GLOBALISATION VERSUS GROUP IDENTITY. BETWEEN THE TEXT AND RESEARCH PRACTICE (Globalizacja a tozsamosc zbiorowa. Pomiedzy tekstem a praktyka badawcza)

The article discusses the contradictions between the general scientific reflection on globalisation present in social sciences and the attempts of the anthropologist who tries to interpret the phenomenon of globalisation and its social and cultural consequences in a specific local space. Two opposing scientific discourses appear against this background - one is theoretical, rather poorly rooted in empirical research and focused on the attempt to capture universal features of globalisation, detached from a specific place and time, and the other, more anthropological, primarily focused on the phenomenon of glocalisation, which is engaged in field research. Our understanding of the globalisation/glocalisation processes depends on how these phenomena are conceptualised and on the adequate research method chosen.The author discusses the character of relations linking globalisation to the identity building processes and makes references to the concepts of such researchers as Roland Robertson, Ajrun Appadurai, Ulf Hannerz, Manuel Castells, James Clifford, and Zygmunt Bauman. She shows examples of the empirical research of globalisation processes, presented in Polish anthropological texts. The author emphasises the need to conduct profound studies aimed at capturing the sense that local communities associate with the globalisation impacts, thus reorganising their particular world and reconstructing their identity.