The New Silesia project and its implications for identity

The issues presented in this article are a continuation of previously published research results on the socio-cultural implications of the „construction” of the New Silesia during the period of state socialism. In the process of building the flagship industrial centres of Upper Silesia, recruitment policies and propagandaeducation and manipulation activities aimed at recruiting a multitude of workers played a key role. The emerging agglomerations have become a kind of isolated space – a new socialist world for the new man. The presented empirical material, analyses and interpretations reveal the situational context for the emerging identity of the New Silesians. The discursive analysis made it possible to identify identity processes in terms of identity deconstruction and the production of a homogeneous (simple) identity. The deconstruction of identity was the result of educational procedures, which I recognised – following Michael Foucault – as procedures of discipline. The theoretical construct with which I interpreted the identity condition of the participants in the study is Jozef Tischner’s concept of ‘sheltered people’.