ABSTRACT

I began this project to uncover how social interactions, specifically interpersonal discussions, shape people’s understanding about the EU and ultimately mold their views on the process of integration. I was especially interested in how these conversations matter in the East European context where the tradition of casual political talk is rich. While it may be counterintuitive to think that a region with a history of Communist rule could exhibit higher levels of such informal discussions than found in the US and other Western democracies, it is precisely the absence of public debate during the Communist era that has pushed people to embrace informal, often underground, political discussions. During the course of this project I discovered that the tradition of the so-called “kitchen debates” is still strongly rooted in people’s consciousness. I found this to be true in Poland, a country that has provided me with much insight about the processes through which social interactions affect attitude formation, and has served as the main case study for this project. While informal talks are no longer conducted secretly, Polish people regularly turn to their friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors, to catch up on the latest news about European integration, or to engage in heated debates about the costs and benefits of Polish membership in the EU—and they are doing so in person. Most of the time these talks occur over coffee, or during lunch breaks at work. Sometimes they occur spontaneously as a response to something that someone heard in the news.