Deindywiduacja jako pragnienie miejskiej tożsamości. O znaczeniu uczestnictwa w wielkich miejskich wydarzeniach kulturalnych na przykładzie ceremonii otwarcia Europejskiej Stolicy Kultury (ESK Wrocław 2016)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to discuss the crisis of urban-related identity of people of Wroclaw which is consists in rejection of current narrative on the city “Wroclaw – the meeting place” and in unsuccessful search for a new urban story. An event which highlighted the enigmatic identity was “Awakening” – the opening ceremony of ECoC 2016. What is visible in the description of the event as well as in the accounts of the participants are identity-related aspirations and rejection of elements of identity which are no longer accepted. Since the presented analysis is inspired by a one-time cultural mega event (and not a cyclic event, such as a festival), the identity of people of Wroclaw is rather practical than reflexive and participation in the event produced a strong feeling of embarrassment the concept adopted for the analysis is deindividuation. Deindividuation is a process of an occasional and short term resemblance of individuals who are usually very different. The act of resemblance leaves a strong mark in the social memory of the event. The empirical basis for the article is data collected in CAWI survey (January 17–26th 2016, N = 2372), focus group interviews (conducted on January 29th 2016) and content analysis of open questions in the CAWI survey (N = 317).