European Identity Revisited: New approaches and recent empirical evidence

Description

It has been argued that the emergence of a European collective identity would help overcome growing disparity caused by the increasing diversity of today’s European Union, with 28 member states and more than 500 million people. Research on European integration is facing the pressing question of what holds ‘Europe’ together in times of crisis, growing distributional conflict and instability in its neighbourhood. This book departs from the ideas of group cohesion in the EU, and reflects on the newest dynamics and practices of European identity. Whilst applying innovative qualitative, quantitative and experimental research methods and an interdisciplinary approach, this volume looks at a variety of issues such as European citizenship, mobility of European citizens, space-based identities, dual identities, student identity and value-sharing. In doing so, this volume presents new perspectives on this complex and dynamic subject and points to potential solutions both in the academic discourse and the political practice of the EU. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European integration, European studies, international relations, citizenship studies, political sociology as well as more broadly in the social sciences. Cover Title Copyright Contents List of figures List of tables Notes on Contributors Preface Introduction PART I Theorizing European identity: recent conceptual perspectives 1 The citizenship–identity nexus in the EU revisited 2 Theorizing European identity: contributions to constructivist international relations debates on collective identity 3 European identity after Ockham’s razor: European identification PART II Measuring European identity: new methodological outlooks 4 European Union symbols under threat: identity considerations 5 Experimental exposure to the EU energy label: trust and implicit identification with the EU 6 A Europeanisation of identities? Quantitative analysis of space-based collective identities in Europe PART III Explaining European identity: fresh empirical evidence 7 Crisis, resilience and EU citizenship: collective identifications of EU migrants in Norway and Denmark 8 Dual identity and its mechanisms: national and European identity in the Italo-Slovene border area 9 Does immigration contribute to the formation of a European identity? A multilevel analysis in western Europe 10 European identity and diffuse support for the European Union in a time of crisis: what can we learn from university students? 11 Commonality and EU identification: the perception of value sharing as a foundation of European identity 12 Building ‘us’ and constructing ‘them’: mass European identity building and the problem of inside–outside definitions 13 ‘In search of the unknown’: an essay on the need for non-knowledge in European identity research Index