In postcommunist Poland, discourse on "the normal life" provides a view into young Poles' identity as shaped by processes of democratization, marketization, and globalization. In this article, I compare uses of the term "normal" for a group of urban and rural youths during two periods in the 1990s. I show that normal, like public and private, is a "shifter"— because the same term is used in a variety of contexts to describe various situations, it helps to integrate new experiences in a way that maintains a sense of continuity with the past. This discourse reveals young Poles' simultaneous attraction and resistance to idealizations of the West, and it also reflects the different opportunities available to rural and urban residents. These factors, in turn, help to shape young Poles1 orientations toward the future within and beyond the borders of Poland.

As Poland enters the European Union, questions of national identity relative to wider group loyalties become particularly salient. This study considers how individual life stories contribute to the discourse on what constitutes the Polish nation, and contemplates the implications of respondents' views for the achievement of European integration. I focus on Polish youths' use of metaphors of "betweenness," in which Poland fills the conceptual space between East and West, and "nested identities," based on simultaneous attachments to region, nation, and Europe, and consider how they might provide alternatives to models of identity which assume conflict with outside groups. In postcommunist Poland, more protectionist or conflict‐based stances are sometimes taken, not so much because of political threats as in the past, but more in response to economic inequalities within Poland, and between Poland and the West.

The article examines the strategies Poles use to reconcile their economic expectations, work and childcare opportunities, and family goals. Based on longitudinal research, it documents a shift in Poles' sense of self as they orient themselves toward personal values associated with neoliberal ideology—in particular choosing and planning among expanded material goods and life options. These changes in personal orientations are viewed against the backdrop of structural changes that have accompanied capitalist reforms and contribute to a climate of insecurity characterized by weakening social supports and the threat of unemployment. The article explains how conflicts between cultural values that prioritize family and the neoliberal values that have reshaped the workplace actually constrain choices and lead Polish citizens to make plans for the future and life choices that contribute to declining birthrates in Poland.

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Religious organisations that secularise their community outreach to gain European Union (EU) funding, border-city residents whose consumption practices exploit cross-border economic disparities, EU member states that protect their domestic labour market by restricting access to legal work and medical care for citizens of new member states, recently admitted citizens who nevertheless take advantage of increased opportunities for mobility to improve their economic and social standing, and even in some cases use their scepticism about membership to promote their personal or national interests within the EU – all of these examples point to the complex and varied ways in which instrumentality figures in day-to-day dealings with the European Union. This special issue of AJEC seeks to contribute to the anthropological study of the European Union by examining ways in which various individuals, groups and institutions use the EU to pursue their political, economic and social goals at local, national and transnational levels within Europe.