Wiejskość jako obcość

Abstract

This article is an attempt at an analysis of the meaning of the category of rurality presented from the perspective of “otherness”. The author begins from a sociological formulation of the notional opposition “we”-“others”. She has used the concept of F. Znaniecki, explaining the antagonism towards others, and the concept of G. Simmel, as well as their application in the works of Polish researchers of the rural culture. The author has reviewed the meanings of the category of “countryside” and “rurality”, which in the postmodern era are constructed socially and refer more to the sphere of culture rather than to the description of real geographical space. As a result, in the social discourse there function various narrations of rurality from a pastoral narration, presenting the countryside as rural idyll, to the postmodern narrations, exposing the backwardness and underdevelopment of the countryside. The category of “otherness” appears in the context of rural problems as an overt or hidden category. The former is used to emphasize the differences between the rural and the non-rural world, the latter functions as a latent cognitive structure.