Borders, Boundaries and Identity in a Divided Europe - A Sociology of Europeanisation

Sammanfattning: Based on qualitative data, I explore notions of collective identities within Europe – in particular, whether and how the EU and Europe evoke a sense of belonging. The main data comprises 12 semi-structured interviews with Europeans living in two different border regions, Lampedusa and the Danish-German borderland, together with pro- and anti-European movements and communities. The interviews are conceptualised and examined as narratives, with the aim of investigating how and when multiple identities surface, how social and symbolic boundaries are drawn and what this examination reveals about a collective European identity. To link the micro level to the macro level, the narratives are complemented with a critical discourse analysis that examines the discursive field of Europeanisation. The main theoretical framework comprises collective identities in relation to the European social space. Additionally, cosmopolitanism and Euroscepticism are conceptualised as two ideal types that are deployed to investigate how different social actors within the sphere of politics and media compete in influencing the further evolution of Europe. Overall, I argue that there is not one overarching collective European identity, but instead a broad range of competing narratives and discourses that attempt to ascribe fixed meanings to what a European identity comprises, whether it exists and which role it should play. Within the narratives, social actors’ identities appear to be more fragmented than united, but individuals can employ the European identity to represent themselves in a particular way depending on the context. In the study, I demonstrate that discourses and narratives overlap each other when recognising the uncertain future of Europe. In turn, this uncertainty offers novel playgrounds for imagining another Europe.