VIRTUAL Lisbon Livable Cities

Abstract

The paper delves into the transformation of the Warsaw creative middle class’ identity which is rooted in the urban environment and distinctive leisure. The author aims to answer the question of what role time spent at the allotment plays in middle-class identity projects. Is leisure influenced by the ‘long arm of the job’ or is it a more independent sphere in the lives of the interviewees? The empirical material was collected during individual in-depth interviews and field observations. The author conducts her analysis through the lens of two categories: romantic visions of socio-nature and cultural dimensions of gardening. She argues the leisure of the allotment holders is based on a complex ethos that includes praise for diligence on the one hand and the need for creative self-expression on the other. Interviewees experience a ‘seduction of craft’, associating hopes for the future with physical work and seeing it as a tool for social transformation. This phenomenon redefines manual work, which is being transformed from a practice imposed by necessity into an identity project. Although the need for self-expression grows out of middle-class anti-consumerism, it ultimately enables the further incorporation of individuals into the system of capitalist production and consumption. The interviewees create ‘biographies for sale’, investing in sophisticated markers of the valuable ‘self’. The allotment garden facilitates the construction of an identity based on qualities desirable in late modernity, such as authenticity or self-development. Taking care of the allotment ‘micro-word’ enables distinctive participation in the experience economy and craft consumption.