Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on the changing identity of farmers from rural eastern Poland as a result of EU accession. The area is the furthest eastern border of the EU. I will look at how the local rural population functions in the context of EU membership and a changing economic environment.

Paper long abstract:

The paper focuses on the changing identity of farmers from rural Eastern Poland as a result of EU accession. The area is the furthest eastern border of the enlarged European Union, and a region which is recognised by EU statistics to have one of the lowest GDP's in the whole EU with high unemployment, low educational rate. What means that EU support might have a significant meaning for the future of the region? I will look at how the local rural population functions in the context of EU membership and a changing economic environment.

EU funding is bringing about fundamental changes and innovations to rural farmers' way of life. Imposed regulations, access to resources and information are all factors that shape the ways in which farmers are carrying out their activities.

Many of the influences of EU reforms on rural life are evident in public discourse. The visible flow of financial support to rural areas brings about tensions between urban and rural populations. Urban people perceive that rural inhabitants are not always deserving of EU benefits - the simple fact that they are landowners is not perceived as a good enough reason for assistance. I examine this rural - urban tension. A second issue that is influencing rural identities is the relationship between rural inhabitants and the imposed government structures 'from above'. During socialism rural inhabitants were fundamentally opposed to what they perceived as a 'state control'. Their identity was located in discourses of resistance to the state. Now, with the EU playing a similar role we need to look at how this relationship is being forged between rural people and EU agents. In the pre-accession period statistics showed that farmers were against accession, but afterwards farmers have shown themselves willing to apply for EU resources and engaged in EU programmes. In this paper I therefore ash: how has participation in a common market changed the self perception of farmers and their identity? How are collective and individual identities shaped? What kind of new identities they are emerging in response to changing economic circumstances and entry into the common market?