Vol. 70 No. 1 (2026): The Biographical Method in the Social Sciences
Articles and essays
Un(usual) crisis: the COVID-19 pandemic in the biographical experiences of American and Polish care workers
Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Wydział Nauk Społecznych, Instytut Socjologii
Abstract
This article analyses how care workers, employed in the care sector in Poland and the USA, coped with their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in their life histories and whether and how they retrospectively normalised it (i.e. “tamed”it by the use of various biographical resources). The article considers four meanings of normalisation: the return to normality, the invisibility of chronic crises, the institutionalisation of innovations, and the biographical “taming”of the crises. The analysis draws on 48 biographical interviews with care workers in Poland and in New York State, USA, conducted in 2021–2024. The empirical section discusses the biographical and social contexts of the normalisation of the COVID-19 pandemic in both interview collections and proposes a typology of biographical normalisation mechanisms, including precarious, resourceful, professional, and relational types.
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