Little America EASTERN EUROPEAN ECONOMIC CULTURES IN THE EU

• Published in: The Anti-American Century p. 27
• Main Author: Janos Matyas Kovacs
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Central European University Press 20-04-2007
• Edition: NED - New edition, 1
• Subjects: Acculturation; Americanization; Anthropology; Applied anthropology; Arts; Behavioral sciences; Businesspeople; Calculus; Capitalism; Cultural anthropology; Cultural assimilation; Cultural diversity; Cultural studies; Development studies; Differential calculus; Economic disciplines; Economic geography; Economic regions; Economic theory; Economics; Employment; Entrepreneurs; Ethnography; Ethnology; European studies; Globalization; High culture; Human societies; International development; Labor economics; Mathematical integration; Mathematics; Occupations; Political attitudes; Political science; Political sociology; Pure mathematics; Region of integration; Slavic culture; Slavic studies; Social dynamics; Social sciences; Socialization; Sociology
• ISBN: 9789637326806; 9637326804

Let us imagine the eternal Wessi and the eternal Ossi, typical figures in German popular discourse, talking in a pub about what the Wessi calls Eastern Enlargement. For him or her, EU membership not only covers all the civilizational benefits the “West” generously and light-mindedly offers to the “East” but also refers to the Westward expansion, a sort of “Western Enlargement” of the dangers originating in the former Soviet Empire. The Wessi is anxious about what will happen to his job, family and savings after “those over there” (the infamous Polish plumber and Hungarian truck driver) are allowed to enter