New book on Europeanization of Identities and Public Spheres

A Community of Europeans?
Transnational Identities and Public Spheres

by Thomas Risse

(Cornell University Press, July 2010)

304 pages



Description

In A Community of Europeans? a thoughtful observer of the ongoing project of European integration evaluates the state of the art about European identity and European public spheres. Thomas Risse argues that integration has had profound and long-term effects on the citizens of EU countries, most of whom now have at least a secondary "European identity" to complement their national identities. Risse also claims that we can see the gradual emergence of transnational European communities of communication. Exploring the outlines of this European identity and of the communicative spaces, Risse sheds light on some pressing questions: What do "Europe" and "the EU" mean in the various public debates? How do European identities and transnational public spheres affect policymaking in the EU? And how do they matter in discussions about enlargement, particularly Turkish accession to the EU? What will be the consequences of the growing contestation and politicization of European affairs for European democracy?

Contents

Introduction [preview]

Part 1: An Emerging European Identity?

1. Collective Identities: Conceptual and Methodological Questions
2. Multiple Europes: The Europeanization of Citizens' Identities
3. Modern Europe and Its Discontents
4. Europeanization of National Identities: Explanations

Part 2: An Emerging European Public Sphere?

5. Transnational Public Spheres: Conceptual Questions
6. The Gradual Europeanization of Public Spheres
7. A European Community of Communication?

Part 3: Consequences

8. "Deepening": European Institution-Building
9. "Widening": EU Enlargement and Contested Identities
10. European Democracy and Politization

Conclusions: Depending Modern Europe [preview]

Thomas Risse is Professor of International Politics, Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin.

See also this working paper (pdf) by Thomas Risse:
"European Identity Formation in the Public Sphere and in Foreign Policy" (2008)