“Twist of fate”: declining and rising lines of occupational career in the biographical experiences of two engineers

KATARZYNA WANIEK is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology of Culture, Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Łódź, Poland, and was a Research Assistant in the EU FP7 “EUROIDENTITIES” project and a co-worker in a project Experience of the Process of Transformation in Poland. Sociological Comparative Analysis Based on a Biographical Perspective financed by the NCN program. She gained the title of Doctor of Philosophy at Otto-von-Guericke Universität, Magdeburg. For many years she has been conducting and analyzing autobiographical narrative interviews. Her research interests include: biographical methods, European identity, collective memory, immigration and intercultural communication, liaison work, transformation, suffering, and stigmatization.

JACEK BURSKI is a sociologist and a Research Assistant at the Department of Sociology of Culture, Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Łódź, Poland. He defended his PhD thesis about the social world of football fans in Poland. He is the author of articles published in Przegląd Socjologiczny, Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej, Kultura i Społeczeństwo, and Warsaw Forum of Economic Sociology. He participated in research projects focused, among others, on biographical research, the consequences of social change, and sociology of work. He is a member of the Polish Sociological Association.