ABSTRACT
The idea of Eastern European backwardness produces and perpetuates the subordination to external models. At the same time, after comparing Polish and Italian activists, one wonders what the former still has to learn about the market from the latter. Ost and Weinstein (1999), through their fieldwork research on the Polish unions, also noted a surprising support for market ideology. Although the alternation of Eastern Europe is not ideal-typical, it remains very different from the recent experience of Italian workers. The Italians have managed to subjectively minimise change at both work and political level. Two main elements have emerged from the Italy-Poland comparison: a sort of neo-proletarian identity among the Poles, and a higher degree of resistance to change among the Italians. Danone management like Fiat's and Lucchini's, praises Central and Eastern European 'dynamism' and 'innovations' in contrast with the 'old', 'declining' Western Europe.
