilet
paper, which was/ one roll for some kilos. So it was,
you know, an equivalent. Err and err it was also from
companies. We received from companies some, you
know, and delivered it to paper plant and simply it
was just possible to maintain a family on it and earn.
If Szymon’s notebooks had been used as originally
intended, they could have ended in a waste paper
recycling shop. Their biography would probably
have ended on a landll site or in an installation for
processing waste materials—even if they had been
bought for a keepsake or used for writing in as in-
tended.
It seems that waste management is awkward and
embarrassing to the narrator, because it belongs to
another axiological-normative order. Waste are con-
sidered spoilt, frequently awed (Douglas 2007),
and therefore it is removed from a close area of hu-
man aairs (Thompson 1979). They belong to a sep-
arate territory and occupy margins of social human
and individual life (trash bins are typically placed
in dark places).
Both waste status and waste management deals
remain unclear. The narrator admits that dealings
were protable (though not always quite legal), but
it was accompanied by stigma and negative emo-
tions (apart from embarrassment he felt disgust—
due to internalizing rules of order and cleanliness,
see: Tokarska-Bakir 2007:27-31).
Referring to the thesis of no-waste and considering
limitations of this analogy it can be assumed that
PRL represented a common zero waste/no waste pol-
icy. It aims at minimizing waste or eliminating it
completely from households, practicing moderate
consumption of available resources. Today most
of the time it is an element of the life of the new
middle-class—focusing on conscious consumption,
ecology, and healthy food, et cetera. Back then it re-
sulted from life necessity, it was not a question of
choice. Recycling resources (e.g., multi-use milk bot-
tles) did not only limit amounts of waste, but also
created a closed circulation of goods. This mecha-
nism enabled to turn useless things into functional
and even worthy articles, such as paper (not only
toilet paper). It allowed to reduce useless things in
their intended use by recycling and further use.
Economic and eective management of scarce or
hardly available products resulted in resourceful
strategies. Vegetable and fruit pickles, sewing, x-
ing clothes, needlework, DIY—which are currently
treated as, for example, minimal or zero-waste life-
style6—were quite common skills then.
The status of plastic carrier bags from East Germa-
ny or received in packages from abroad should be
6 The lifestyles above illustrate deconsumption based on two
principles: reduce (intentional reduction of one’s consumption and
assets), reuse (another use of products), repair (xing articles or
their new use), recycle (recycling products), redistribute (exchange,
sale, or giving away redundant things), see: Wilczak 2016.
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54
also noted. There were very few of them and they
were used not only to carry the shopping, but they
had luxury value perception, privileged access
to unavailable goods and a requisite impressing
others (Goman 2008:34-36). As Marek Krajewski
(2013:181) noted, “plastic carrier bags have plenty
of uses, which consumers discover and make car-
rier bags substitute other unavailable goods…Car-
rier bags are equivalent to modernity and western
lifestyle in many social circles,” which accounts for
their virus popularity. Since they were used multi-
ple times, carefully stored, there were not too many
of them (as they are considered a major threat to
the natural environment today).
Reducing waste did not only stem from decits in
the economy, but there was a popular fashion in the
1980s among young people, especially boys, to collect
things, which were regarded as redundant or had
other uses in the West. Renata Tańczuk (2013) notes
that the very essence of collecting is gathering items
which are aributed with value, thereby transform-
ing objects of everyday use into objects endowed with
meaning. Such an object is “freed” from its original
references and is included in the context created by
the collector (its value in use is replaced by aesthetic
value). “The items gathered in a collection have been
excluded from ordinary consumption, have become
objects of aesthetic experience, which means that
belonging to a collection, they will not be used, but
will be admired. Moreover, when becoming part of
a collection, their value in use becomes secondary or
even invalidated” (Tańczuk 2013:107). Jean Baudril-
lard (1996) proposed a system of objects in relation to
their functions and divided things into those which
are used and possessed. Szymon says:
N: there was an exchange of those addresses, you
had lots of addresses, Western addresses, of dierent
Western companies, rms from various countries,
you sent the so-called requests to those addresses.
The requests were in an informal language, prepared
in English with four or ve words. Perhaps four, ve
is too few, but let’s say I don’t know several, up to
ten simple words, which said: send me, please, some
prospectuses, stickers, anything. And you wrote
it down on a postcard and, of course, you spent all
pocket money or money you earned from selling
some, I don’t know, boles, waste paper, anything,
you spent it on sending postcards to dierent plac-
es. And I nd it astounding that, of course, from the
perspective of time when I think about it, that those
companies were sending back.
I: They did? That’s interesting.
N: They did. Those companies were sending enve-
lopes with prospectuses, stickers, tags, leers to our
home address. Well, I think now that it was err it was,
I guess, their marketing maturity/ as if they were pre-
dicting some time. I think that in the ‘80s, it was, of
course, still communism and socialist, and so on. But,
for those Western companies it could be a potential
market for their product in the future, even far in the
future. So when we got Coca Cola stickers, we were
over the moon. We were puing those stickers every-
where, or other brands, or, for example, from other
rms. I remember that my biggest my kind of / trea-
sure/ rst of all, it was ridiculous that you were tak-
ing those addresses and sent them. You were some-
times sending those requests just about anywhere, to
any company. So I remember that I got from UEFA
or some companies from Swierland. For example,
some chocolate producers from Swierland and they
were sending color labels. Of course, it’s all rubbish
now, but in the ‘80s this label err of a Western choc-
olate was precious, or, or, or some, err I don’t know
a sticker or whatever or a poster. Another type of
print, there were some printed materials with some,
I don’t know, golden elements, leers. Everything was
very colorful, glossy, err as I say now every choco-
late bar is wrapped like that, but back then when it
was totally dierent from everyday life, you know,
when an envelope arrived, when an envelope arrived
in the postbox/ a postman brought an envelope from
the West we were extremely happy. I remember I got
some stickers from Hong-Kong. And it’s the farthest
place which I keep thinking about/ So there was, in
fact, such an element and I even don’t know where
Ikeep it, I’ve lost it. Because in the meantime, we were
moving a few times so, so all those treasures/ and they
were my incredible treasures, got lost somewhere, but
it doesn’t maer, because I was puing them from one
place to another in my memory. I remember them,
Korea, not Korea, but Hong-Kong, from Hong-Kong
some colorful/ and it’s some memory, because as I say
we have it all around every day. Every silly chocolate
bar wrapper or tea packaging is also well-printed,
designed, beer or worse. But, back then when you
received some colorful brochures or chocolate pack-
aging or Lego stickers or err…anything then it was
a really big day. And incredible emotions were associ-
ated with it. And it was lasting through all my prima-
ry school (.) it was. Err perhaps more about the fth,
sixth grade, because primary school had eight grades
then. And it, it lasted. And it was an araction, when
we received something, we brought it to school and
boasted of it before one another.
Szymon’s statement illustrates successive stag-
es of life of things when they dier in their uses,
move between social-cultural contexts, where they
acquire dierent status and meaning. Important-
ly, one object (e.g., label) can be categorized as
waste-paper or sentimental fetish or a collector’s
item. It is the user who decides value and the use
of an object—they specify social practices about it,
considering “parameters” (potential) of that object.
Things such as prospectuses, brochures, stickers,
labels, which were primarily used for market-
ing-advertising purposes in capitalistic econom-
ic reality, represented cognitive (extending his
knowledge) and emotional values (evoking ecstatic
responses). They were used dierently from their
intended use; they served as decorations, helped to
personalize space, facilitated identication on the
basis of items collections.
Perception of Szymon’s artifacts as potential items
of private collections was inuenced by their val-
ue which was unachievable in socialist economy
and their prior experience with consumer culture
(packaging after products unavailable in Poland).
Although they did not present any (recognizable)
esthetic value and practical functions, they were
regarded as worthy. These collections signied
that their owner had access to unique products,
which raised his/her status in social circles. These
goods were also used in interactive practices of
building ME (Goman 2011). Using those items for
collecting extended their lives; before they became
waste products, they went through multiply stages
of use. And although they were eventually dema-
terialized (“vanished”), they remained in the same
place each time the narrator moved house and thus
became a durable item in the narrator’s biographi-
ca l me mo r y.
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Graphic elements, colors, design made them objects
from another order than everyday use things. It can
be said that “contact” with those goods was making
the day in everyday life. The narrator denes them as
“treasures,” ergo something aributed with high val-
ue (emotional and material), which requires special
treatment (eorts and care), is (most of the time) un-
reachable to others, and (frequently) remains myste-
rious. Szymon, when speaking about his “treasures,”
describes them as “extraordinary” (to amplify their
signicance), which indicates a dierent aitude to
goods, which he admits are quite “ordinary” in terms
of their availability today, transience, failure to evoke
emotions and aesthetic experiences. Those previous-
ly desirable objects regained their intended functions
in the capitalist economic system and, additionally,
they became commonplace and plain.
Actions mentioned by Szymon prove diusion pro-
cesses in the core-periphery conguration (using glo-
balization terminology). It is of interest that an im-
pulse came from a peripheral culture representative.
The narrator demonstrated his entrepreneurial spir-
it while acquiring goods—he used one category of
goods (with PRL background) to gain access to other
goods representing Western culture. Cashing in on
redundant belongings, waste paper and boles, he
was “investing” in media of exchange (stamps and
postcards) initiating processes of transfer of goods
between varied cultural contexts. The uses of goods
described above—diering substantially from the
uses in their culture of origin—illustrate mechanisms
of including objects into existing culture (in this case,
it was prestigious functions of items) and their rein-
terpretation in accordance with local culture princi-
ples (Linton 2007).
Goods as Medium of Transformation
The case related by Szymon shows that the organization
of life described above did not result in closure or lack
of cultural contacts. Family or friends living in the West
provided access to its assortment of goods by sending
packages with decit products in Poland such as: coee,
chocolate, sweets, household chemicals, or clothes. In ad-
dition, the second half of the 1980s brought about intense
economic emigration, both short- and long-term, legal
and illegal. “Large scale and dynamic migration in the
last decade of PRL, especially in 1980-1982 and 1987-1989,
signied major political, economic, and social changes.
Increasing emigration at the end of that decade might
have contributed to the nal ‘collapse of etatism,’ which
determined Polish living conditions for the previous for-
ty years” (Stola 2015:55). Comparing household goods in
terms of durable goods in two time intervals (per hun-
dred households) we note that “there were 2,4 passenger
cars in 1965 while 20 cars in 1985. Radio sets respective-
ly: 1965—77 pcs., 1985—110 pcs., TV sets: 1965—27 pcs.,
1985—90 pcs., washing machines: 1965—45 pcs., 1985—75
pcs., refrigerators: 1965—9 pcs., 1985—80 pcs.” (Kulesza
1990:81). In spite of their rising popularity, the summary
does not include articles such as tourist equipment, tape
recorders, record players, hi-, camera lms, projectors,
slides, kitchen and other household devices, stocks of
books, gramophone records, et cetera (Kulesza 1990:81).
Foreign trips and proliferation of technological applianc-
es show potential for modernization of goods, including
aempts of individuals to dier in terms of possessions.
Migrations of Things
The movement of elements of culture—material and
nonmaterial goods—was a consequence of liberal-
ization of passport policy (1987-1988) and a collaps-
ing economic system (see: Stola 2015). Trips to other
people’s republics (particularly East Germany) be-
came more common; Yugoslavia and Hungary were
popular destinations, too. Those trips had dierent
purposes, but their commercial aspect—a covert
function of such declared tourist travels—was among
major goals. Michał (1st excerpt) and Szymon (2nd ex-
cerpt concerns trips in the 1990s) speak about their
parents’ foreign trips:
N: Then, in 1987, 1988, more or less, when we moved
to [a town in south-east Poland]. Patents got a at
then./ And from that time
I: Hmm.
N: So I remember that all dad’s trips: to Turkey, Tur-
key, Bulgaria, Russia/ the former ones err opportuni-
ties to trade
I: (laughing)
N: abroad. They were also buying, I don’t know what
they were buying. Still/ no, I remember that there
were here/ in Poland they were buying, I guess, some
(smacking lips) err calendars
I: Hmm.
N: and took those calendars to Bulgaria. They sold
those calendars in Bulgaria and bought something,
I don’t remember what. Then to Turkey, jeans and tur-
bo chewing gums in Turkey.
I: (laughing)
N: And then to Poland. So he took trips like that (.)
I: And there were cosmetics in Hungary, too.
N: Oh. Cosmetics were also somewhere/ where were
those cosmetics from? / No, those cosmetics were,
they were Soviet, I remember. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
I: Well, my dad/
N: Russian, Russian cosmetics, yes.
I: (laughing) My dad used to go to Hungary and
Czechoslovakia, too. (laughing)
N: So we, we, Hungary, no. Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
no. The route was to the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Tur-
key. It went it went that way.
***
N: So it was extremely poor everywhere and some-
how people were geing by. Err I remember a lile
when I wasn’t admied to [a large city in Poland] and
I was geing about and somehow err there was a time
when my mum started to travel to trade, it was the
time when people were travelling abroad, Hungary,
Turkey, and so on. Italy, so it was that/ from time to
time she would leave her work, take time o to earn
some extra because she was working and err and
err to earn extra they were travelling to deal some-
thing small. So there was a time when, when, when
Polish people started going abroad. I mean, they had
travelled abroad before, to Hungary and so on, and
brought some grocery products err food. Then there
was also Turkey, some sweaters, some clothes, they
went and brought back, and so on.
Travel destinations (apart from Turkey, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Italy mentioned
above) diered depending on the area of living
(Michał—south-east Poland, Szymon—central Po-
land). Dierent products/goods were traded in each
country. It was essential—to make the trip nan-
cially successful—to know what assortment was
in demand in a given country. TV sets were often
brought from the Soviet Union, watches, video play-
ers, and cameras from West Germany, clothing and
cosmetics from Turkey (Lesiakowski 2015).
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Circulation of goods in designated directions, regula-
tion of this process by a set of rules and principles some-
what remind the tribal kula (see: Malinowski 1987).
A major dierence is that the transactions above were
of commercial character (absent in the kula), and did
not lead to creating lasting bonds between partners.
Referring to biographical experiences connected with
a camp in East Germany, Piotr speaks about assortment
of products available in shops there (this comparison does
not always show advantage of foreign range of goods).
N: Well, at rst sight, grocery stores were beer stocked
there. At least I wasn’t too interested in other stores as
a young man, perhaps I wanted to buy some tapes,
too, and (.) they were of miserable quality compared
to those you could buy in Pewex. But, they were avail-
able, I mean, it was cheaper and there was one more
thing that err I mean cocoa was available there. I mean,
stores were well stocked. It was also possible to buy
lm for the camera, also black and white. It wasn’t so
easily available here towards the end of the 1990s.
Trips to East Germany and other state-controlled
economy countries, which did not suer such se-
vere shortages, brought substantial eects in private
consumption. Commercial tourism was generating
private import of goods to the country, which later
found their way to resale shops. The eect was that
private foreign trade was thereby legalized and the
assortment of available goods in domestic shops
became broader (Mazurek 2010). Thanks to tourist
trade aractive products were appearing on the mar-
ket and other complementary initiatives were devel-
oping in unocial channels of production and dis-
tribution. Stola (2015) even writes about an explosion
of new forms of entrepreneurship and resourceful-
ness. Owing to articles brought from East Germany,
Polish households boasted of new equipment and
devices. “There were toasters, cameras—households
were upgrading. Products from East Germany were
just a sample of a beer, consumer world of the West;
they were made more carefully and became available
for purchase on the Polish market, not only seen in
advertising catalogues” (Mazurek 2010:123). They
were also usually cheaper so it was possible to sell
them at a prot (Kochanowski 2010). As a result, in-
dividuals raised their material status, but also gained
prestige in social and family networks. Therefore,
goods brought people together and contributed to
the transformation (Abriszewski 2008; Latour 2010).
Emancipation through Things
In their interviews, the narrators refer to radio and
television, which played a signicant role in their
processes of socialization, and cassee and video
tapes. The media and data carriers above enable
looking at the systemic transformation of the late
1980s and early 1990s not only from a perspective
of technological inventions, but also through the
development of private entrepreneurship. Both of
these phenomena were characterized by liberation
of individuals from paerns of behavior imposed by
socialism. Szymon and Piotr speak about the impact
of radio and television on their lives:
N: there were two channels on TV, we had black and
white TV set, old and damaged Ametyst.7 The picture
7 TV sets appeared in Poland in the ‘50s. “The rst batch of 80
‘Leningrad’ TV sets was imported to Warsaw in 1953 while in
1955 about 10000 pieces were available on the market. They were
in Channel 1 was quite all right, but the picture of
Channel 2 was hardly working and it was necessary to
wave an aerial to see anything, there were days when
nothing was working in Channel 2. But, there were
days when the picture was a lile beer, but poor pic-
ture was usual. As a rule, the picture was poor. (.) So,
for example, some program starts at some time in the
afternoon, there were programs/ err there were fewer
news bulletins so they were more accessible.
***
N: It seems to me that I was largely inuenced by TV
in the ‘80s, but also by the radio. But, perhaps it was (.)
well, it is dicult to say to what degree. The radio was
a contact, some contact with the foreign world when it
comes to music. (.) And there were some things on the
radio which came from abroad, from behind the west-
ern border. Err there were fewer such things on TV.
The media work as a monopoly in a monocentric po-
litical system: the state-owned television controlled
both TV channels (Channel I was available nation-
wide from 1958, Channel II from 19708), the state-
owned radio oered four channels,9 launched over
imported from USSR and East Germany (‘Rubens’ cost 4600 zł a
piece). The production of ‘Wisła’ (4000 zł), the rst Polish TV set,
was launched at the turn of 1955 and 1956. It was modeled on
the Soviet set ‘Avangarda,’ which was no longer in production
on account of its too tiny screen. For this reason, production of
a more updated brand ‘Belweder’ was launched in 1957. Since
January 1957 TV sets had to be registered (subscription fee was
40 zł), there were 21000 pieces” (Kozieł 2001:266).
8 The rst experimental program was broadcast in 1952; TV
programs were available twice a week in 1955 and the rst na-
tionwide channel was launched in 1958. Channel 1 of Public
TV had a reduced air time in 1981 whilst Channel 2 was sus-
pended altogether then and restored in 1982 in limited avail-
able air time (Kozieł 2001:315-316).
9 It was broadcast nationwide in 1945 and local radio stations
were also set up in Cracow, Katowice, Poznan, Bydgoszcz,
Gdansk, Lodz, Szczecin, Torun, and Wroclaw. In 1949
ten plus years. This organization of the media system
that was realizing political goals of the ruling party
called into question the credibility of news broadcast-
ing—it raised antipathy and resistance (“it is dicult
to assess the credibility of the news on TV and on the
radio” [Piotr]).
The development of video tape players and VHS cas-
sees in the late 1980s and “video boom” between
1988 and 1992 marked a crucial event in the existing
structure of the media system because it created new
socio-cultural practices. The new technological inven-
tions extended access to Western popular culture con-
tents, which was severely limited in PRL. Piotr says:
N: I don’t know, it seems that VHS were generally im-
portant in the late ‘80s and there were lms on them,
which I hadn’t seen. But, for example, my sister was
delighted. Dirty Dancing is something I still don’t
understand. And (.) this dance is so completely
strange to me and so on. I know that some people are
moved by it even today. When my wife met with my
sister (.) some time ago they recalled it and all, but it,
really, for me doesn’t maer at all. I know there was
such a phenomenon. For me, tape cassees were more
important, and they suddenly disappeared. It was
probably sometime in the middle of the ‘90s when
I started studying at the university. And (.) I was lis-
tening to music recorded on those cassees, there
was a lot of music which could be classied as Pol-
ish rock music from that time. Err there were many
Channel II (broadcast 24 hours from 1962). Channel III start-
ed broadcasting in 1958 on short waves and became available
nationwide in 1962. Channel IV started broadcasting in 1976.
The state-owned radio station was a monopolist until 1989,
but it was possible to listen to programs broadcast for Poland
by radio stations from the West: Radio Free Europe, BBC,
Voice of America (Grzelewska 2001:246-260).
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bands back then such as Maanam err Lombard err
Budka Suera, Lady Pank. (.) I hope not to overlook
any band, but all those tape cassees were record-
ed by someone, it was absolute piracy, ‘cause, I don’t
know, I don’t know at all what you had to do to get
ahold of a real vinyl record. But, such things were re-
ally happening. And you could erase and copy music
on those cassees as much as you wanted. (.) it, you
could play it afterwards. It was possible to swap those
cassees, exchange, listen to them together or alone
through headphones. There was such a contrap-
tion as the radio and tape player, it was licensed by
Grundig. Err my wife recalls Kasprzak, it was prob-
ably the same inside, I guess, but it had beer design
outside. And those cassees t there. (.) so, I guess,
everyone was listening to those recordings on those
tape cassees. They were geing used up, let’s say.
I could point at the shops in [a large city in Poland]
where they were located back then, where such tape
cassees were available, but I don’t know if it is rele-
vant. I mean, they maered a lot back then. Err (.) oh,
several days ago I heard there was a day of the shop,
a day of the vinyl record shop. It’s strange it could be
celebrated now, ‘cause everybody buys music pieces
on iTunes today. So, so (.) it was needed, some eort,
it was necessary to go to some shop, which was a pri-
vate enterprise, that was the name for a lile business
then. And you could buy some cassee there, it was
a lile beer quality than your own recordings. It was
probably also a pirate tape, but it didn’t maer then.
I guess it didn’t. I mean, I couldn’t buy any other cas-
see but pirated ones, and nothing else was available.
Cassee tapes and tape players (Grundig and Kaspr-
zak, which the narrator regards as reliable and
long-lasting in another unquoted excerpt) occupy an
important part in the narrator’s biographical memory.
They provide some context for considering other fac-
tors in the media perception; rst and foremost, a wide
variety of the media reception situations—an indi-
vidual can use the media on his/her own or use this
opportunity to build social relations. The media also
oer social functions such as integration or entertain-
ment. Piotr discusses benets and gratication gained
thanks to denite media choices, for example, making/
maintaining social contacts, emphasizing specic life-
styles, opportunities for emotional release, deriving
cultural satisfaction (see: McQuail 2008; Maigret 2012).
In addition, this excerpt illustrates privatization of the
media reception, thanks to possible ways to record the
picture or sound and reproduce them many times af-
terwards (it was possible to record/copy, etc.). Second-
ly, there was an aspect of creating social networks and
circles around preferred kinds of music, bands, or mu-
sicians, which was further strengthened by exchange
of cassee tapes here. It was of crucial signicance in
the political system in question, as it made it possible
to free oneself from ocial cultural contents and the
state-controlled media. Although the recorded pieces
often came from the state-owned radio stations, creat-
ing personal music compilations was an act of individ-
ual reception practices, which were treated as subver-
sive actions. Piotr enumerates several names of bands
from the 1980s—Maanam, Lombard, Budka Suera,
Lady Pank—whose music contested and opposed the
existing system. Listening to independent rock music
from pirated cassee tapes was a generational experi-
ence of youths coming of age in the 1980s.
Looking at the life of things, Piotr says that cassee
tapes “got tired”; it resulted from their multiple uses
which led to a lower quality of recorded sound. Using
this formula the narrator denes a not-so-obvious psy-
cho-physical state of this medium (more or less con-
sciously). The resulting stage was when cassee tapes
“got lost” and were replaced by CDs and then dema-
terialized in favor of digital sound recording symbol-
ized by ITunes. It is interesting that exploitation does
not apply to vinyl records which have not lost their vi-
tality and have become desirable collector’s items.
VHS cassees did not play a signicant role in Pi-
otr’s biographical experience, whereas Michał re-
calls them in the context of “very nice aesthetics of
the 1990s and rst VHSs.” We should note several
phenomena stemming from growing popularity of
video players in the 1990s.
Grzegorz Fortuna (2013) identies three areas where
changes resulting from the appearance of video
were noticed. From an economic and political per-
spective, the video market was one of the rst to
be ruled by the forces of supply and demand (the
government had no control of its development),
from a cultural and social perspective, it was the
time of the varied oer which was not provided by
other mass media, and which shaped the taste and
aitude of many participants of cultural life. “With
the benet of hindsight, an objective value of those
objects is not too high, however, they carry great
sentimental value. They remind of an intriguing pe-
riod: budding capitalism, adventure of looking for
desired titles on the shelves in the rental store, and
the rst lm fascinations” (Fortuna 2013:43). By that
means, viewers gained access to the medium which
let them become independent of political authori-
ties and lm critics power who decided which lms
entered the cinema and television distribution (Fili-
ciak 2013). Films on VHS cassees presented a vari-
ety of lm genres and varied artistic levels—most
of the time they were popular Western productions.
Taking into consideration the original cost of pur-
cha se, vide o players s ig ni ed a hig h socia l s tatus10 and
ensured material and social distinction. “Video play-
ers were status symbols to Polish people, but rst and
foremost, they were a source of contact with Western
popular culture, a source of escapist pleasures, but
also realization of modernization discourse and aspi-
rations related to consumption. Nevertheless, in 1985,
when the number of video players in Poland was esti-
mated to be nearing half a million, there were merely
ten lms in ocial distribution…A steady supply of
new lm titles was provided by informal social net-
works—professional to some extent and somewhat
community-based” (Filiciak 2011:72).
An informal market for cultural goods such as cassee
tapes and VHS cassees shows a scale of piracy then,
but also growing entrepreneurship. “Illegal video
cassee rental shops or stalls were usually in private
houses and were not easy to nd, so to be admied
it was necessary to know somebody who knew the
owner—it was working completely underground and
beyond the state control. Besides private houses, vid-
10 “At the beginning of the 1980s video players were exotic and
hardly available in Poland. Branded video players, available in
Pewex and Baltona, cost from 800 to 1000 dollars in 1981. Although
their prices were gradually decreasing (in 1985 Panasonic, Sanyo,
or NEC video player was available for 430-500 dollars), but those
amounts were still much beyond the nancial reach of average
Polish people, who earned from 30 to 50 dollars a month. They
would have to spend their yearly earnings to buy a video player”
(Fortuna 2013:28). As a result, a substantial number of video play-
ers available in Poland between 1980 and 1982 were smuggled
from abroad. They were in the possession of wealthy or enterpris-
ing individuals, whereas legally purchased sets were mainly at
schools or in state institutions.
Life of Things from the Perspective of Polish Systemic Transformation
Renata Dopierała

Qualitative Sociology Review • www.qualitativesociologyreview.org 63
©2019 QSR Volume XV Issue 4
62
eo cassee rental shops were often located in garages,
bazaar stalls, or car trunks, from which cassees were
rented or sold on the local fair. There was still another
popular method of distribution in the countryside and
lile towns which looked like the travelling cinema—
the TV set and video cassee recorder owner arrived
in some place and placed a TV screen in the back of the
van and played a lm to the viewers for a small fee”
(Fortuna 2013:30). At rst, VHS cassees were available
in unocial video rental shops, fairs oering illegal
lms, or paid recording services on a blank cassee
bought from Pewex or Baltona (Fortuna 2013:30). The
Baltona store also oered original American lms on
cassees, but “if somebody did not particularly care
about an original edition—it was available in the car
trunk sale from some enterprising man on the nearest
bazaar,11 typically recorded on two blank 180-minute
tapes. The lms were usually recorded from satellite
TV with Polish dialogues or they were copied from
foreign cassees brought from foreign trips by rela-
tives or friends” (Drenda 2016:121). Video rental shops
were legalized in 1988 and then the market stabilized.
In the early 1990s, the rst private television stations12
11 “Cassee stalls became popular in the 1990s. They are often
in photos from 1989, 1990, 1991: Niewiadów caravans changed
into a makeshift grocery store or small restaurant car oering
toasted cheese sandwiches and pizza…They served ice-cream
and fast food of late PRL—toasted cheese sandwiches and Polish
versions of hot dogs, bread rolls with mushrooms…Then street
sides were occupied by K67 kiosks—a tidy modular creation de-
signed by a Slovenian Saša J. Mächtig” (Drenda 2016:109). They
were an alternative to makeshift stalls, looked modern, esthetic,
and tasteful, they are used for dierent purposes, for example,
newsagent’s, kebab bar, janitor’s booth. The objects where private
enterprises were developing appeared in Michał’s narration.
N: Err that time some 1989 when err there was certain eco-
nomic freedom it was starting to look like that. There were
those buses with err bus-bars or, or caravans err with bars
inside (.) It was that those, those, those sausages ord-/ or-
dered from those buses on some fairs or some err some pub-
lic feasts. Well, it terribly got stuck in my mind, you know.
12 Polsat TV has been a licensed broadcaster since 1993 (Polsat
Channel 2 was launched in 1997), TVN (formerly known as TV
Wisła) began broadcasting nationwide in 1997, RTL7 has been
started broadcasting and the media oer became more
diversied, which decreased popularity of video cas-
sees.
Apart from watching and sharing lms on VHS cas-
sees it was possible to use them dierently in the
post-transformation media system (see: Mikułows-
ki-Pomorski 2008). It became common practice to
record lms from TV channels and play them later
on (another aspect of becoming less dependent on
xed hours of television programs). It was also possi-
ble to video everyday life, for example, family events
(TV channels held competitions for funny videos
sent in by viewers in the 1990s). Accordingly, collec-
tions of VHS cassees became a sign of the times.
Concluding Remarks. Ambiguity of Things
Transformation processes can be used to classify
changeability of things and a variety of their catego-
rization. I am speaking about things-waste materials
and things-treasures, which appeared above in the
context of processes of change and collecting items. It
is dicult to dene a strict criteria for the usefulness of
a thing or lack thereof. A thing is useful if it is practical-
ly used, but also a thing which is useful and needed for
various purposes (functions of material things). Within
the framework of culturally constructed and socially
regulated meanings, things go through three stages:
they are goods, waste, and keepsake. The uses do not
always change to the same degree. Those stages can
overlap depending on individual aitude and mindset.
It is clearly demonstrated in Michał’s interview:
working since 1996 (Świderski 2002). Radio Zet, RMF FM, and
Radio Maryja received radio licenses to broadcast nationwide in
1993 (Dobek-Ostrowska 2002).
N: Err so it was (smacking lips) hmm it was like at rst
(.) there were hmm/ at rst we wanted to run a store
here in [a big city in Poland] with (.) dierent crappy
things, you know/ I mean, actually, they weren’t rub-
bish, kind of “precious rubbish,” because it was very
I: Hmm.
N: It’s very/ for somebody those things/ those things
are just rubbish, for another person, they are trea-
sures.
I: Rare things.
N: Rare things. We wanted to run a lile store like
that in [a big city in Poland]
I: Hmm.
N: Err with things gathered from the market a lile
big, a lile from err from the family loft. Such things
which err you remember from childhood.
I: Hmm.
N: For example err some err fairy tales err such fairy
tales for (.) a projector, t for a projector/ What was the
brand’s name of those projectors?
I: Err (thinking)
N: Projector Jacek and projector, I guess
I: Ania.
N: Ania, that’s right.
I: I know. I have Ania. (laughing) Ania.
N: Yes, that’s right. Ania, I guess/ but probably there
was also Jacek, I guess. Yes. Err or some err old post
stamps, packaging hmm, posters, old car models,
something that brings back childhood memories…Or
err there were also mainly pictures. All kinds of book
covers, which everybody used to have then, because
everybody had the same books. It’s kind of scary, you
know, how deep it was inside me.
I: Hmm.
N: Even these days I have those ashbacks and all
the time, we, I mean, we, I mean [name of the shop]
want to use in our err in our products because this
is something which is not available now, but back in
the past err it was available and for me, it was hmm
err what? Important, joyful, it wasn’t sad at all. So err
I guess that is about it what I wanted to say about/
about (laughing) such memories
I: Hmm.
N: And using those memories today.
The narrator’s story focuses on two systems and
rules for action aiming at opening a rubbish shop.
It is not an obvious combination of words as the
shop is typically associated with needed/desirable
goods, whereas rubbish (in most cases) lacks these
aributes. It may also be noticed in the ways of ac-
quiring those articles: the market and aic work
dierently—the market is associated with cash
transactions, money, while the aic stores things
which are out of use to some degree: periodical-
ly, redundant, outdated, even though they can
potentially be used later in the future. The aic
also stores things whose life is in limbo before it
is decided whether they are still needed or could
be scrapped, and the aic is their repository (see:
Thompson 1979). An article in the aic can “return”
to its former functions, acquire/gain new ones (e.g.,
as a component of a new product, be renovated), or
become completely useless.
This redenition—an ongoing process of cultural
changes of value of things: rubbish vs. treasures—
occurs due to a variety of factors: market forces,
changing aesthetic tastes of individuals, trendy
lifestyles (Smolarek 2013:74-75). Articles, which
have their origins in PRL, may be classied as use-
less and therefore “rubbish,” or they may be signif-
Life of Things from the Perspective of Polish Systemic Transformation
Renata Dopierała

Qualitative Sociology Review • www.qualitativesociologyreview.org 65
©2019 QSR Volume XV Issue 4
64
icant as they have sentimental value (“treasures”).
Accordingly, neither of these denitions eliminates
their potential commercial value (“taking advan-
tage of memories”). The redenition is illustrated
by the popularity of items produced in PRL. Many
pieces of furniture (e.g., armchairs) or electronic
goods (e.g., record players) have revived and be-
come fashionable today. They are valued for their
design, functionality, durability, and reliability—
they are not only indicative of a vintage lifestyle,
but they also present an autotelic symbolic value.
Popularity of those goods and devices is also re-
lated to their independence of politics and focus
on their aesthetic dimensions (as explained by Mi-
chał13), economic aspects, and making those arti-
facts elements of folklore. Including them in the
capitalist system triggers a range of actions which
change their meaning, status, uses, and functions
to mark another/new stage in their biographies.
13 Michał speaks about bringing together objects of dierent
eras and origins—he points to his household furniture which
comprises items made in the ‘60s and ‘70s and modern indus-
trial productions. It should be observed that he distances him-
self from PRL politics and focuses only on esthetic and senti-
mental aspects of articles.
I: (laughing) Well, but if we, for example (.) / visited you
at home, then you also have this, I mean, does it look like
N: Yes.
I: a variety of items?
N: Hmm.
I: Does it look like that?
N: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Well, err (.) well, then, doesn’t it.
So we have err p-posters, old Polish posters on the walls, err
they are everywhere. I have a glass case with packages. I just
like old Polish packages very much.
I: Hmm.
N: So it is arranged err hmm in this style / the furniture
is also old, from the ‘60s and ‘70s, so it is set / arranged in
a mixed style, a lile old, a few Ikea pieces.
I: So, am I right that although you cut o those political
and historical, let’s say, events, you are still aware of what
those things are connected with and their history/
N: You know what? Well, well, whether you want it or not,
but it isn’t a topic we talk about.
I: Well, it’s clear. But, still/
N: We’re only and exclusively into their aesthetic dimensions.
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Renata Dopierała