POLISHNESS and EUROSTYLE in EU BRUSSELS Struggles Over Europe in Bodily Performances Among Polish EU Civil Servants

POLISHNESS AND EUROSTYLE IN EU BRUSSELS Struggles over Europe in Bodily Performances among Polish EU Civil Servants

Paweł Lewicki, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

By looking at the bodily performances of Polish EU civil servants in Brussels, I aim to show the colonial and racial legacy of Europe. I trace this legacy in struggles over an implicit and dominant European style that emerges in distinctions governing bodily performances in Brussels. This “Eu- rostyle” is firm but variable; it reflects national specificities and the modernity of Europe. Europe’s colonial power also comes into view through challenges to the Eurostyle, in performances of a resistant and more “religious” Polish body reflecting a self-imposed mission to re-Christianize Eu- rope. Building on observations and interviews, my ethnography shows that a focus on Polishness in Brussels may explain ideological tensions in Poland stipulated by nationalistic and moralistic rhetoric as opposed to that of liberal and secular Europe.

Keywords: EU, Eurostyle, Polishness, Brussels, bodily performances

Polishness and the Eurostyle up-to-date and more European, whereas other fash- “What’s with the scarf, Paweł? Why are Polish guys ions and lifestyles are either disrespected or marked always wearing these colorful scarves around their as non-conforming and therefore not readable (Le- necks?” The question was posed with a tone of wicki 2017). amusement and astonishment while I was doing my By analyzing Polishness in the bodily perfor- field research among EU civil servants in Brussels. mances and lifestyles of EU civil servants in Brus- The question was asked by a Dutch friend of mine sels, in this article1 I aim to shed light on the current who had been working in the European Parliament processes of Europeanization in post-enlargement for four years and could not understand the fash- and post-crisis EU bureaucracy. The various ver- ion worn by young Polish men in EU Brussels. His sions of Polishness that I observed in Brussels, rang- question shows that the fashion of junior EU civil ing from being Polish and religious to Polish and sec- servants from Poland was not readily intelligible but ular and modern, were relationally co-constitutive instead signaled something unusual and incompre- of the visions and imaginations of Europe shaped hensible. It also shows that a legitimate style of dress by what Dzenovska calls the coloniality of power exists among bureaucrats working for the EU and, (Dzenovska 2013). The examples of different bod- as I show elsewhere, a lifestyle that is seen as more ily performances stemming from my research in

Paweł Lewicki 2020: Polishness and Eurostyle in EU Brussels: Struggles 128 over Europe in Bodily Performances among Polish EU Civil Servants. Ethnologia Europaea 50(1): 128–144. © Author(s). the European Commission between 2007 and 2011 2002, 2004). These visions of Europe hierarchically clearly show the racializations and cultural hierar- structure the symbolic field in Brussels and position chy constructions governing subject positionings actors. I show how these visions are reflected in bod- evoked by these visions and imaginations. The di- ily assessments and performances, how they repro- visions and distinctions in the Polish milieu of EU duce cultural hierarchies and how they also impact civil servants may explain the growing division into production of different versions of Polishness in EU East/West in the EU (Krastev 2017). However, I also Brussels; whether connected to the Catholic faith argue that the divisions I observed in Brussels a few or secularism. Some Poles performed non-secular years ago shed light on cultural mechanisms that habitus and manifested their religiosity and moral are currently leading to growing skepticism among superiority that they aligned with Polishness and Poles of cosmopolitan, liberal values, which consti- Europe. However, such a vision was often met with tute a shared European identity in the West of the resistance – not only among the Europeanized Poles EU (Krastev 2017) and which are currently being in EU-Brussels, but also among many people from challenged by the growing popularity of the nation- older member states who felt that these performanc- al conservative PiS party, which is spreading anti- es were not European enough. I show how these elitist, nativist, and racialized notions of belonging struggles become visible in bodily performances in (Korolczuk 2019). particular spaces while I self-reflexively reveal my Along with Adam and colleagues (2019b) I argue own positionality in these processes, as I was also an that Europe defines itself through continuous (post) actor in the field. colonial and (post)imperial entanglements between My conceptual toolkit is based on Pierre Europe and non-Europe that establish cultural hier- Bourdieu’s theory of habitus performance, bodily archies, which in turn are intrinsic to the process hexis and styles. Bourdieu’s theory not only facili- of Europeanization. The dominant constructs of tates a description of bodily performances but also Europe at the center of the EU are currently based enables greater perception of how they build distinc- on notions of liberal democracy, secularism, pro- tions and differentiations and are positioned in the gress and rationality (Dzenovska 2018). Postcolo- field of EU bureaucracy, in turn giving rise to how nial theory has shown the long historical process of these positions are embedded in a wider European the emergence of these notions in contact with the and cultural national context. Bourdieu’s theory Other and the resulting racial cultural distinctions describes the reciprocal and relational building of and differentiations evoked by it. I draw on this socio-cultural strata, which helps to gain a greater scholarship and argue that a certain way of building insight into the relational character of cultural and hierarchies exists that refers to racial and racializing racialized divisions among Poles in Brussels. In a so- mechanisms; such mechanisms indicate the colo- cial space where nationality and “being European” niality of power in constructing visions of Europe. matters, it shows how different conceptualizations These visions constantly re-emerge in relation to of nationality and of what Europe is or is supposed racialized “cultures” that allegedly do not share the to be are woven into the fabric of bodies and become proper and right vision of Europe (Dzenovska 2013, embodied, and in turn how these embodiments also 2018). However, the coloniality of power, as both a produce visions of these entities (Bourdieu 2010; form of government and knowledge production, Bourdieu & Wacquant 1992). also affects those allegedly outside the dominant The divisions and distinctions described below and modern vision of Europe, as visions of Europe that connect to and produce Europe are further de- emerge in a relational process in a racialized and velopments of literature on secular (Scheer, Fadil racializing fashion that is still very much in place, & Scheperlen Johansen 2019) and European (Keinz subsequently impacting both epistemologies and & Lewicki 2019) bodies that point to embodiments hierarchies of cultures in Europe (see also Herzfeld representing the relationality of the production of

ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) 129 both secularity (to religious) and Europe (to non- cializations point to the coloniality of power in Eu- Europe). According to Hirschkind (2011), the secu- ropeanization among new and old member states. I lar body consists of certain sensibilities, affects and also want to show however, the ways in which this embodied dispositions, while Scheer and colleagues coloniality structures positions in the Polish mi- (2019) remark that the secular is underpinned by a lieu in EU Brussels and how they there are rooted certain mode of emotionality and affect that they in Europeanization in Poland. Viewed from such a call subdued or contained, a “rational” emotional- perspective, Europe is produced in an intertwined, ity. As Anika Keinz and I argue, the European body relational process of differentiation and distinction, becomes embodied in moments when categories of reflecting its various visions depending on the gene- race, class and gender intersect and are read onto alogies of those involved in the production process. bodies in certain moments in order to create iden- This European grammar or tacit knowledge con- tities and imaginations about and of Europe that cerning “proper” embodiments and performances automatically convey hierarchies (Keinz & Lewicki emerges in moments when bodies meet and hierar- 2019). This scholarship underlines the relationality chies are built. As Merje Kuus (2015) writes, there is of embodiments while also pointing to the hidden a style in Brussels that represents “the kind of argu- order or tacit grammar of these embodiments: in- mentation, appearance, and social interaction that tersections of race, gender and class performances signifies a good sense of the game in the European that, as an ongoing process conveying different af- Quarter” (ibid.: 372). I call this style the Eurostyle: fects and emotions, structure embodiments, which a dominant and embodied cultural code for a legiti- in turn position subjects in a wider cultural hierar- mate Europe in Brussels. A wealth of literature on chy. To describe these bodily performances beyond (national) styles in EU administration already ex- Bourdieu’s distinctions, I refer to racializations and ists (Kuus 2015; Lewicki 2017, 2016; McDonald 1997, particularly to different shades of whiteness that 2012, 2006; Poehls 2009; Różańska 2011; Zabursky emerge in positions that I describe below and that 2000). There are national specificities and stereo- are connected to notions of Europeanness, a subject types about nationalities in Brussels regarding out- explored by postcolonial scholars and in recent dis- look and bodily performance (Lewicki 2017, 2016), cussions on Europeanization in the field of anthro- but, as Kuus notes (2015), an agreed and legitimate pology (Adam et al. 2019a; Dyer 1997; Dzenovska way of doing things can also be observed, that also 2018; Loftsdóttir 2011; Loftsdóttir et al. 2018). This applies to bodies. Eurostyle is constant but change- whiteness is intersectionally constituted; it is a mat- able; it is relational, marking and producing distinc- ter of achievement and affective labor and emerges tions and racializations in shades of whiteness and in relations when bodies meet (Lapina forthcom- deservingness. It governs variable and various per- ing). By focusing below on performances of osten- formances that creatively manage national represen- sibly religious or secular and modern bodies in two tations, which must in turn fit the modern grammar “Polish” locations in EU Brussels, the Polish-Euro- of the Eurostyle. pean or what I will call the Polish EU church and an As in secular and European bodies, Eurostyle be- Irish pub (where Poles working for the EU meet), I comes visible when bodies meet, when racializations describe the deservingness of becoming truly white producing different shades of whiteness, emotional and European. These bodies were reciprocally as- and affective distinctions and markings regarding sessed and marked; they also reflected relationally gender and class intersect and are applied; when established hierarchies along the spectrum of white- (non)performance of certain sensibilities connected ness and class and gender, and represented different to secularity, progress, modesty and rationality, all claims over what Europe is or is supposed to be. Thus, embedded in capitalist consumption, produce hier- I shed light on the nature of embodied processes of archies of who is or is not a “proper” European. This Europeanization, and how both distinctions and ra- Eurostyle, moreover, also has to be accompanied by

130 ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) the expression of “rational” and “modern” liberal post-enlargement Poland. They, in turn, represent a and cosmopolitan worldviews (Pollock et al. 2002), nationalistic Polishness, connected to the Catholic of the separation of God from public life and of sci- faith, that claims a moral superiority and the mis- entific discourse from politics, in future-oriented sion of Poles to become “Christ of nations” and save thinking, in what Bruno Latour calls a “breach with Europe from itself and its excessively liberal and the past” (Latour 1993). In a way it serves as an em- moral deficiency (Zarycki 2014; Zubrzycki 2006). In bodied expression of the Latourian constitution of Brussels these divisions map onto a particular ter- modernity and its ambiguity as a weapon of cultural rain: “properly European” Poles distinguish them- power, as distinctions and markings produced by selves from “not-really-European” Poles who are al- this Eurostyle are ambiguous and in constant flux. legedly unable or unwilling to perform a (national) These separations constructing rational worldviews version of a modern Eurostyle, but perform seen as that feed into the Eurostyle are strategically mixed more religious and traditional Polishness, recently when needed; for instance, secularity is declared in Poland increasingly marked as “the real” one, and required in public life, while religion and faith connected to the Catholic faith that is allegedly in- – and then usually Christian – punctually and spo- trinsically European. radically become present and visible. Such mixing By bringing myself into the picture of the descrip- of Latourian separations does not destabilize the tions I provide below, I refer to the literature on re- modern grammar of the Eurostyle. In such a way, flexivity and epistemology, particularly on position- the Moderns retain their modern status but remain ality in ethnography (Coffey 1999; Pink 2009). The entitled to mark all those who are non-secular and fact that I grew up in Warsaw and identify myself non-modern (Latour 1993). as Polish, my middle-class/intelligentsia secularized Showing different embodiments of Polishness standing, my education, my gender, sexuality and enables me to extract the grammar of the Eurostyle class trajectory, including the fact that I was pursuing and highlight its emergence in distinctions, differ- my Ph.D. at a German university at the time, all have entiations and racializations reflecting the coloni- an impact on how I saw and described the people ality of power in Europeanization in Brussels. I am that I studied and how they saw and interacted with focusing on positioning and strategies of self-posi- me (see Lewicki 2017). Describing and contextual- tioning and markings, on the lookout for a “proper” izing my sensory knowing (Pink 2009) enables me to performance of the Polish version of Eurostyle. Such bring the markings and embodiments of Europe and positioning and markings are often reproduced Polishness to light. My own Polishness and secular from Poland and thus give insights into the cultural European body that implies tacit, sensory and affec- powers of Europe outside of EU Brussels – in War- tive knowledge of “proper” bodily performance help saw. I argue that an analysis of the performances of me to highlight different positions conveyed by the Polish EU civil servants in Brussels sheds light on embodiments of Eurostyle and Polishness, and show the underpinnings of current populist and national- how divisions in the field are deeply ingrained in na- ist discourses present in Polish politics. To a great tional culture. Such a perspective, in turn, enables extent these performances are reminiscent of social me to make an argument concerning the pervasive- and class divisions in postsocialist Polish society it- ness of the coloniality of power in Europeanization self (Buchowski 2017, 2006), but I would like to stress in postsocialist Europe (Dzenovska 2013, 2018) and that Europeanization in Poland has further affected concerning the resulting divisions evoked in Poland this division, one side of which expresses a sense of by its proliferation. I argue that the cultural dynam- belonging to a liberal, secular, successful, and fu- ics I describe below need a framework that goes be- ture-oriented class, as opposed to all those who have yond the perspectives of postsocialism and neoliber- allegedly been unable to catch up and thusly do not alism (Buchowski 2017, 2006) and should be placed fit into the liberal, modern and capitalist reality of in a framework of Europeanization, as the source of

ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) 131 the current nationalistic discourses in Poland (see service jobs, on construction sites, and as domestic also Krastev 2017). servants, most of whom had come to Brussels from I conducted my ethnographic research among EU rural Poland. This church remained an important civil servants in Brussels between the years 2007 and point of reference for Poles working for the EU be- 2011. It mostly involved the performing of biograph- cause in Brussels, both in the EU context and in the ical interviews with civil servants working in the Eu- city in general, a pervasive stereotype of le plombier ropean Commission (EC) and other EU institutions, polonais remained – a Polish tradesman working on such as the European Parliament, the General Secre- a construction site or, in the case of women, work- tariat of the Council, and EU agencies and commit- ing in the domestic service sector (Böröcz & Sarkar tees. My access to the field was made possible by vir- 2017). tue of networks originating in Berlin and Warsaw. These two sites attracted slightly different kinds My supervisors from Berlin and Warsaw had pro- of people performing different versions of Polish vided me with the contact details of high-ranking habitus, representing alternative (Polish) responses German and Polish civil servants in Brussels. Thus, to the implicit Eurostyle that structured positions thanks to a snowball effect, I was able to interview – mine included – of many Poles in EU Brussels. people working at all formal levels of these institu- These positions represent broader divisions show- tions. The other connection that enabled me to gain ing struggles over the meaning of Europe and reveal access to the field was through my friends, a Dutch- the coloniality of power, as these struggles conveyed British couple who worked in Brussels for a number a hierarchical knowledge production on “cultures” of years prior to my arrival there. Thanks to them, I that was racial in character, especially Polish cul- met many Polish civil servants working in mid and ture and its place in Europe. The Sunday mass in the junior positions of the EU apparatus. I gathered my Polish EU church depicts the ways in which claims material by attending conferences and meetings or- to a particular meaning of Europe evoked national ganized by lobbies, embassies, and permanent rep- representation that was connected to more religious resentations of member states, representations of and traditional habitus claiming moral superiority, regions, at private parties, and other social events. while the meetings in the pub gathered more Euro- Last but not least, I shared an apartment with an EU peanized, secular and “modern” Poles. civil servant from Poland. The Polish EU Church Polish Locations in Brussels The EU church was a Dominican church built in a In Brussels there were, among others, two locations neo-classical style that more or less blended into the where Poles working in EU institutions would meet cityscape. The Sunday mass was held by a charismat- frequently outside office hours. One was an after- ic Polish Dominican priest who strove to establish work meeting organized by mid-level officials once a family atmosphere – something one usually does a month at an Irish pub called The Wild Geese close not find in average churches in Poland, but only at to the main building of the European Commission, Dominican churches, which are particularly popu- the Berlaymont; the other was a church close to the lar among young and successful middle-class con- Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark and the Schu- servatives in big Polish cities. Traditionally, the Do- man Roundabout where Berlaymont stands. I have minican order has been and continues to be focused named this church the EU church because every on spreading the Gospel in urban areas; it stresses Sunday a mass took place which was frequented by the value of good education among its members and Polish people, mostly those working in EU institu- believers, and accordingly targets people with a high tions and surrounding institutions. There was an- educational and economic standing. Those attend- other Polish mass on Sundays in an old cathedral in ing mass at a Dominican church in Warsaw – as I did the neighborhood of Sablon/Zavel in the city center; in my youth – would see themselves as the contem- this service attracted Poles working in low-paid porary avant-garde of the Catholic faith, as opposed

132 ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) to the ritualized, non-intellectual and politicized not only senior officials from the European Parlia- faith associated with the majority of Polish Catho- ment and the European Commission but also people lic churches. Those masses were social events, where working in the cabinet of the Polish Commissioner Warsaw’s intelligentsia would meet and manifest its and those who were willing to express their sense of faith, but in a distinctive, intellectual, and individu- belonging among those with influence over policies. alized way. It was a manifestation of belonging and a Many of them had quickly advanced their careers political statement made by a conservative group of in the EU apparatus, climbing swiftly through the Catholics who represented the “counter-current” to ranks. While male directors in their fifties and six- the liberalizing tendency in Polish society (see also ties attended church with their spouses, those with Keinz 2008; Porter-Szücs 2011). The whole event at career aspirations were younger, between 35 and the EU church in Brussels reminded me of a Sunday 45, ranking at the mid-managerial level of the EC. mass at a Dominican church in Warsaw: complete However, among the worshippers there were people with choir, candles, and neo-catechumenal groups, from every level within the entire hierarchy of the in which politicians, lawyers, the young intelligent- EU institutions. sia, and the young, successful Polish middle class Once, before mass began, I sat down in the middle would meet, striving for a strong sense of religious of the church in order to get a good view. I saw one of community and an intellectual consideration of the the directors of the European Parliament walking in gospel. There was even a choir to accompany the ser- stiffly through the central nave with a stern expres- vice, just as in Warsaw. sion on his face, while his wife walked beside him, In the church in Brussels I saw one of the directors holding his shoulder. He was a former minister in from the European Commission who told me in an the Polish government and a founder of a conserva- interview, disconcerted, that he had been ridiculed tive Catholic elitist association in Warsaw. He wore a for using the word Bible metaphorically during a thick, plain wool coat in a dark plum color, one that meeting in his office. As he explained to me in an in- represented, as I was often told when I interviewed terview, he had said once, “We need a Bible of exter- people from old member states, the stereotyped style nal communication,” meaning a kind of rule book. of directors over 50 or MEPs2 from Poland. In Brus- In the same interview, he clearly expressed that he sels this style was labeled “out of fashion”, “old”, or saw Poland as a defender of Christianity in Europe “from a former era”: thick coats in black, plum, or and that he had a contribution to make in this mis- graphite, with small, plain collars and silk scarves sion as a director at the European Commission. He with a paisley pattern and, more often than not, had been the first in Brussels to tell me about the trousers with a crease and black leather shoes. Two Polish EU church and had invited me to join the directors I knew would stride into the church with- mass; he had identified me as Polish and Catholic out looking at or greeting anyone, walking at a stiff, by default. The Dominican priest also told me in an pompous pace. I must admit that this performance interview that people would come to him and share evoked astonishment in me and no small amount their dilemmas about policies they considered too of condescension, which revealed my own position liberal that they nevertheless now had to take an ac- in the field: my assessments show that I was placing tive part in as a result of working as EU civil serv- myself on the more modern and Europeanized side ants; these, they said, stood in conflict with their of Polishness, because I distanced myself from these own ethical values. Also, after mass, signatures were people, from their gender performance and from collected in support of a proposed bill that would the Catholic rituals that took place in the church. ban in vitro fertilization in Poland. I linked the performances I describe here with the I could distinguish at least three groups of peo- remarks I was told by my interviewees from older ple based on my assessments of their bodily perfor- member states. On one occasion, a high-ranking of- mance and their position in the formal hierarchy ficial from Ireland, who had been working in a direc- of the European Commission. In the front rows sat torate of the EC that was headed by a Polish director,

ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) 133 expressed concern that Polish directors, despite hav- In the EU church, there was only one woman ing experience of EU policies, nevertheless practiced whom I knew to have a position at director level. She an authoritarian style of management. This was one always looked smart: in either a skirt or trousers in of the reasons why directors from new member states dark colors, a jacket in dark colors as well, and a thin were depicted as hierarchical of thought, as unable golden chain around her neck. Her style would fit to delegate tasks and incapable of trusting their col- the stereotype of the sober woman’s outfit worn by leagues. One of my interviewees, a high-ranking representatives of new member states (Lewicki 2016). official from Germany, told me that directors from The second group consisted of younger men (mid- new member states wanted to go over a policy docu- thirties to mid-forties), those who sat in the front ment in its entirety even though it was not possible, rows with their children and who clearly wanted only serving to slow the decision-making process to be more visible. The distinctive element for this and confirm a stereotype of new member state socie- group were the rural British jackets they wore, in ties as modeled on authoritarian structures in which light brown or olive green and made of waxed mate- trust is lacking. I understood the message of the Ger- rial, with leather collars and sewn-on pockets, the man official and felt a certain cultural intimacy with type one finds from labels such as Burberry or Bar- him (Herzfeld 2005), when I saw the pompous pace bour. These men would often wear cords or jeans or of the director in the church. However, beyond being simple casual trousers, in dark fabric and without not properly “European enough”, for me the direc- creases, and leather loafers with thick soles, similar tor’s performance was reminiscent of small-town to the type made by Ecco or Geox. Their distinct, Polish apparatchiks or even local elites in rural ar- smart-casual, and more relaxed rural British style of eas of Poland. My own perceptions and assessments dress also served another purpose: as one of them of my interviewees from older member states show told me in an interview, after mass they would so- the workings of powerful performance rules in EU cialize in non-Polish milieus, where I suppose their Brussels and my condescension and embarrassment rural British style was not as distinctive as it ap- revealed my Europeanized position. My assessments peared in the Polish EU church. of these bodily performances in this Polish-Catholic However, upon my return to Brussels in March context and their alignment with the resulting as- 2011, I was struck by how the rural British style had sociations evoked in the context of a wider cultural spread among people in the church and how popular spectrum in EU Brussels show how bodies were con- this kind of fashion had become. Regrettably, I did nected to cultures, how their performances were not see anyone who had previously been dressing in racialized, and a hierarchy was constructed. My the rural British style, and consequently I was not feeling of belonging alongside the German director able to see what they were wearing now or how these while distancing myself from the Polish directors distinctions had developed. was an expression of constant distinctions and the These individuals in rural British outfits repre- relationality in which the “proper” way of dressing sented a small group of Poles who had been success- and “proper” body constitutes itself. In these reac- ful in the EU administration apparatus and quickly tions I see moments in which the Eurostyle emerges, climbed both in the formal hierarchy and in pres- perhaps not as a clearly expressed rule, but as tac- tige. Each member of the group had had some expe- itly existing knowledge about what is desired and at rience of living, studying, or working in “the West”. least readable in bodily performance in EU Brussels I viewed their outfits and lifestyle as distinctive in a and which culture it represents. However, as I show Polish milieu. Their outfits were “British” but they below, these strict bodily performances were also represented the status of British style as one grant- an emanation of (moral) superiority of some of the ing access to a more universal and “European” style worshippers in the church, visible in their tradition- on the one hand, while on the other they revealed al habitus reproduced from Poland. the ambitions of these individuals, as those having

134 ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) aspirations to be part of a more “proper European” modernize Poland. They connected their own suc- cultural order. As long as it was cold and grey out- cess with Polish EU membership and the possibility side, I did not see any other Polish men in the church of adopting a lifestyle in Brussels that many of them who wore the lighter colors that are worn more fre- regarded as cosmopolitan, although some of them quently in Brussels or in countries where winter is did tell me that they had only started going to church milder (Italy, France, Spain), colors such as light after arriving there. I also saw some of them in the bottle green, khaki, or beige, or even check patterned Irish pub at Polish meetings held there. They were garments in these colors, which by contrast were therefore playing on both sides of the Polish regis- more visible on the streets of Brussels all year round. ter, one which apparently despised the Polish church Instead, I saw different versions of deep purple, dark and the other which saw the Catholic faith as a part blue, and navy blue, all shades of dark brown and of Polishness. However, socializing in one’s free time very dark green, but I could not see any extravagant within national networks alone was never a ticket to additions or bright or pastel colors among the middle- a career in the EU apparatus, because this exclusivity aged and older men in the church. does not provide the opportunity to present oneself There was also a third group comprised of young as a true European. As the assessments of both my- civil servants (under 35) whom I recognized; I was self and my friend show, their indecipherable scarves aware that they worked in junior positions, and did not fit the Eurostyle, although in a certain sense were largely not married but were often in relation- they in fact did. Through puzzlement and sarcasm, ships with heterosexual partners.3 These young men my friend and I were performing hierarchy building wore either wool or cotton, black or navy blue slim- and positioning ourselves as those with knowledge fit short coats, and jackets to the knees, some with of fashion in EU Brussels. I could connect the color- large, upturned collars and two rows of buttons at ful scarf with Warsaw, or Poznań, or Kraków, and the front, among other accessories (similar to trench the progressive Catholic habitus of the Dominican coats). Many of them also wore thin-striped, long church, but I could also feel that it represented a lack and colorful scarves tied in a knot around their of what one could interpret as cosmopolitan and sec- necks like the one mentioned at the beginning of this ular habitus that would have made these men more article. These scarves seemed to be popular among credible and valued in EU Brussels. Polish men of a certain age working at the European The Eurostyle emerged at this point through my Commission, contrasting sharply with the rest of distinctions and racializations while marking dif- their dark outfits. These colorfully striped scarves, ferent shades of whiteness. These divisions and ra- and the contrast they presented against their mono cializations were based both on divisions from Po- chromatic attire, made these men distinctive as a land and dominant notions of a secular Europe in group of junior officials; it made them look more EU Brussels, notions that convey a liberal, secular relaxed, even though they were in fact somewhat worldview and reiterate imaginations of the cos- smartly dressed. When I went to Poland for Christ- mopolitan lifestyle of the white middle class (Han- mas that year, I also saw many such scarves worn by nerz 1990, 2005), which “enjoys cultural difference” men of a similar age in shops like Peek and Cloppen- (Hannerz 2005: 200). However, this middle class “al- burg, selling clothes of popular brands, and in large ways knows where the exit is” (ibid.: 200) – that is to newly established shopping malls, where successful say, its members are quick to remark when a certain young middle-class men, who often work for inter- culture is somehow indecipherable, or may imply or national companies, buy their clothing. These young represent inappropriate performances (see also Pol- junior officials in the EU church were alumni of pres- lock et al. 2002). tigious departments at Polish universities; in my in- It was difficult to determine any patterns among terviews they declared themselves clear proponents women’s outfits due to the mere fact that I only knew of Polish EU membership, believing that this should one female director from the EC who attended these

ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) 135 masses. Younger women (those in their late thirties are congruent with Latour’s reference to practices of or younger) often wore plain jackets. However, in the Moderns (ibid.) and confirmation of the Euro- contradistinction to the men, their outfits differed style performance. In such a way, their presence in in terms of color: light or olive green, light purple, the church was only strategically and punctually fit- or dark turquoise; they were also made of thinner ting of a particular, Polish performance in Brussels, fabric. This was due to the fact that they wore both but it did not challenge the historically grounded sweaters matching the color and/or style of their grammar of the dominant, secular Eurostyle in EU jackets and scarves underneath their jackets. institutions, which their bodily performance cer- Men occupied the first rows of the EU church, tainly represented and which they evidently aspired with women only present as partners or wives, a fact to. That’s why their presence in the church did not which was visible in the overall social arrangement hamper their career progression, as they managed to of the church. The young men dressed in the casual climb up the bureaucratic ladder within a relatively rural British style were distinctive, not least because short space of time. In an interview one of them told they were revealing their “progressiveness” through me, “I know what is going on in this church and there taking care of their children, talking to them, maybe are reasons why I go there.” However, there were also explaining certain elements of the mass, as opposed more traditional configurations of male behavior, to the traditional gender roles that were visible in similar to that of the directors, in this age group. the dominant older male figures who were stern and This is what I noted in my field diary in an entry gave the impression of not being present for their on March 1, 2009: families. I saw those dressed in the rural British style as representatives of a middle-aged, progressive, ca- The priest is using a “we” form, as opposed to reer-oriented class who performed the Eurostyle by the usual impersonal grammatical forms (as in a coming to church without their spouses, where they “normal” mass). Those from the EC [are] mostly played the role of progressive fathers. Their absent [wearing] coats made out of fabric, [with] brown, wives, who were not working at the EC, also point black, often colorful scarves. Conservative! It’s all to the pragmatic need of their men to be visible at good quality, but not chic, women [with] match- the church, underlining their presence in Polish net- ing colorful sweaters, scarves and other items, works rather than their need to take part in religious other colors from the men, but also grey coats, or events with their families. One such person told me jackets. You can see that those from the institu- that he deliberately softens certain formulations on tions know each other and stick together. Masses the situation in Russia in documents he is working of children and buggies! After the mass, signatures on for a directorate responsible for policies on non- are collected supporting Gowin’s4 anti-IVF bill EU states. As he explained to me, he wanted to send proposal. I am a foreign body here – they look at a signal to his colleagues that he is not a “typical Pol- me curiously but discretely – probably not know- ish Russophobe,” since Poles are seen as permanent ing where to place me, as I wear cargo pants and and irrational Russophobes. The Eurostyle refers not a cord jacket, lambswool sweater, a mix of colors, only to their bodily performance but also to the abil- a brown, cream, and black scarf around my neck, ity to mix the elements of the Latourian constitution and casual, black tennis shoes. Those women, I of modernity (Latour 1993). In the church they were guess not from the institutions, are wearing ny- mixing private, professional and religious with Pol- lon jackets (wives?), looking thicker and warmer, ish and European, but they would never publicly say brown, lilac, white – they are more practical, wa- that Europe has to be Christian, for example during ter resistant, good for Brussels weather. Appar- a meeting in an EU institution as one of the Polish ently, children are an integrating factor. [name] directors did, for which he was ridiculed. Such per- coming out of the church with a stern face with formances, when God, nature and society are sepa- his wife beside him – like a landowner in a village rated in public, but mixed in more private spheres, church in Poland.

136 ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) Apart from collecting signatures in support of the hierarchies based on cultural traits and reproducing anti-IVF bill in Poland, on another occasion there racial markings along the lines of deservingness and was a collection supporting an orphanage, also in whiteness. In this particular context in EU Brussels, Poland. People here saw themselves as good and the participants of the mass are making a statement charitable Poles, fashioning themselves in this – we belong to Europe, but we have not lost our Pol- church as elites, as in a Dominican church in War- ishness that is encoded in the conservative Catholic saw, but they were simultaneously unable to see the faith. They strive to rise through the cultural hier- Polish working-class church in Sablon/Zavel as part archy by making reference to superior morality and of the same national affiliation. In this way they claims to Europe. However, their version of the Eu- were reproducing divisions that they had brought rostyle performance among the many national pos- with them from Poland and racializing the working- sibilities to perform it was certainly not a primary class Poles in Brussels while fueling anxieties among one, since it referred so strongly to religion or was some Polish EU civil servants concerning their own indecipherable. My European assessments of their whiteness (see Böröcz & Sarkar 2017; Buchowski bodily performances and lifestyle reveal my distinc- 2006; Smoczynski, Fitzgerald & Zarycki 2017). tion of religious Polish habitus, one that I connected Their conservative worldviews (the ban on IVF, to both prosaic and backward performances and “over-liberal” policies of the EU, their traditional clothing styles. People who gathered in the church gender roles), which were conflated by myself and did not reproduce the legitimate Eurostyle but rather others in EU Brussels with certain bodily perfor- an ethical conservatism (as opposed to the social-lib- mances, evoked condescension or laughter. And eral European shared cultural values in their various these, as I argue, in a racializing and distinctive national versions that are most prevalent in EU Brus- gesture, mark the emergence of the dominant and sels) that I connected to both a lack of Eurostyle and secular Eurostyle of European bodies (Keinz & Le- to a reproduction of class statuses imported from Po- wicki 2019). However, the words of the director who land. On the one hand, they aspired to be European, told me about the church and saw himself as a de- particularly those wearing colorful scarves, while on fender of Christian values and his desire to avoid the other, the shared cultural values of traditional the “Polish plumber” in the church in Sablon/Za- gender roles (with the exception of those dressed in vel show how these people also created distinctions rural British attire) and a restrictive stance on repro- and classifications: the vision of an over-liberal and ductive rights and methods (the anti-IVF petition) cosmopolitan Europe represented by the Eurostyle distanced them from the ideal of a liberal European was challenged by their Polish and traditional bod- in EU Brussels. They aspired to become European, ily performances and their claims to moral superi- but failed to hit the right tone and to produce a Polish ority (see also Herzfeld 2002, 2004). These distinc- representation that aligned with the Eurostyle – par- tions and classifications were also visible in the way ticularly because of religion, although my reactions some among them wanted to be seen as proper and and assessments conflate their shared values and vi- legitimate, white Europeans while distancing them- sions of Polishness with a particular bodily perfor- selves from working-class Poles, but were ridiculed mance, a practice so carefully described by scholars or misunderstood in EU Brussels due to elitist and writing on visual markers and racism. European performances that they had brought with The distinctive attire and performance of those them from Poland. dressed in the rural British style in effect pointed to On the one hand, it was through this seeming their Eurostyle, since these two particular individu- subversion of the Eurostyle and the self-fashioned als had progressed very quickly up the formal ladder moral superiority and claims to Europe of the EU within the EC. They played both registers, European church group, and the classification as folk of the and Polish, and their attendance at the church was people in the church in Sablon/Zabel on the other meant as a strategic marker to their Polish belong- hand, in which the group was effectively building ing, as possession of national networks remains of

ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) 137 the utmost importance – particularly when aspiring decision-making processes. The initial atmosphere to a managerial post at the EC. Additionally, they was usually rather stiff, with people seated at a big were able to use their nationality as a way to present round table. There were also other, smaller tables themselves as rational, as highlighted by the example where smaller groups could sit and talk. Most peo- of handling the stereotype of Polish Russophobia. ple would talk only to those they knew; thus, I often The cultural dynamic that I portrayed as an ex- felt excluded, but as time passed, people would start ample of this Polish EU church reveals how a domi- to mingle more after a drink or two and the atmos- nant understanding of Europe and the Eurostyle in phere would become more relaxed. EU Brussels may provoke the reproduction of na- On one occasion I was standing at the bar in The tional habitus in a particular, seemingly religious Wild Geese with someone I had met a few minutes way. As Zubrzycki (2006), Porter-Szücs (2011) and earlier. She was a Polish woman, a junior desk officer Zarycki (2014) have shown, missionary attitudes at the EC, and we had been making small talk until were present in Polish nationalism for many years, we were interrupted by her friend, who approached and, according to Zarycki, serve to underpin con- us and said something to her about dancing – a kind servative attitudes in Poland (and the PiS party) and of invitation to dance, probably because the DJ had the conviction that Catholicism is a foundation of appeared a few minutes earlier and the dance floor Polish belonging to “the West” (Zarycki 2014). How- had opened. My conversation partner politely re- ever, the more these cultural traits are underlined, fused and told this man that he was wearing a very the more they lead to exclusion. Such notions of Eu- nice shirt. The shirt was white and casual in style, rope and claims to moral superiority can also lead with a light red and blue checked pattern, which to the reproduction of markings and distinctions looked like an American or British-style casual transferred from Poland, for instance, in whitening shirt to me, the kind one might associate with the tendencies visible in classifications of working-class Hilfiger label. His sleeves were rolled up, and I can Poles (Böröcz & Sarkar 2017). Together with my as- safely say that this did not resemble any of the “stiff” sessments and markings that should place me on the or “old-fashioned” outfits stereotypically connected powerful side of the Eurostyle, the social drama that with people from new member states. The owner I describe in the church depicts the coloniality of of the shirt, a Pole, said: “It’s from Poland! Thank power, how it structures positions along the racial you! Nice, isn’t it?! I bought it in Warsaw for [and he and racialized distinctions that conflate particular named the price of almost 90 PLZ, around 25€] on culture and bodily performances. sale in Galeria Centrum!”6 I remember being astonished by this quick, spon- The Wild Geese taneous response, which somehow seemed inappro- One other Polish location was to be found in Brus- priate given the situation in which it was said. Why sels: an Irish pub, The Wild Geese, where a meeting would he emphasize that it is from Poland? There would take place among “Poles and Polish speaking was even something striking in the way he spoke af- persons working in or closely related to European ter saying “It’s from Poland”; he said it while shak- institutions” on the first Thursday of each month.5 ing his whole body to the rhythm of the club music, It was a rather typical Irish pub, with lots of dark somehow emphasizing a connection between Poland wooden elements in the interior, stained glass and and being funky. He wanted to clarify that he bought Irish brands of beer and whiskey. I attended many (and presently buys) his shirts in Poland, which he meetings at The Wild Geese; the number of attendees finds cool (appropriate for the situation, the club varied from just a few to several dozen. People were music and ambience). This man – and I with him, as of various ages, but I never saw anyone above 50, nor I also saw his shirt as fashionable and cool – want- anyone in a senior position within the EU hierarchy. ed to claim access and belonging through Polish- Those who attended were either working in EU ness to the tacitly present Eurostyle, as opposed to institutions, or institutions or bodies involved in EU those performances I had observed in the Polish EU

138 ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) church. This would explain why many single young colorful Polish scarves in the EU church. In my view, Polish EU civil servants would buy their clothes in he showed pride in wearing a shirt that he had pur- Brussels or go to Paris or London to buy them, as chased in Poland and in that way sought to subvert would those from older member states. This man’s the implicit hierarchy set out by the common stereo- exclamation about the shirt was a way of saying: Pol- type of Poles who were unable to perform a legiti- ish clothes can also be appealing, fashionable, and mate version of the Eurostyle. This man seemed to have a good cut and style, in keeping with the fash- tacitly reinforce the powerful cultural “European” ion in Brussels, and be current rather than backward aesthetics of the Eurostyle, but he also performed in terms of style. My assessment of his shirt shows a an act of belonging to modern Poland and implic- kind of affective kinship between me and this man, itly included both his friend and myself within it. but his adverse reaction may also point to a fear of I was able to observe these aspirations to redefine being wrongly categorized as not dignified enough, Polishness among certain groups of Polish EU civil not white enough, although he had bought the shirt servants: they tried to define “Polish” within the in Poland. It shows the pervasive presence of Euro- framework of the Eurostyle and to give “Polish” a style grammar as something one wishes to aspire legitimate modern connotation. to and belong to, and that this can be achieved in a I also noted other bodily performances that en- particular attire with a particular Polish meaning. riched the Eurostyle, for instance, by adding more Such implicit assessments from both myself and this folk-style elements into women’s outfits that would man were expressions of racializing hierarchy build- allow them to be recognized as nationals from new ing based on bodily performances and imaginations member states (Lewicki 2017, 2016). However, these of the cultures they evoked. He was certainly re- elements did not change the modern grammar of the sponding to the stereotype produced in EU Brussels, Eurostyle and functioned more as tokens, as some- but, in stark contrast to those who attended the EU thing that should represent a culture but did not church and without any attempt to subvert it with disrupt the way things should work (Ahmed 2012). some kind of moral imagination, he was perform- The relevance of these classifications of a proper ing a secular version of Polish habitus. However, this Eurostyle performance and the strength of the divi- performance remained within the same framework sions of different shades of whiteness in EU Brussels of the coloniality of power, as he was showcasing a can be clearly shown in the example below, in which modern and fashionable Polish shirt and position- European taste quickly detects disruptions of the es- ing himself through wearing and commenting on it, tablished hierarchy of whiteness and an illegitimate trying to elevate Polishness in the cultural hierarchy, way to perform the Eurostyle. to make it whiter and through that gain access to the On one occasion, during an interview with a mid- performance of proper Eurostyle. ranked Polish official that I got to know through my By performing a legitimate version of the Euro- friends, to whom he was a neighbor, I asked whether style and being able to make “proper” classifications, he was going to The Wild Geese. He answered al- I also saw his shirt as fashionable and nice, fitting most with outrage that he met people only if he liked the Eurostyle. I felt neither embarrassed nor inclined them and not because they were of a certain nation- to mock the shirt for having been purchased in War- ality. I also asked him which newspapers he read and saw, as I felt more inclined to do in the EU church whether he read the Polish press. He answered that when I observed people there. He was trying to con- he had never bought a Polish magazine because all of struct a feeling of national belonging and a Polish- them represented “peripheral journalism, third rate ness of shared views and values while maintaining journalism” which he “detests” because “[the topics a distance from morality and Catholicism, instead in those magazines] don’t interest me at all and it embodied in consumerism and a funky lifestyle is so shallow.” Instead he read The Independent be- organized around modern items that are both deci- cause “when I open it, there’s something about oran- pherable and fashionable in EU Brussels, unlike the gutans, about deforestation, and this is a completely

ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) 139 different perspective, this is a world perspective. I my own implied that he was overdressed and was at- prefer to read about the development of air traffic tempting to give the impression that he was different and its repercussions for CO2 emissions rather than from the person he actually was: as one of my inter- to read about Kaczmarek [former Minister of Jus- viewees from Germany put it, in a reference to men tice, a reference to a corruption scandal in the Polish from new member states, he was “all dolled up.” His government at the time] accusing someone of some- aspirations, however, were unmasked and ridiculed, thing – that just makes me sick.” He also told me that marked as inappropriate to his position, nationality, he preferred to read about the ageing of Japanese so- and age. His outfit and leisure activity were both seen ciety than about “the thunder that killed a cow in the as out of sync with the Eurostyle. He was apparently Suwałki area,” a rather poor region in northeastern seeking to convince himself and those around him Poland labeled as peripheral and known for its cold of his status by performing a proper Eurostyle; he climate. To my remark concerning a general prob- might have even imitated the rural British style seen lem with the media – that it is only concerned with in the EU church, but was in fact ill-fitting because it how to increase the profit margin of the publisher brought his national belonging into question and our – he said: “The great problem is the whole periph- laughter automatically marginalized him. The reac- eral character of the public sphere [in Poland]. This tion and fashion preference of my friends and myself is a country on the periphery of Europe that is slowly at that moment revealed our own position as defend- finding its way, where the intellectual class is very ers of the Eurostyle. I had apparently been using ra- weak, emaciated, almost at the point of starvation.” cializing and racial hierarchies of whiteness in ref- When I returned to Brussels in March 2009, my erences to bodily performances and lifestyles while friends told me a story of an encounter with their internalizing the aesthetic rules in EU Brussels – a Polish neighbor in the stairwell one Sunday after fact that was represented by my laughter during this the winter holidays. They asked him whether he had encounter. I placed him into a category of whiteness been in Poland for Christmas. It is quite common in where Polishness belongs into certain hierarchies of Brussels that people – independent of their nation- whiteness in EU Brussels – to an aspiring position, ality, age, status, and place of employment – travel, but never actually able to contribute or change the sometimes with their families, to their country of or- grammar of the Eurostyle. I played out my “proper igin. They told me that he replied in a tone verging on Europeanness” toward my fellow countryman just anger that he had not been in Poland but had instead to be on the more powerful side of Europe. My re- gone on vacation to Australia. They also told me, action shows that there are only legitimate ways of not without amusement, that he was wearing black conceiving what Europe is, that Europeanization in leather, English riding boots, riding breeches, a dark EU Brussels is a reflection of the coloniality of power, cord jacket, and a cap and that all things considered positioning subjects in a hierarchical way through he “looked like an English dandy.” They joked that he the application of racial visual markers and the es- still had mud on his shoes and I laughed with them. sentializing of cultures. In such a way, it re-produces In our laughter, we all assumed he was only showing the grammar of the Eurostyle and what I and Anika off and we actually questioned his actual ability to Keinz have termed a European body (Keinz & Le- ride a horse. I saw this man on other occasions and I wicki 2019), a body that is already racialized, classed always thought he was somewhat overdressed. After and gendered. My friend’s neighbor is visually and spending an extended period of time in Brussels, I verbally confirming essentializations through his could sense that he was not dressed “properly” and non-Eurostyle performance, it locks him out of be- that it was a rather peculiar occupation for a single longing to those performing the Eurostyle based on young man from Poland to go horse-riding on Sun- his origin as he makes empty claims of Polishness to days (though it was not unusual for a French middle- be European, although in these claims he confirms aged female high-ranked official at the EC who the dominant notion of Europe as being modern and I once interviewed). Both my friends’ reaction and progressive.

140 ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) Conclusions one implicitly civilized and better. Europeanization The above examples show how the Eurostyle, as an may function successfully through the Eurostyle implicit cultural mechanism that mobilizes affects and the emergence of what I and Anika Keinz have and markings, orchestrates and choreographs the called the ever-becoming constructions of Europe- ways in which Polishness is embodied. These embod- an bodies (Keinz & Lewicki 2019). As I show here, iments show how racializations and classifications however, Europeanization and claims to Europe not work to build a hierarchy of cultures and of Polish- only refer to the modernist, liberal and allegedly ness among Poles themselves. The Eurostyle remains cosmopolitan Eurostyle, but also to claims of moral powerful, as something one aspires to. Access to it is superiority, Christianity and references to a national granted to those who can strategically and critically pride and mission. In such a way, Poles confirm the apply their nationality (as network capital) but who European values of liberalism, rationality, secularity do not question the secular grammar of the Eurostyle, and modernity through their aspirations, but they as I show with the example of those dressed in rural are nonetheless barred from Europeaness, as their British style. Thus, the divisions are not fixed; such a style does not contribute to the grammar of the Eu- cultural system also enables advancement, which is rostyle and if it does, then in a way that is regard- precisely the reason behind its attractiveness. ed as old-fashioned, as religiosity points to a dark However, the Eurostyle is also challenged by and irrational past. The dynamics I have described habitus that may be seen as more traditional and above are responding to the paradox of Europeaness religious, one that claims moral superiority and per- which Dzenovska has analyzed: including Eastern tains to cultural hierarchies and racializations pro- European countries as “returning to Europe” but jected onto secular, or rather seen by those perform- also marking them as not having yet attained fully ing the marking as morally inferior bodies. Such European status due to socialist legacies and back- actions of positioning performed by Polish bodies ward nationalism (Dzenovska 2018). are relationally co-constitutive; they emerge in rela- These mechanisms of intersecting categories of tion to each other and in particular moments in a differentiation and the affects they convey have his- particular time and space when they meet. Further- tory and genealogy. As Pobłocki (2016) claims, com- more, although these meetings are situational and parisons between slavery and Polish serfdom are underpinned by both a contextual framework and illegitimate and need contextualization, otherwise the various positions of the actors involved, they are, they rather showcase Occidentalism and the efforts however, all framed by intersecting racializations, of Poles to rewrite their history as part of world his- gender and class distinctions in reference to bodily tory. The distinctions toward boars, which merged performances and affects these evoke. Thusly, they into distinctions toward folk class (Buchowski 2006; are evoked in one sense by the immediate context, Gdula & Sadura 2012), have their historical legacy while on the other they reactivate and reflect global in the Polish gentry and are connected to serfdom: flows of power and reveal deeper national genealo- economic and cultural exploitation of peasants in gies of divisions. However, the ways in which the Eu- Poland. Buchowski (2006) confirmed the perpetu- rostyle emerges shed light not only on the function- ation of these divisions in the creation of the inter- ing of the post-enlargement EU bureaucracy; it also nal national Other in Poland, and Smoczynski and contributes to the literature on styles in diplomacy colleagues showed these divisions in the context of (Neumann 2012) and illuminates cultural dynamics today’s mass Polish migration to the West (Smoc- among transnational elites, placing it in a context of zynski, Fitzgerald & Zarycki 2017). I seek to claim, post-enlargement and post-crisis Europe. however, that these divisions in Poland today, rather My examples show how the coloniality of power than by neoliberalism (Buchowski 2017), are in fact is haunting Europe, and how the deservingness of a caused by Europeanization, as it may grant access culture as properly white and European is measured to a universal and European identity. A fact that through visual markers and bodily performances, is so clearly visible in claims to moral superiority

ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) 141 discourses currently present in Poland, blaming the ics pertaining to global flows of power (Haraway liberals for the wrong responses to refugee migra- 1988). It shows how Occidentalism, as a conviction tion that may threaten the very existence of Europe, that the center of the world is in the West, works or gender ideology – implicitly originating from through Europeanization in Poland and among the morally inferior West – that “threatens” Pol- Poles, while also highlighting the national specifi- ish families (implicitly consisting of man, woman, cities that are not eligible to be more European, as and their children). Simultaneously, the deeply in- they are either tokenized or ridiculed because they grained downward distinctions and racializations refer to religiosity, an unknown history or to a his- toward the folk class are balanced currently by so- tory that should remain in the past. Rather than re- cial transfers and a strongly nationalistic rhetoric of producing stereotypes about the lack of European- the government. On a small scale, this was already ness among people from new member states, such visible in Brussels a number of years ago during an understanding of Europeanization, based on the my research, when Poles, by performing differ- cultural dynamics I have described, may provide ent examples of Polishness, expressed their desires explanations as to the racial origin of markings and to represent and perform the Eurostyle, or react to hierarchies in structuring the disputes concerning this Eurostyle with a more national, religious and the meaning of Europe, and the growing tensions traditional, yet European style. Each of these posi- between East and West over differing visions for tions was fueled by Europeanization and the desire Europe itself. Lastly, such a perspective breaks the to gain access to a more universal history or more teleological notion of Europeanization as a transi- European identity, and reflect a constantly present tion (of the new member states – from [post-]social- Occidentalism among Poles. This desire can be seen ism to Europeanness) and points to a more relational as colonial in fashion, while being both nationalis- aspect of building Europe. tic and a latent Polish-imperialistic response to the constant depiction of Central and Eastern European Notes countries as homophobic, nationalistic, racist, cor- 1 I would like to thank Ela Drażkiewicz-Grodzicka, the rupt, conservative and – in the case of Poland – ex- anonymous reviewers of this article and the editors of Ethnologia Europaea for their precious comments, as well cessively religious. as Viadrina Institute for European Studies for its support Through the clear marking of my positionality in to publish this text. Post mortem I would like to also ex- the empirical material, my Europeanized body, act- press my gratitude to Prof. Zofia Sokolewicz († 2020) ing in line with the Eurostyle and my simultaneous who made my research project in Brussels possible. knowledge of Polishness and culture marked as Pol- 2 Members of the European Parliament. ish, enabled me to draw different threads together 3 These young officials performed similarly to the directors who attended mass with their wives; traditional and show mechanisms and genealogies of embodied gender roles here were rather visible. cultural power and the production of whiteness in 4 Jarosław Gowin (born 1961) is a nationalist-conserva- different locations and contexts. Feeding my dis- tive politician who proposed a restrictive law on IVF in tinctions and differentiations into the empirical 2007 (coincidental with my research). During that pe- material, the emotions that accompanied them in riod he was one of the leaders of Civic Platform (PO), a conservative-liberal party headed by then-Prime momentary relations, in intersecting categories of Minister Donald Tusk. He then went on to become the difference applied in particular moments and refer- Minister of Justice in the PO-led Polish Government ring to Europe, reveal the pervasive power of Euro- (2011–2013). In 2013 he established his own conserva- peanization, as a way of governing and positioning tive party called Polska Razem (Poland Together), and subjects through racial, class and gender markings later entered a coalition with Kaczynski’s Party PiS (Law and Justice). Between November 2015 and April 2020, both in Poland and Brussels. It shows the situated- he was the Minister of Science and Higher Education ness, spontaneity, embeddedness and embodiment in the PiS-led government (national-conservative). In of Europeanization and its broader cultural dynam- year 2007 his bill proposal to ban IVF was unsuccessful

142 ETHNOLOGIA EUROPAEA 50(1) and IVF procedures started to be funded by the Polish Bourdieu, Pierre 2010: Distinction: A Social Critique of the public health-care system. In the course of the policy Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge. change there were heated debates, inspired particularly Bourdieu, Pierre & Loïc J.D. Wacquant 1992: An Invitation to by the Catholic Church’s opposition to assisted repro- Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ductive technologies, which polarized the public and Buchowski, Michał 2006: The Specter of Orientalism in contributed to the formulation of extremely conserva- Europe: From Exotic Other to Stigmatized Brother. An- tive positions on IVF (see Radkowska-Walkowicz 2017). thropological Quarterly 79(3): 463–482. DOI: https://doi. 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DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446249383. ized, HIV-positive migrants from Poland in Berlin. One of Pobłocki, Kacper 2016: Niewolnictwo po polsku. Czas his recent publications is Struggles over Europe: Postcolonial Kultury 3(190): 62–68. East/West Dynamics of Race, Gender and Sexuality (together Poehls, Kerstin 2009: Europa Backstage: Expertenwis- with Randi Gressgård and Rafał Smoczyński). sen, Habitus und kulturelle Codes im Machtfeld der ([email protected])

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