Explaining European Identity Formation

Explaining European Identity Formation PDF Author: Stephanie Bergbauer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331967708X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
What makes people identify with Europe? To answer this question, this book analyzes the development and determinants of a common European identity among EU citizens from the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 to the recent financial and economic crisis. The author examines citizens’ identification with Europe for all EU member states, and systematically explores the theoretical and empirical implications of two turning points in the recent history of EU integration, namely the EU’s enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe in 2004/2007 and the financial and economic crisis that started in 2008. The book integrates theoretical approaches to European identity in sociology, social-psychology and EU public opinion research in a comprehensive model for explaining individual identification with Europe. The empirical analysis employs a multilevel framework to systematically assess the influence of individual characteristics and the political, economic, and social context on citizens’ feelings of identity. The long analysis period spanning from 1992 to the present allows inferences to be drawn about the long-term developments in the sources of European identification as well as the immediate impact of EU enlargement and the crisis on the determinants of European identification.

Explaining European Identity Formation

Explaining European Identity Formation PDF Author: Stephanie Bergbauer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331967708X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 253

Get Book

Book Description
What makes people identify with Europe? To answer this question, this book analyzes the development and determinants of a common European identity among EU citizens from the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 to the recent financial and economic crisis. The author examines citizens’ identification with Europe for all EU member states, and systematically explores the theoretical and empirical implications of two turning points in the recent history of EU integration, namely the EU’s enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe in 2004/2007 and the financial and economic crisis that started in 2008. The book integrates theoretical approaches to European identity in sociology, social-psychology and EU public opinion research in a comprehensive model for explaining individual identification with Europe. The empirical analysis employs a multilevel framework to systematically assess the influence of individual characteristics and the political, economic, and social context on citizens’ feelings of identity. The long analysis period spanning from 1992 to the present allows inferences to be drawn about the long-term developments in the sources of European identification as well as the immediate impact of EU enlargement and the crisis on the determinants of European identification.

Transnational Identities

Transnational Identities PDF Author: Richard K. Herrmann
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742530072
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
This original work explores the increasingly important phenomenon of the formation of transnational identity. Considering the ongoing relevance of the European Union, the contributors ask a series of intriguing questions: Is a European identity possible? How are the various types of European identity formed and maintained? How are these identities linked to the process of European integration? Examining the psychological, institutional, and political mechanisms that encourage or impede identification with transnational groups, the book considers these theoretical questions in light of new evidence drawn from a rich body of primary research, including field experiments, in-depth interviews with elites, and public opinion surveys. Brought together for the first time, social psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, and ethnographers share their theoretical and methodological perspectives in tackling the common issues surrounding the emergence of "European" as a political identity. Paying special attention to the role of the institutions of the EU, the authors investigate the impact of neo-functionalist strategies and find that the processes of identity formation are far more complicated than can be explained by material and institutional factors alone. The authors engage in a fruitful dialogue about how much a European identity exists and how much it matters as they delve into the sources of disagreement and their implications.

Uses of the Other

Uses of the Other PDF Author: Iver B. Neumann
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719056536
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
In the wake of the Cold War, European identities are up for grabs. Identity formation is an integral and tangible aspect of contemporary European politics. Drawing on an array of approaches, the author investigates empirically how six national, regional and all-European identities involve the exclusion of the East. The focus is on how identities are being renegotiated in practice. The readings of how Europe is constituted by its discourse on Turkey and Russia respectively argue that European identity of marked by these exclusions. The exclusions are part of the preconditions for action which are undertaken in political forums where European identity is seen as relevant, such as the debates about NATO and EU enlargement. Readings of regional discourses constituting repectively Northern and Central Europe argue that the politics of these regions serve to exclude those living further East. The two readings of Bashkir and Russian discourse demonstrate how the self/other nexus may be used as a springboard for analyzing national identities. The conclusion addresses the question of how far our present theoretical approaches may take us.

Which identity for Europe?

Which identity for Europe? PDF Author: Fabrizio Capogrosso
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3640262409
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Sociology - Political Sociology, Majorities, Minorities, grade: 1,0, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), 46 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In the last decades, debates about the existence and the meaning of an European idetity raised all the time more. Some scholars approached the theme, focussing on a “common historical heritage”, which points to a basis for a collective identity (Habermas 2001; Giesen 2003), others based their arguments on political and institutional similarities among European countries like human rights protection, democracy and rule of law (Risse 2001). In other cases, the studies on the topic focussed on the ambivalent employ of the term “identity”, arguing its (ab)-use, above all in EU-Treaties, instead of more obviously expressions as “legitimacy” or “sovereignty” (Bruha/ Rau 2000). The aim of this paper is to examine the topic from two distinctive perspectives: a post-national and a postmodern. The paper suggests a sort of “back to the roots” of the en-quiry, approaching the subject neither with pre-existent assumptions nor with the goal to order puzzled arguments. The study will not pursue the question about the existence of a collective European identity, but will search for possible ways and circumstances, in which “identity” in Europe (restricting the focus on the European Union) may emerge. The central question of the paper will be if the development of an European identity is plausible and if a widespread process of socialisation may prevail on the national structures of the member states (hereafter MSs) and lead to the growth of common “procedures” and “functions” among European populations. In order to answer the question the more satisfactory as possible, the dissertation proposes two differing angles for the analysis with the intend to compare the findings resulting from dissimilar criteria of examination. In a first part the EU will be considered as a post-national political order, deriving from the dissolution of its MSs. After a short explanation on the political nature of the Union from this standpoint, the dissertation will explore the option of an emerging post-national identity in the European Union, adopting the criteria proposed by Anthony Smith in his study of national identities (Smith 1991). The analysis will evaluate if the EU attends the proposed criteria in order to assess the coming out of a post-national form of social identification. [...]

European Identity and Culture

European Identity and Culture PDF Author: Markus Thiel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317139593
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
As the EU continues its integration process, the concepts of culture and transnational European belonging remain ambivalent, whether in the realm of socio-historical representation or mass politics. Engaging with recent scholarly debates surrounding the formation of collective transnational identities, this collection draws on the latest empirical case studies to explore the meaning and composition of European identity, the mechanisms that create and shape it and the question of whom it includes. Each author pays close attention to the cultural aspects of identity formation, whether manifested in official, institutional articulations, such as symbols, coinage, ceremonies and discursive manifestations, or in the cultures of the everyday, such as through new forms of communication networks, consumption or leisure. Exploring attempts by various actors - institutions, groups, individuals - to create transnational European identities, European Identity and Culture scrutinizes the cultural formations that have either reignited or emerged in often contradictory relations to the EU project, including local, regional and transnational allegiances. A rich, interdisciplinary investigation of the role of culture in the formation of European identity, whether as a central building block to unity or as a formidable obstacle to a common sense of purpose, this book will be of interest to scholars across the social sciences and humanities working on questions of political culture, European integration, citizenship and (trans-) national identity.

Constructing Europe's Identity

Constructing Europe's Identity PDF Author: Lars-Erik Cederman
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9781555878726
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
The authors assess not only the benefits, but also the costs of attempts to assert a European identity. Referring to debates about the respective merits of deepening and widening, they address the equally important associated tradeoffs between exclusion and dilution: they point to the risks on the one hand of a Europe that excludes foreign goods, immigrants and entire countries, and on the other of an unfocused definition of Europe that may dilute the very values that a "European identity" is intended to protect.

Citizens of Europe?

Citizens of Europe? PDF Author: M. Bruter
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230501532
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
This book shows empirically for the first time how a mass European identity has emerged across the EU member states between 1970 and the present day. Beyond this novel approach, it also offers a whole new theory of political identities, based on two 'civic' and 'cultural' components. Michael Bruter shows how multiple identities reinforce - rather than exclude - each other, and studies in depth the unsuspected impact of the media and political institutions on the emergence of new political identities.

EU Enlargement, Identity and the Analysis of European Foreign Policy

EU Enlargement, Identity and the Analysis of European Foreign Policy PDF Author: Ulrich Sedelmeier
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Europe, Central
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description


The Search for a European Identity

The Search for a European Identity PDF Author: Furio Cerutti
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134063741
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
This book examines the link between political identity and legitimacy in the European Union. Stimulated by the crisis of legitimacy and identity suffered by the EU after the referenda on the Constitutional Treaty, the editors have developed a theoretical framework to examine the interplay between these two items in the problematic development of the EU into a fully-fledged political actor. The contributors to the volume seek to: Redefine the key notions in the rigorous way of political philosophy, thus avoiding the generic or imprecise language usage found in a large part of political science literature on identity Test these concepts in the analysis of EU policies that may reveal the world views and the principles upon which EU legislation is based, and whose degree of acceptance on the side of the citizens is an indicator of how far a shared political identity has developed. Featuring case studies on foreign and environmental policy, biosafety policy, biotechnology regulation, civil society, human rights promotion, as well as studies on the role of memory, space and external views on the process of European identity-building, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of political science, political philosophy, European politics and European Studies.

European identity and Europeanisation. Focus on an underestimated topic

European identity and Europeanisation. Focus on an underestimated topic PDF Author: Ron Böhler
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668538824
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1.7, University of Bath, language: English, abstract: This study examines the concept of a general European identity. First, the underlying concept of ‘identity’ in the European socio-political context will be defined and elaborated in its different levels and peculiarities. Second, the study addresses the various theories of Europeanisation as they mirror the current state of the scientific debate. The essay concludes by extracting the additive of the concept of ‘identity’ for Europeanisation theories. The European Union (EU) faces a dilemma: While life and politics of the European citizens become more and more Europeanised, the emergence of a European identity seems to fail. People all over Europe cannot identify with the idea of European unification as a whole, although this might spread peace, freedom and welfare. On the other hand, if the EU or its citizens themselves would be able to create European ‘imagined community’, by whatever means, the split between both concepts would be overcome. But how is the concept of ‘identity’ then connected to Europeanisation processes? The main argument here is that ‘identity’ still is an underestimated object of Europeanisation theories, but that the rise of hybrid identities, and with it the manifestation of Europeanised national identities instead of a European identity all over Europe, holds the explicit potency to establish the missing relationship between European citizens and EU politics. This would lead suddenly to a strengthened legitimization of European Union policies as well as people ́s belief in the justification of a supranational polity within a system of multi-level governance.