LIFEWORLDS IN AN ENLARGED EUROPE

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the personal spatiality of people with different economic and cultural backgrounds, using Estonia as an example of a ‘new’ EU country and Sweden as an example of an ‘old’ one. On the basis of survey data, the contacts, interest and feeling of cultural closeness of different cultures and the connections of these with socio-demographic variables, societal trust, and regional identities are analysed. The results show that personal spatiality is spread homogeneously over social groups in Sweden. In Estonia, personal spatiality differentiates socio-demographic groups and is related to general social trust. The society is separated into a personally ‘globalised’ group and a group that feels uncertainty in connection with EU enlargement and globalisation. In the new member states of the EU, cultural adaptation without overcoming transition trauma may cause cultural isolation, even xenophobia. Avoiding resistance against transcultural communication patterns contributes to the development of common values and interregional economic cooperation between EU member states.

Keywords:

• personal spatiality
• lifeworld
• transcultural communication
• identity
• EU enlargement

Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the Estonian Science Foundation within the projects ‘Changing collective identities in Estonia in the context of moving into the global world’ (grant number ETF5845) and ‘Estonia as an emerging information and consumer society: Social sustainability and quality of life’ (grant number SF0180017507). I am much obliged to my PhD instructor Triin Vihalemm for many helpful comments, Associate Professor at the Department of Journalism and Communication at the University of Tartu. I am grateful for suggestions from Professor Peeter Vihalemm. I am also thankful for many helpful remarks made by numerous reviewers.

Notes

¹For obtaining the index of personal spatiality, all three groups of variables were recoded first on a 3-point scale as follows: 2, cultural closeness to a great extent, very interested in media, and longer contacts); 1, cultural closeness to some extent, somewhat interested in media news, and brief contact; 0, cultural closeness not at all, not interested in media news, and no contacts. For every eight groups of countries these three variables were summed up. The calculated index variables ranged from 0 to 6 (the higher the value the more open one is in reference to a particular country). The eight index variables were shortened into two categories, low personal spatiality (less that average), and high personal spatiality (higher than average).