A Site Shaped by Discontinuity The Practices of Place-Making in a Post-Soviet Military Base in Poland

Abstract

In this paper, the authors focus on the place-making practices which have emerged in the Polish post-Soviet military base – Borne Sulinowo. The new civil town (1993-2017) forms a unique reality, as it employs Polish, German and Russian elements, and interweaves the past threads of civil settlements and garrison life with the present. The authors analyze the process of place-making drawing on their research in a site shaped by discontinuity. The aim of the article is to present the multilayered nature of the place-making process as well as diverse, sometimes conflicting, often interdependent and interconnected perspectives through which the place can be understood and experienced.

Keywords

• commodification
• discontinuity
• institutionalization
• multi-locality
• Poland
• post-Soviet base
• place-making
• practices
• symbolization