Being at Home in a Place. The Philosophy of Localness

The monograph contains reflections divided into seven parts. The first part Towards the Philosophy of Localness is a theoretical interpretation of the idea of localness being developed as a broad and affirmative concept defining the humans way according to the teaching of a place. This part stems from the need to trace a creative power in what is only seemingly passive, stiffened, separate. A local man is demonstrated in the power to create bonds with the world and a valid story of a place. The next part Being at Home on the Border: The Silesian History of Place and Things introduces into the understanding of local space as world space because it is a place which is the beginning of determining oneself as an individual and as a part of a community - there is Jedermann in a local man. Silesian Görlitz, together with the experience of wandering and stories of those who lost home, enables reflection on localness in the proximity of home and migration. In the part The Transgression of History and the Desire for Nature: The Value of a Derelict Park I focus on the experience of existence developed by a local man, which is formulated on the very margins of the world. The reflection is focused on a fallen landscape design of the former Fazaniec park in Silesia. The next part The Narrative of the Cultural Border and the Silesian Philosophy of Home is focused on the description of the borders and the problem of the dialectics of oppression and border protection.