A post-individualistic turn? Intergenerational change in self-orientation in Poland and Germany

Abstract

One of the key sociological aspects of the transformation of Central and Eastern Europe after communism was a shift from collectivistic to individualistic orientations. This article observes trends in individualism, operationalized as self-orientation, in Poland and Germany, with the latter further dissected into western and eastern part of the country. While western Germany was originally contrasted with former communist countries in this respect, a growing and stable convergence was later generally assumed. This is verified in the form of a lagged comparison between two birth cohorts, one that reached adulthood in the late 1980s and another born at that time. Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel along with two complementary Polish surveys are used in the analysis. The results show no presumed linear convergence in individualism and instead a consistent “post-individualistic” turn led by western Germany. This trend is less pronounced in women as there seem to be counterbalancing processes at play.