Actualisers, Believers, Workers, and Harvesters: The Nuances of the Identity Potential of the Transnational
Bastian Küntzel
University of Wroclaw and Technical University of Chemnitzhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6580-370X
Abstract
In this article, I introduce the phenotypes of Transborder-Actualisers, -Believers, -Workers, and -Harvesters in an attempt to differentiate and add nuance to the understanding of who, and under what circumstances, uses the identity potential of a transborder space in developing a transborder identity. These new categorisations of border-dwellers derive from a qualitative study of 32 people who live and work across the Polish-German border, asking in what ways people who live transnational lives experience and describe their life and identity, and in what ways and for whom a border can become a constituting identity source? Any crisis amplifies what is invisible in daily life, such as inequalities, inefficiencies, structural problems, or identifications, making them more describable and thus available for empirical analysis. I conclude that a transborder, transnational identity, while theoretically available to all who live across a border, is not automatically adopted by all transborder dwellers but is an identity source mainly for a specific subset of people.
Keywords:
transnational identity, transborder life, Poland, Germany, Covid-19 pandemicReferences
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