Resilience, At Last! Multiculturalism of the Polish-Ukrainian Borderland in the Face of Pandemic and War
摘要
During the last four years after the analysis of multiculturalism in terms of cultural resilience, the studied towns/local communities on the Polish-Ukrainian borderland experienced lockdowns related to the pandemic and the effects of the war in Ukraine. These two external threats very quickly allowed us to check how the multiculturalism of the borderland works as a resilient resource. Earlier research described multiculturalism as a resource which allows the adaptation of social and cultural structures of local communities to the external world but does not transform those structures. It was a rather weak and non-transformative element of local and regional culture, used as a kind of “marketing” resource. The new research performed in 2020 and 2022 in the same local communities shows the reaction on the pandemic lockdowns and on the flow of Ukrainian refugees. The theoretical base of analysis is Pascariu and Rouet four dimensions of resilience described as the capacities of the system to resist, absorb, adapt, and transform and the system paradigm. The system paradigm concentrates on the maintenance of equilibrium of the system by retaining the same function, structure, feedback, and, therefore, identity which may distract from transformation capacity which is the most proactive dimension of resilience. The analysis shows how weak networks of multicultural practices (which existed before 2020) changed their structure during the pandemic and changed their functions after the Ukrainian-Russian war broke out. The bottom-up and top-down intercultural relations very quickly produced similar effects which created “a communitas of helpers” which focuses on supporting others but also each other in a crisis situation. The theoretical challenge connected with that phenomenon is that some activities could be recognised as structures, others as networks, and finally a wide range of activities appear as a tangle of free interactions that create “a communitas of helpers.” The structures, networks, and interactions become modalities of society that are co-present at one time. The Polish-Ukrainian borderland in the time of crisis has become a two-node (its Polish and Ukrainian parts) resilient phenomenon which enables organising support for Ukraine, and is highly effective in sending this support to those who are affected by the war in the East of Ukraine.