Debating European identity. Bright ideas, dim prospects

This volume, premised on the development and survival of the European integrationist project, tackles some crucial questions which have the potential to affect European Union performance if not addressed properly and in a timely manner. It evaluates the basic understanding and power of European identity as a medium in the overall process, as well as the responses offered by the individual states and supranational elites and their respective publics. Needless to say, economic, political and social aspects are serious enough individually that each can challenge and erode further the often problematic connection between the elites and the public – a connection confirming its full relevance in times of crisis when the future of European unity seems even less certain.

Contents:

1. Debating European Identity - Branislav Radeljić

PART 1: Revisiting the Ideas
2. European Freedom and European Memory - Nick Stevenson
3. European Identity, Minor Transnationalism and a Semi-Peripheral Perspective - Adam F. Kola
4. The EU’s Historical Narrative and Enlargement to Eastern Europe - Emma De Angelis
5. Europe and the ‘Global Alien’: The Centrality of the Forced Migrant to a Pan-European Identity - Fran Cetti

PART 2: European Identity in Times of Crisis
6. The Idea of a European Identity as an Escape Forward: A Historical Perspective on the Present Euro Crisis - Bo Stråth
7. Political Alchemies, Identity Games and the Sovereign Debt Instability: European Identity in Crisis or the Crisis in Identity-Talk? - Dora Kostakopoulou
8. The Trajectory and Political Implications of European Identity in a Time of Crisis - Victor M. Olivieri
9. European Identity and the Far Right in Central Europe: A New Emerging Concept or a New European ‘Other’? - Martina Topić

PART 3: Undeniable Challenges and Questionable Prospects
10. The European Public Space: More Than Words? - Miruna Andreea Balosin
11. Religious Identity and Secularization in Europe - Monica Merutiu
12. Europeanization or De-Europeanization: The Myth of Tolerance in Turkey - Ayhan Kaya
13. Conclusion - Branislav Radeljić