The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of identity when it comes to European integration. Specifically, the citizen of the European Union’s identity as exclusive national or as transnational. What does the social constructivist theory say when it comes to the role of EU-citizens identity and European integration? I also want to contribute to strengthen the social constructivist theory in political science and international politics. I will examine this through a discourse analysis on four different selected materials. A campaign webpage from the Vote Leave group who ran a campaign to make the Great Britain leave the European Union, an interview the German newspaper der SPIEGEL did with Marine Le Pen who is the party leader of the French right-winged party Rassemblent National, a debate article written by the French president Emmanuel Macron and the Swedish party Liberalernas webpage campaign for the European Parliament elections 2019. I analyse how the discourse these four examples shape and creates the feeling of national or transnational identity and what the message connected to that identity-making says about European integration. With my discourse analysis and the theories of Thomas Risse and Catherine E. De Vries on social constructivism, identity and European integration I analyse and see that those who identify exclusively with a national identity are less keen on solidarity between nations, common policies and have a xenophobic view as oppose to those who have a transnational identity who are positive towards solidarity between nations, want a closer European integration and are not hostile towards migrants. I come to the conclusion that the identity of the EU-citizens is a major factor in human action, political mobilization, political action as in choosing and voting for a party, the EU-institutions way of negotiating on common political issues, public opinion and election outcomes. This means that feeling of an exclusive national or transnational identity is an important factor of European integration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-157385 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Pischner, Kim |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Statsvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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