Washing in a Bowl, Bathing, and Showering in Urban Poland: Studying the Dynamics of Practice

Drawing on practice theory and on retrospective in-depth interviews with 24 couples and four individuals, this article discusses the dynamics of practice, using the example of transitions in body cleanliness practice in urban Poland between the postwar period and the 2010s. The transitions in washing unfold across interconnected practices that take particular forms due to the relations between them and between their elements: 1) in the postwar period, the tension between hygienic cleanliness and lack of modern infrastructure was resolved by a ‘mobile’ element of competences: physical strength in occasional bathing or economy of effort in daily washing in a bowl; 2) in the socialist period, washing was merging with the practice of domestication of technology, and modern body cleanliness practice emerged (daily bathing); 3) in the capitalist period, bathing became infused with pleasure and was merging with leisure practice; 4) the coexistence of bathing and showering was socially dividing.