This thesis focuses on the process of identity construction taking place within the European Union. Through an analysis of how the Union constructs the internal dimension of its identity in its domestic sphere targeting the citizens of its Member States and how it constructs the external dimension of its identity in the international sphere targeting mainly the non-member states and their citizens, the thesis seeks to answer the question to what extent the internal and external dimensions of the EU's identity, as analysed within the framework of the education policy and the foreign policy of the Union, form a coherent whole. It argues that identity has two dimensions: an external dimension which corresponds to the projection of the political community onto the world, and an internal one in which the idea of this imagined political community is projected back onto its citizens. Building on this framework, the thesis claims that these two facets of identity form a coherent and meaningful identity framework, the internal and external dimensions of which are constructed in quite similar and complementary ways. It also argues that the representations of the internal and external facets of the EU's identity illustrate great similarities in the way they were conceptualised, promoted and linked to the overall policy objectives of the Union in the two policy areas discussed within the framework of this study.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:590023 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Arkan, Zeynep |
| Publisher | University of Kent |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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