Udomowianie ulicy. Z etnograficznych badań terenowych na Wschodniej

The article describes the practices aimed at developing a sense of settlement at a street and the methods bywhich concrete persons and communities imbue the physical entity of a street with a value and a symbolic meaning. The analysis is based on materials collected among the owners of craftsman’s workshops locatedalong one of the streets in the city of Łodź, namely Wschodnia Street. The street was laid out in the early 19th century, concurrently with the development of Łodź as an industrial town; by the outbreak of the 1st World War it had been filled with low-standard tenements containing rented lodgings on the upper levels and retail space on the ground floor. At the turn of the 19th century it was already a street of merchants and craftsmen, and it retained this outlook until the end of the 20th century. Today, it lies within an old, dilapidated and decaying area of Łodź, its residents are impecunious and the shops are closing.