In the research process, as in life generally, people construct their ethnic identity in different and changing ways. In this process, time is both a resource and a tool for construction. Looking at research into Polish communities in Britain, it is argued that time, far from being a measure of a pre-existing reality, is instead auto/biographically constructive of selves, identities and realities.
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2.
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3.
Fabian, J.
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4.
Fentress, J.
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5.
Gosden, G.
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6.
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7.
Hankiss, A.
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8.
Laurie, H.
and Sullivan, O. (1991) `Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Data in the Longitudinal Study of Household Allocations', Working Papers of the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change No. 7. Colchester: University of Essex.
9.
Nowotny, H.
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10.
Schutz, A.
(1962/1982) Collected Papers 1: The Problem of Social Reality. London: Martinus Nijhoff.
11.
Smith, D.
(1987) The Everyday as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
12.
Somers, M.
(1994) `The Narrative Construction of Identity: A Relational and Network Approach', Theory and Society23(5): 605-649.
13.
Stanley, L.
(1992) The Auto/biographical I: The Theory and Practice of Feminist Auto/biography. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
14.
Stanley, L.
and Wise, S. (1993) Breaking Out Again: Feminist Ontology and Epistemology. London: Routledge.
15.
Sword, K.
with Davies, N. and Ciechanowski, J. (1989) `The Formation of the Polish Community in Great Britain 1939-1950'. The M.B. Grabowski Polish Migration Project Report. University of London: School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
16.
Temple, B. (1992) `Household and Employment Types: The Construction of Social Phenomena', unpublished PhD thesis, Manchester University.
17.
Temple, B.
(1994) `Constructing Polishness, Researching Polish Women's Lives: Feminist Auto/Biographical Accounts', Women's Studies International Forum17 (1): 47-55.
18.
Tonkin, E.
(1992) Narrating Our Pasts: The Social Construction of Oral History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
