(Im)mobility, residence and gender in divorce practices and discourses in the rural farming community of East Mazovia Cover Image

(Nie)mobilność, zamieszkiwanie oraz płeć w praktykach i dyskursach rozwodu w wiejskiej społeczności. Etnografia rolniczej gminy wschodniego Mazowsza
(Im)mobility, residence and gender in divorce practices and discourses in the rural farming community of East Mazovia

Author(s): Sylwia Urbańska
Subject(s): Gender Studies, Family and social welfare, Rural and urban sociology, Social Norms / Social Control
Published by: Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze
Keywords: divorce; village; moral discourses; mobility; housing; village inhabitants;

Summary/Abstract: In this article, I analyze the relationship between the gendered practices and discourses of divorce in rural communities and the (im)mobility paths of rural women. I show that the “pioneers of divorce”, that is, women from the agricultural, conservative communities who were the first to divorce in the local social world, developed alternative strategies for staying in the countryside. They did not want to run away, leave, or emigrate permanently to the city or abroad, that is, use the typical path of becoming an ex-wife. I describe the coping patterns they developed after 1989 in order to still be able to live in the village. I explain the subversions of ownership and inheritance, their relationship to traditional patterns of femininity and masculinity. I focus on the gendered patterns of (im)mobility in this case as strategies for choosing the countryside as a place to live. I present my conclusions in the case study of Mirka, a mother with many children, who loses her home after divorce, which means that she must develop coping patterns. I show Mirka’s practices against the background of other variants of practices and moral discourses around divorce in the commune of eastern Mazovia, which I have studied since 2017.

  • Issue Year: 105/2021
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 84-113
  • Page Count: 30
  • Language: English