One of the novel aspects of the European debate in the post-Cold War era is the deliberate attempt by scholars and policy-makers to articulate a more meaningful idea of Europe. Such an idea, it is hoped, would enhance the legitimacy of the European Union and could provide the basis for a European identity capable of mitigating against the rise of nationalist and racist violence in Europe. After more than a decade, however, a compelling vision of Europe that would fulfil these aspirations is still widely deemed to be lacking. The question that arises, therefore, is why, in fact, it is proving so difficult to articulate a more meaningful idea of Europe in the post-Cold War era, and how, concomitantly, this difficulty might be addressed. In response to this question, the present thesis offers a detailed analysis of the largely unexplored European thought advanced by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche towards the end of the nineteenth century. For, the thesis argues, Nietzsche's thinking about Europe can still significantly illuminate our understanding of the current impasse by contextualising the latter within the larger problem of European nihilism, or meaninglessness, resident in the cultural configuration of European modernity. On the basis of this understanding, moreover, the thesis subsequently turns towards a consideration of Nietzsche's own idea of the 'good European' which he developed in response to the experience of meaninglessness in modern European culture. This idea of what it means to be a 'good European,' the thesis concludes, can assist contemporary scholars of European affairs in delineating a response to the current impasse which neither posits an essentialist idea of Europe, nor falls back onto a technical and functional approach to European governance.

The June 2016 UK referendum on EU membership is indicative of the challenges facing the EU, in terms of an apparent lack of unity and solidarity among its component member states. The very fact of a potential ‘Brexit’, and the ramifications that it might have, call into question the concept of European identity, indicative of a sense of belonging and attachment to a community beyond the confines of the nation-state. European identity has been conceived by both European elites and academics such as Jürgen Habermas, in his vision of ‘constitutional patriotism’, as something which can be constructed and fostered, in much the same way that national identity has been in the past. Euroscepticism tends to be associated with a lack of European identity, and an emphasis on nationalism.   However, such views downplay the importance still accorded to the nation-state, and the pervasiveness of nationalism. This study argues that European identity is first and foremost a construct of national discourse, and this affects the role that it plays in fostering support for the EU. Therefore, the research examines British national discourse on Europe and the EU, asking: Does the concept of European identity play a role in the Brexit debate? It considers this in relation to affective attachment to the nation-state, examining the kind of assumptions that such attachment enables. Given its emphasis on European identity as a rhetorical construct, this study uses a method of Critical Discourse Analysis, looking at political and public discourse in the UK over a three-month period in the lead up to the ‘Brexit’ referendum.   The findings confirm the pervasiveness of nationalist assumptions used in discourse, demonstrating that they are not associated solely with Euroscepticism. Moreover, the Brexit debate indicates the rhetorical nature of European identity rooted in shared culture or values. As a result, we see strange bedfellows: support for the EU is premised with an emphasis on national allegiance and belonging, while European identity (based on cultural similarity and belonging) is used as an argument against the EU. Both sides of the debate rely to some extent on a separation of ‘Europe’ and ‘EU’. Support for the EU, then, does not necessarily require a ‘thick’ identity, or that the bonds of nationalism be completely broken down. This prompts some reflection on the potential for identification with Europe based on rational, national self-interest.

Constructivist theories from International Relations have long been interested in the European Union and its identity. There is a lack of studies from the critical constructivist strand which, unlike its conventional counterpart, tries to explain how identities are created by discourse. This study seeks to explain how European identity is constructed and reinforced by the EU's cultural heritage policy, using The European Heritage Label as case study. This initiative's 48 selection panel reports, 38 promotional videos, and 10 site descriptions are used as data. The methodological approach was qualitative, since Topoi Analysis, a sub-category of Critical Discourse Analysis, was used. The results show that the EU's cultural heritage policy reinforces the categories of inclusive identity. while at the same time, but with less frequency, also constructs a more exclusive European identity. These findings bring implications for theory, future research, and the EU itself.

The thesis examines what children know about and how they feel towards Europe, drawing on interviews with 9-10-year-old pupils in Bulgaria and England. Although it is focused on the media, it also takes into account a plethora of other factors by investigating the interplay between social structures, socialization agents, national context and individual agency. The methodology combines qualitative and quantitative methods and involves 174 interviews with children, surveys with their parents, interviews with teachers and head teachers and content analysis of TV news, videos and school textbooks. The contributions of the thesis are both theoretical and empirical. The findings reveal important commonalities and differences in processes of European identity formation in the two countries. In both the new and enthusiastic European Union (EU) member Bulgaria and in the notoriously Eurosceptic England, European identity is largely an elite and racialized identity. However, the meanings of European-ness vary: in England, being European is linked with the idea of belonging to the continent of Europe, while Bulgarian children associate it with being part of the EU as a political unit. The results also provide a better insight into the relationship between knowledge and identity, as well as the role of the media in relation to each of them. The study concludes that the mass media, and television in particular, play an important role in raising awareness and knowledge, especially when the topic has a fairly salient position on the political agenda. In contrast, the media do not seem to play a decisive role in shaping identity as such: although Bulgarian media provide considerably more coverage of European issues than English media, Bulgarian children feel less European than their English peers. Theoretically, the thesis not only provides a detailed, sociologically informed and context-sensitive account of the media s influence in identity construction, but also bridges the gap between contrasting theories in media studies and sociology, including agenda-setting theories and audience-focused approaches to media effects, as well as theories of socialization and social structures.

The following study is aimed to evaluate the views of the Turkish News Media on Europe by analysing news articles derived from six Turkish daily newspapers with different political and ideological stances. Following are the questions of the study; What are the discourses on Europe in news articles of six Turkish daily newspapers? How are the discourses on Europe expressed, culturally respectively politically? In order to achieve this aim, a postcolonial standpoint on nationalism has been implemented alongside its critical view on orientalism. The reason why nationalism is included in the study is that it provides a better understanding of the view of “the other” by understanding the view of “us”, since one cannot exist without the other. Using the linguist Norman Fairclough ́s three dimensional model as part of the Critical Discourse Analysis, the discourses in the news articles have been studied as well as their relations to other discourses, and social practices of nationalism.

Look back to the history of the European Union¡]EU¡^, started with the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community¡]ECSC¡^ in 1951, then it turned into European Atomic Energy Community¡]EURATOM¡^and European Economic Community¡]EEC¡^to repeal customs duties. Maastricht Treaty was established in the year of 1992 and it brought a brand new, all concepts of integration. The international society and the academic world are interested in whether all these changes will bring the EU to a new single state or not. It¡¦s not an optimum way to via the highly legalized economic laws to define that if there¡¦s a tendency of building a new state of EU. In order to get more ideas of EU, this thesis chooses the youth policy, which has multidimensional concepts, to analyze the situation and to clarify the present and future state of EU integration. With the more specific analysis of the youth policy, this thesis has found that it has not only a goal of strategy, but also one of the most important chains of EU¡¦s integration. Therefore, this article uses the youth policy to be the main framework to check the existence of the EU¡¦s state-building. This thesis provides a new point of view to see if there¡¦s a possibility of the EU¡¦s state-building; begin with checking the EU¡¦s development to build the concept of EU¡¦s integration trend, analyze the EU¡¦s youth policy and compare it with the main trend of EU¡¦s development to explore if EU tends to become one state. The main framework of the study consists of ¡§Internal solidification¡¨ and ¡§external discrimination¡¨ to prevent the limitation of single integration theory and to exam the state of EU¡¦s integration. This proves that EU has found the motive to take the further step to the next stage of integration. It is likely to say that the relations between the member states of EU are getting stronger in cultural concept.

The primary purpose of this study is to determine how teaching English in European schools can become more effective in order to improve the quality of foreign language education and the quantity of students learning it. Currently, only the minority (38%) of European citizens possesses the ability to speak English, while its importance continues to grow. In addition, it is argued that English can be a very useful instrument in the process of European unification. The current crisis laid bare that there is no underlying emotional bond between people from different member state countries and English has the potential to change that. This research consists of a total of four parts with every part answering a different sub question. In the first part is discussed what the implications of the growing importance of English are on national identities and languages. The second part includes the factors which influence the process of second language acquisition. Subsequently, a case study is conducted which compares the organization of and participation in Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and Bulgarian primary and secondary education and also looks at the teachers and teaching processes. Finally, in the fourth part numbers are presented and analyzed on whether or not EU member state countries are attaining the Barcelona objectives: mother tongue plus two. The main conclusions of all these parts are that a national identity and a possible European identity are able to co-exist instead of replace the other. Similarly, national languages are very robust and will never dissolve into new intermediate idioms. The difference between the percentages of English speakers within Europe cannot merely be explained by education. There are also important linguistic and societal factors influencing second language acquisition. Only a few countries are attaining the Barcelona objectives so far, but there have been reforms in many states which show that they are making an effort. The case study showed that there is still a lot of room for improvement in all four countries when it comes to teaching foreign languages in primary and secondary education. The conclusion lists twelve recommendations on how to do this. For example, it is advised to lower the age of compulsory language learning to the age of 5, to exclusively use the language of instruction in the classroom, to expose students to the target language outside of school and to offer more programs and courses taught in English in universities.

The European youth policy is not often in the centre of attention of media and therefore the awareness and interest of public is on the topic is not very high. However, youth is exactly the group of the population that can be easily influenced. Hence it should be the main target group of the European Union when creating the European identity of its citizens. This thesis analyze three chosen programmes of European youth policy and their influence on formation of the European identity.

We have studied if there is a link between identity and support for integration within the European Union. We have used three hypotheses in order to investigate the issue. First if there is a positive relationship between european identity and european integration, secondly if individuals who experience less of a threat of the national cultural identity and state by the European Union is more supportive of european integration than those who experience a threat, and thirdly if socioeconomic factors such as years of education and household income is linked with self-experienced european identity and support for european integration.We have used statical data from European Social Survey 2018 round 9 as well as previous research for the hypothesisOur conclusion is that socioeconomic factors have a low impact on identity and perception of threat, that there is a strong link between european identity and support for european integration and that perceived threat on national cultural identity and state has a negative impact on views on european integration.

The identities of people residing in the vicinity of national borders are complex and affected by many factors, especially by narratives imposed by national governments through the national education system. The European Union, as a supranational organization, also provides narratives that expose individuals to globalized, versus national, ideals. This ethnographic case study asks how individuals living along the Macedonian-Bulgarian border, sharing strong ethnic and cultural ties, view their regional, national and European identities. The study finds that individuals have developed a strong attachment to their national identity. Many Bulgarians hold a strong vision based on historic claims to the Bulgarian Kingdom. Many Bulgarians see Macedonian as having been carved out of the ancient territory and therefore refer to the people as Bulgarians, thus denying their right to self-identify. Macedonians, on the other hand, choose not to refer to the 'other' as part of their own population, but rather as neighbors. They view their national identity is based on the idea of the country being 'attacked' by its neighbors and having to struggle for recognition in the world. The E.U. does not currently offer an alternative, as individuals have little attachment to their European identity related to E.U. membership. / Ph. D.