„No bo tym się żyło”. Podział gminy Dobrzeń Wielki w narracjach jej mieszkańców

In this paper I analyze the dynamics of narratives related to a planned takeover of a couple of villages of the Dobrzeń Wielki commune together with the Opole Power Station by the city of Opole (PL). In this context I focus on politics and ethics of emotions, feelings and affects which marked the discursive space and brought varied types of affective togetherness in the field of “political.” Because discursive practices of commune’s inhabitants were shaped by anticipations of uncertain future, they evoked the “ethics of probability” and the “ethics of possibility.” While the former embodied fears connected to the planned division, the latter expressed hope for “good life.” They both inspired various forms of social protest. However, because concepts of “good life” usually relate to discernable ends and strategies, changing circumstances result in different politics and ethics of emotions, feelings and affects. Consequently, when the anticipated takeover became the daily present, the discourses of “authorities” and of “ordinary people” started to diverge. This, in turn, brought reconfigurations of affective togetherness, shift ed poles of the field of “political,” and redefined the local scene of “politics.” The leaders who stuck on ideas defining the pre-partition period lost the latest municipal election to a faction who did not dwell on the past, but promised to work collectively for the better future.