Giełczyn (gmina Dobrzeń Wielki) dzisiaj
Giełczyn (Dobrzeń Wielki Commune) - today

Summary/Abstract: Gie‡czyn (Gie‡czyn commune), or in other words Dobrzeæ Wielki (DobrzeæWielki commune), the object of Stanis‡aw Ossowski’s sociological analysesshortly after the end of World War 2, continues to provoke scientific interest and puzzle with the complexity of its social processes and phenomena.In an article written in spring 2014 two fundamental goals determining thecommune’s current development were indicated. These were the vicinityof the city of Opole, and the presence of the Opole power station withinthe commune’s boundaries. It was pointed out in the article that they arealso contributing once again to an intensification of various social phenomena and processes: social disintegration, the vanishing of cultural identity, superficial integration of the residents, and the loosening of socialbonds. At the same time the inhabitants of the Gie‡czyn commune (historically and today) – and especially in the context of the emergence of various ‘powerful’ external threats (e.g. national verification, difficulties linkedto the functioning of the national-socialist or communist totalitarian systems) – manage in their current functioning (their everyday lives, everydayattitudes, and the system of values to which they subscribe) to refer to andderive support from local social bonds. They do so disregarding the current national conditions (as, de facto both historically and contemporarily,a ‘minority’ commune, where, for example, the act on national and ethnicminorities applies).Social events observed since November 2015, and aimed at ‘defending’ theintegrity of the Gie‡czyn commune, constitute an example of the reactivation of strong, local social bonds. Its inhabits are speaking out publicly, via avariety of protest-happening activities (concerts, protest songs, activity inthe social media, the blocking of main roads, and the flagging of privateproperty and public buildings), against the incorporation of a few of Gie‡czyncommune’s hamlets into the Opole city area and the weakening of the commune’s potential.

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