Tomasz Szlendak
Department of Cultural Studies
Institute of Sociology
Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

Is the culture able to create a local identity?

The local government’s reform carried out in Poland over ten years ago resulted, in the case of kujawsko-pomorskie voivodship, in the creation of a territorial unit composed of three historically and culturally diversified parts: the one connected with Wielkopolska of Bydgoszcz land, the next one Torun and Dobrzyn land historically bound with Pomerania and Gdansk and, finally, Kujawy lands situated (approximately) near Włocławek.
Ten years of mutual functioning did change the local government structures, both legal and institutional, nevertheless, it has not left a trace in the awareness of the inhabitants of the region. In other words, there is no such thing as identification of the inhabitants with their region, with kujawsko-pomorskie voivodship.
Still, instead of local identification, we are dealing with various local identifications of: Bydgoszcz, Włocławek, Torun, Chełmno, etc. This state of matters is a source of, among many other things, “elevated” conflicts around political and social initiatives, “artificially” played up competition between particular cities, lack of unite vision of how to manage local marketing and promote the region on national and European area which, as the result, influences tourism. As not the voivodship as a whole but only its separate parts struggle to come into being on both Polish and European maps, the problems that occur have to dealt with by the whole, local governments in particular, which are somehow obliged to take into account rather the interests of the particular parts of the region than the interests of the whole.
It seems that the tools used to construct local identity in the form of political and economic initiatives are not effective. Particular regions constitute , separated form each other, political and economic islands that fight for money for investments, subsidies, etc.
Similar situation is with so-called “classic” social tools of identity creation such as, for instance, sport. Sport (motocross or first-league basketball) only exacerbates and reconstructs the differences between the regions being parts of the same voivodship.
Therefore, the only mean used in the process of the creation of positive self-identification of the inhabitants with the region may be broadly-understood sphere of symbolic and material culture, within which is relatively easy to construct a”regional brand” – a symbol or symbols one can identify with.
The first problem though is the fact that there will be the urgent need to create some regional tradition from the scratch, prepare a new regional map of culture that could be presented to the third party – Poland, Europe- as a unite identification-promotion image.
The second problem is that cultural initiatives or rather “artifacts” present on a map of the region are usually “clausal and self-patting” in the sense that they operate only for local communities, not the whole region. Such “key” brands as Torun’s Old Town or Biskupin, even in Poland are not associated with kujawsko-pomorskie voivodship, but only promote and refer to themselves. There are many cultural initiatives in the region that could contribute to the creation of the basis of “imagined community”, the one the voivodship's inhabitants have a chance to become. Therefore, the initiatives ought to be researched providing for a “dividing potential” of the inhabitants and look for the ones that are characterized by an ”identification-establishing potential” and make a proper selection, which will be useful when the decision concerning the distribution of EU money is to be made. The centers of identification can be the creators, charismatic individuals, events and artifacts (like famous G strings made of lace in Koniakowo). It is all about constructing a suitable “selection tool” of cultural initiatives worth interest from the perspective of the voivodship government in the formation of regional social awareness.
The third problem stems from the fact that the present attempts to construct or reanimate local traditions that result in an increased interest in some region on a nationwide scale are usually referred to as post-folklore. Similarly to the case of Polish Silesia where Silesian tradition is being “rebuilt” in a very shallow manner, resorting only to “flat” stereotypes still functioning in the heads of the Poles (according to these stereotypes, there is no difference between a Silesian and a Bavarian). So doing, the “imagined community” of the Silesians is very specific (strong to such an extend that some part of the Silesians thinks they constitute a separate nation) however, this post-folklore in the world of hyper capitalism heads towards undesirable forms. The cultural content changes into some objects and “images” that can be either sold or made temporarily accessible for money. In other word, the post-folklore is easy to implement to the consumption culture, which in the process of establishing regional identification should be avoided. As a result, such region will be associated with a hyper-stereotypical kitsch available for money, and its inhabitants are not necessarily aware of what their regional identification is composed of.
Of course, relying only on cultural products which may be cashed in is sensible for the construction of regional identity (vide the Podhale’s cheese – oscypek) nevertheless, it would be far more valuable for kujawsko-pomorskie voivodship to seek such cultural initiatives which not necessarily come form the wardrobe filled with stereotypes since these are already there 1) strong attachment of the inhabitants to particular regions and 2) negatively characterized.
The fourth problem is that in order to find and support the above-mentioned initiatives in the region (or to create them form the scratch) that would defy local stereotypes and able to construct regional identification “form zero” and those that bound “the old” (everything characteristic for the region or its part) with ”the new” (a pulsing culture of today), in which Torn’s CSW might be helpful. It is about finding the phenomena such as Warsaw Village Band or Kroke band from Krakow of an enormous “identification” and promotional potential even in Europe.
To sum up, the regional culture must be recreated form the very beginning, with an appropriate brand on which the fight for the minds of the inhabitants can be based. The researched carried out in kujawsko-pomorskie voivdship will be subjected to this issue.