Do the Lemkos wear jeans? Multiculturality in Poland as a capital and as a burden

The article aims at inquiring whether using the category of 'multiculturality' in the analysis of the contemporary Polish society is at all meaningful. Building on the material from ethnographic fieldwork carried in an ethnically and religiously diverse community, it argues that the study of diversity in Poland needs to take into consideration one basic fact: namely to recognize that diversity in Poland has been developing in the context of one dominant culture and that this context strongly influences the relations between the majority and the minorities. In so doing, the article demonstrates that not only does the category of 'multiculturalism' is misused in the Polish scholarly discourse, but that it obscures the problem of domination and, rather than promoting diversity, it consolidates a view of a monocultural society.aga.pasieka@gmail.comInstytut Slawistyki, Polska Akademia Nau