The Politics of a National Identity Survey

Polishness, Whiteness, and Racial Exclusion

Bibliographic Data

ID11047765
AuthorsK Jaskulowski (0000-0002-8061-0110, Uniwersytet SWPS, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume49
Issue6
Pages1082-1095
Publication date2021-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNationalities Papers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-5992 • E-ISSN: 1465-3923
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/nps.2020.68
OpenAlexW3110903092
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited46

This article analyses a popular survey on national identity in Poland. However, the analysis of the survey is a pretext to remind one of the limitations of crude quantitative methods and to look at the Polish national identity itself. The article shows that the survey questions are far from unambiguous, and respondents might attribute different meanings to them. The survey does not “measure” national identity existing in the world, rather it serves to maintain the hegemonic concept of Polishness. It diminishes the significance of Catholicism and the perceived biological dimension of Polishness. It ignores public sentiment linking Whiteness and Polishness, contributing to maintaining the dominant image of Polishness as free of racism. Under the guise of objective research, the survey is one of the elements sustaining the image of a relatively open and inclusive Polishness. Referring to my own qualitative research and recent literature on the topic, I argue that Polish identity must be seen in terms of selective racism without racism—that is, it is an identity based on racial premises but which at the same time neglects its racial character

Aesthetics · Hegemony · Identity (music · National identity · Political science · Politics · Pretext · Racism · Sociology · Survey data collection · Survey methodology · Survey research · Central European Literary Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Polish Historical and Cultural Studies · Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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