Eurole üleminek – igapäevapraktikate muudatused ja eelteavituse vastuvõtt
Date
2011
Authors
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Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
The aim of this Bachelor’s thesis “Changeover to the Euro - Changes in Everyday
Practices and the Reception of Eurocommunication” is to study how changes,
reinventions, continuity in everyday practices can be brought on by the transition in the
monetary system, i.e. the changeover from kroons to euros. In addition, the present thesis
analyses if and how eurocommunication that uses mass media can help people to adapt with
the transformation.
Although the communication of euro was aimed to the hole society, the focus of this analysis
concentrates on two distinctive groups: working women and pensioners, precisely two
middle-aged women with children and two single pensioners in the city of Tartu.
Data for the present study was obtained through qualitative interviews and diaries. The
respondents had to keep a diary during a period of three weeks in November 2010 and
January 2011 with the aim to map possible changes in consumption, expenses and to give
them a chance to immediately reflect upon emotional aspects that come with the adoption of
the euro.
As Plaza (1999) marks, it is a fact of life that most people live firmly ensconced in a personal
environment ruled by habit, order, convenience, routine, etc., change makes people anxious.
The human aversion to change leads people to behave timidly, to cling on to the familiar.
And so this study aims to discuss, how people cope with these changes that are not voluntary.
The results of this study showed the need for implementing new practices and modifying the
old routine ways of behavior. For instance, lots of small change and the fear of forgery made
people avoid using cash and prefer to pay with card. So cognitive uncertainty was resolved by
avoiding strategies and technical means. Other difficulties were seen in keeping the balance of
income and expenditures, implementing bank cards and ATM-s into the new discourse of
handling money.
As the adaption process takes time, the biggest complications firstly emerged with
understanding the new prices and the value of the new currency. People felt the need to
calculate new euro-prices or the overall cost of goods into kroons and that in turn forced them
to spend more time in consumption situations to thinking, estimating and calculating in mind.
There could be seen a lack of supporting trace of euro in mental structures.
The eurocommunication planning is based on the Estonia's National Changeover Plan –
strategy that is aimed toward ensuring smooth transition. What happened at the grassroots
pointed that the communication was too universal, general to be the center of the changes in
everyday life. Respondents knew the facts (official rate from kroon to euro, exchange procedure
etc.), instructing information, but there was a need toward educating and adjusting information,
because the euro was perceived as a forced phenomenon. Internalizing information received
critical and negative reception, the support and image of euro was low. Measures offered by
the state – calculator, displaying prices in two currencies – did not have an obvious positive
impact in helping the respondents of this study.