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.
This book looks at the discursive construction of European identities in a variety of institutional and non-institutional contexts and through a variety of social and political actors. Its multilevel and interdisciplinary approach - rooted in the Discourse-Historical tradition of Critical Discourse Analysis - allows for a comparison of identity constructions at different levels of Europe's social and political organisation and in different modes of communication. The book analyses discourses as diverse as those of the EU politicians, of Europe's national media as well as of migrants living in Europe. It offers a set of integrated models and analytical procedures which bring to the fore the inherent dynamism and complexity of both 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' European identity constructions.
This comparative study harks back to the revolutionary year of 1989 and asks two critical questions about the resulting reconfiguration of Europe in the aftermath of the collapse of communism: Why did Central and East European states display such divergent outcomes of their socio-political transitions? Why did three of those states—Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia—differ so starkly in terms of the pace and extent of their integration into Europe? Rumena Filipova argues that Poland’s, Bulgaria’s, and Russia’s dominating conceptions of national identity have principally shaped these countries’ foreign policy behavior after 1989. Such an explanation of these three nations’ diverging degrees of Europeanization stands in contrast to institutionalist-rationalist, interest-based accounts of democratic transition and international integration in post-communist Europe. She thereby makes a case for the need to include ideational factors into the study of International Relations and demonstrates that identities are not easily malleable and may not be as fluid as often assumed. She proposes a theoretical “middle-ground” argument that calls for “qualified post-positivism” as an integrated perspective that combines positivist and post-positivist orientations in the study of IR.
Jekatyerina Dunajeva explores how two dominant stereotypes—“bad Gypsies” and “good Roma”—took hold in formal and informal educational institutions in Russia and Hungary. She shows that over centuries “Gypsies” came to be associated with criminality, lack of education, and backwardness. The second notion, of proud, empowered, and educated “Roma,” is a more recent development. By identifying five historical phases—pre-modern, early-modern, early and “ripe” communism, and neomodern nation-building—the book captures crucial legacies that deepen social divisions and normalize the constructed group images. The analysis of the state-managed Roma identity project in the brief korenizatsija program for the integration of non-Russian nationalities into the Soviet civil service in the 1920s is particularly revealing, while the critique of contemporary endeavors is a valuable resource for policy makers and civic activists alike. The top-down view is complemented with the bottom-up attention to everyday Roma voices. Personal stories reveal how identities operate in daily life, as Dunajeva brings out hidden narratives and subaltern discourse. Her handling of fieldwork and self-reflexivity is a model of sensitive research with vulnerable groups.
Cultural identity is a key area of debate in contemporary Europe. Despite widespread use of the past in the construction of ethnic, national and European identity, theories of cultural identity have been neglected in archaeology. Focusing on the interrelationships between concepts of cultural identity today and the interpretation of past cultural groups, Cultural Identity and Archaeology offers proactive archaeological perspectives in the debate surrounding European identities. This fascinating and thought-provoking book covers three key areas. It considers how material remains are used in the interpretation of cultural identities, for example ‘pan-Celtic culture’ and ‘Bronze Age Europe’. Finally, it looks at archaeological evidence for the construction of cultural identities in the European past. The authors are critical of monolithic constructions of Europe, and also of the ethnic and national groups within it. in place of such exclusive cultural, political and territorial entities the book argues for a consideration of the diverse, hybrid and multiple nature of European cultural identities.
The editor brings together specialists from critical discourse analysis and critical approaches to communications, history, literature, cultural studies, media, sociology, politics and international relations to discuss the discursive construction of ethnic, national and regional identities.
Making European Space explores how future visions of Europe's physical space are being decisively shaped by transnational politics and power struggles, which are being played out in new multi-level arenas of governance across the European Union. At stake are big ideas about mobility and friction, about relations between core and peripheral regions, and about the future Europe's cities and countryside. The book builds a critical narrative of the emergence of a new discourse of Europe as 'monotopia', revealing a very real project to shape European space in line with visions of high speed, frictionless mobility, the transgression of borders, and the creation of city networks. The narrative explores in depth how the particular ideas of mobility and space which underpin this discourse are being constructed in policy making, and reflects on the legitimacy of these policy processes. In particular, it shows how spatial ideas are becoming embedded in the everyday practices of the social and political organisation of space, in ways that make a frictionless Europe seem natural, and part of a common European territorial identity.
This book combines media studies and linguistics with theories of national and supranational identity to offer an interdisciplinary approach to the study of European identity/ies and news discourses. Taking representations of ‘Islamist terrorism’ and Turkey’s accession to the European Union as case studies, it analyses the discursive construction of supranational European identity through the discursive distinction of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’. Moreover, it compares the media’s representations of the ‘Other’ in different socio-political moments in Europe- from times of European integration (2004-5) to the European dystopia (2015-16) through the discourse analysis of specific Greek, British and French newspapers. This timely work synthesizes classic argumentative approaches and Gramscian thought in the study of media discourses by focusing on the Aristotelian concept of topos and introducing the concept of ‘hegemonic knowledge’. This pioneering work will appeal to scholars across the fields of linguistics, social anthropology, European politics, and media studies.
Why do nations come into conflict? What factors lead to the horrors of ethnic cleansing? This timely book offers clear-eyed answers to these questions by exploring how national identity is shaped by place, focusing especially on Serbia, Hungary, and Romania. Moving beyond studies of nationalism that consider only the economic and geostrategic value of territory, George W. White shows that the very core of national identity is intimately bound to specific places. Indeed, nations define themselves in terms of spaces that have historical, linguistic, and religious meaning, as Serbs have clearly demonstrated in Kosovo. These territories are concrete expressions of a nationAIs identity, both past and present. With his detailed analysis of the places that define national identity in Southeastern Europe, White convincingly shows why territorial disputes so often escalate into war.
