When Ambivalence Meets Indifference

Abstract

In Chapter 1 we discussed the need for reconciliation of the findings of statistical analysis of Eurobarometer and similar surveys with the findings of recent interpretive analysis of interview and focus group data. In Chapter 3 we highlighted the uncertainty and indifference which characterised our participants’ reactions when they were asked to discuss European questions. In this chapter, we propose to analyse the particular category of citizens who, when they are surveyed by Eurobarometer, say that they evaluate their country’s membership of the European Union (EU) as being ‘neither good nor bad’.1 On average, they represent 30% of the European population and 33 out of the 133 participants in our groups.