Sunday, 30 January 2011

Polish Blogs (written in English)



Blogi na temat polskiej kultury, języka i życia (w języku angielskim).

Here’s a quick list of good blogs (or one's I enjoy) about Polish culture, language and life (all of which are written in English).






Polish Language and Culture
http://www.transparent.com/polish
http://thepolskiblog.co.uk/about
http://www.tastingpoland.com/blog

Polish Language
http://filolozka.brood.pl/

Polish Culture
http://perfectpolish.blogspot.com/
http://polandian.home.pl/

Life in Poland
http://thewarsawblog.com/
http://www.warsawmommy.com/
http://jeziorki.blogspot.com/
http://www.britishinpoland.com/blog

Comedy and Humour
http://anglopolish.com/index.php/en
Posted by Fred at Sunday, January 30, 2011 1 comments
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Friday, 28 January 2011

North East Places


When I first began the ethnographic photography stage of my research I planned to concentrate solely on Polish identity in the city of Newcastle. As the interview stage of my research unfolded it became clear that although there is a significant Polish population resident in Newcastle, Polish families live far and wide across the North East of England and something that especially interested me after meeting these families was how Polish migrants have adapted to living in the North East’s former mining towns, in seaside resorts and rural villages. I began to feel that a study on the North East region might be more useful that one on the city of Newcastle alone.

Moreover, in the early stages of my ethnographic fieldwork I made the mistake of looking for expressions of Polishness in isolation. As you can see by my blog about research findings, sometimes my fieldtrips would seem very fruitless (http://polishfamiliesnewcastle.blogspot.com/2010/03/research-findings-polish-newcastle.html). I soon realised that I was missing the wider context of ‘identity’ in the North East in that it would be interesting to see how Polish identity might sit alongside or overlap other migrant identities and cultural identities in the region.

Here’s a complete list of all the places I covered during my ethnographic fieldwork and links to the research findings they yielded:

County Durham:
Durham
Gateshead:
Bensham
Blaydon
Felling
Gateshead
Low Fell
Whickham
Newcastle:
Arthur’s Hill
Benton
Benwell
Bigg Market
Blakelaw
Byker
Chinatown
City Centre
Cruddus Park
Denton Burn
Elswick
Fawdon
Fenham
Forest Hall
Gosforth
Groat Market
Heaton
High Heaton
Jesmond
Newbiggin Hall
Ouseburn Valley
Red House Farm
Sandyford
Scotswood
Shieldfield
South Gosforth
Walker
Wallsend
Westerhope
Westgate Hill
West Denton
West Moor

Northumberland:
Blyth
Morpeth
Wylam

North Tyneside:
North Shields
Tynemouth
Whitley Bay

South Tyneside:
Hebburn
Jarrow
Pelaw
South Shields

Sunderland:
Roker
Sunderland
To view the entire ‘North East Places’ collection please go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/identityinnewcastle/collections/72157624287694582


Posted by Fred at Friday, January 28, 2011 0 comments
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Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Identity in the North East of England

To find out what life is like for Polish families in the North East of England I wanted to capture something about where expressions of Polishness might ‘fit in’ to the broader urban context of the North East.

I used the research method of urban ethnography, visiting various parts of the region, walking the streets, sampling foods, going into shops, and trying to get an initial feel for the area. I took notes and observations in a field notebook and then looked for expressions of identity in the fabric of the streetscape, photographing and so capturing my data in a visual format. Using the online photo bank Flickr® I was able to code, collate and analyse each photo, and build up a photographic database of expressions of identity in the North East of England.

The project began in February 2010 and was completed in January 2011. 700 photos are stored on the account and I now plan to use this data as part of my doctoral thesis.

The North East of England is generally thought of as one of Britain’s less multicultural regions. My research however, found a rich and exciting abundance of national, religious, cultural and ethnic expressions being played out in North East cities, suburbs, towns and villages.

Here are some examples of my research findings:

African-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/identityinnewcastle/sets/72157624800662396
Japanese-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/identityinnewcastle/sets/72157624745383884
Italian-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/identityinnewcastle/sets/72157624581384390
British-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/identityinnewcastle/sets/72157625062644586
Polish-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/identityinnewcastle/sets/72157624083384267

To view an entire collection of photos on expressions of nationality and culture in the North East of England, please go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/identityinnewcastle/collections/72157624162771035
Posted by Fred at Tuesday, January 25, 2011 0 comments
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