6533b82efe1ef96bd1292950

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Between leisure and work. The case of Polish trade tourism

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The aim of this article is the introducing of the phenomenon of Polish trade tourism , which took place between the years 1956 - 1989. Working in the sort of interpretative sociology (or more precisely - the phenomenology of Alfred Schutz’s) the ways of experiencing contemporary commercial travel that exist in the social memory were presented. Qualitative research (conducted by the episodic interview) revealed a multitude of ways of constructing memories of the trade tourism and at the same time revealing intersubjectivity of experiences. The example could be the dichotomy of attitudes towards trade travel, in which on one end of the continuum is the sense of shame for practitioners of gray-market exchange of goods, on the other the memory of pride associated with the resourcefulness of contemporary Poles. The research was carried out among 40 people who before 1989 traveled abroad which was very difficult in socialist Poland.