European Identities in Discourse: A Transnational Citizens' Perspective(Bloomsbury Advances in Critical Discourse Studies)

Based on empirical research, this book closely analyses how European identities are discursively produced. It focuses on discourse from members of a civic association active in promoting democracy and attempting participation in the transnational public sphere. Unlike previous books that have addressed the question of European identity from top-down stances or through methodological nationalism, this book engages with the multifaceted concept of transnationalism as a key to the negotiation of ‘glocal’ identities. Applying a discourse historical approach (DHA) through a transnational reading, it shows how grassroots actors/speakers construct their different cultural and political affiliations as both world and European citizens. They negotiate institutional identities and historical discourses of nationhood through new forms of mobility, cultural diversity and the imagination of Europe as a proxy for a cosmopolitan civil society. These discourses are ever more important in a fractured and polarised Europe falling prey to contrary discourses of nationhood and ethnic solidarity. Highlighting how transnational narratives of solidarity and the de-territorialisation of civic participation can impact on the (re)imagination of the European community beyond tropes like ‘Fortress Europe’ or intragovernmental politics, this important book shows how identification processes must be read through historical and global as well as localised contexts.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Introduction 1.1 The case for investigating the emergence of ‘new’ European identities 1.2 Book Aims and Objectives 1.3 Structure of the book 1.4 Socio-political contextualisation: The European civil society 1.5 Background on the organization 2. Exploring Identities in Discourse: Conceptual Tools 2.1 A ‘late modern’ approach to identities 2.2 Investigating identities through language 2.3 Critical approaches: discourse and identity in CDA 2.3.1 The discursive construction of national identities 2.4 European identity: ‘national’ discourses in transformation? 2.4.1 European identity as a political project 2.4.2 European Identity as a global process and transnationalism as a new variable 3. Unpacking Transnationalism 3.1.1.1 Identification processes in transnational settings: new meanings of community 3.1.1.2 Language 3.1.1.3 Citizenship 3.1.1.4 Solidarity 3.1.2 The role of networks in transnational and cosmopolitan imaginaries 3.1.3 Transnational and cosmopolitan views of the world 3.2 The transnationalisation of the European field 3.2.1.1 The European Public Sphere (EPS) 3.2.2 Transnationalism in Europe from CDS perspectives 4. Operationalizing the Methodological Approach 4.1 Discussion of methods used in this study 4.1.1 Preparation work 4.1.2 The role of moderators 4.2 DATA COLLECTION 4.2.1 Data collected via focus groups 4.2.1.1 London focus group (pilot test) 4.2.1.2 Bologna (Italy) focus group 4.2.1.3 Cluj-Napoca (Romania) focus group 4.2.1.4 Cardiff (UK) focus group 4.2.2 Data collected via individual interviews 4.2.3 Data entextualisation 4.3 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK 4.3.1 Thematic analysis 4.3.2 ‘In-depth’ analysis 4.3.2.1 Micro linguistic analysis 4.4 Reflections on the analytical framework 5. Results 5.1 Introduction 5.2 THEMATIC ANALYSIS 5.2.1 Preliminary overview of topics and interdiscursive dimensions of European identities 5.2.1.1 First dimension of production of Europeanness 5.2.1.2 Second dimension of production of Europeanness 5.2.1.3 Attribution of Europeanness: usage of the term European 5.3 IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS 5.3.1 Strategies, topoi, and linguistic realisations 5.3.1.1 On the distribution of strategies and topoi 5.3.2 Macro strategies of defining European identity 5.3.2.1 Strategies of negotiating the meaning of (European) identities 5.3.3 Strategies of constructing European identity 5.3.3.1 Topoi of interactional experience and relationality 5.3.3.2 Topos of (inter)connectedness 5.3.3.3 Topos of membership 5.3.3.4 Strategies of negotiation between European and other identities 5.3.4 Macro strategies of dismantling nationhood 5.3.4.1 Topos of nationalism 5.3.4.2 Topoi of flow and container 5.3.4.3 Topos of inadequacy and global risk 5.3.5 The construction and transformation of communities, spaces, and social orders 5.3.5.1 Topos of network 5.3.5.2 Topos of imagination 5.3.5.3 Topos of (transnational) ‘active’ citizenship 5.3.5.4 Topoi of transnational democratic dialogue and equal participation 5.3.5.5 Topos of values 5.3.5.6 Topos of solidarity 5.3.5.7 Topos of diversity 5.3.5.8 Topoi of language(s) and multilingualism 6. Discussing and Summarising the Findings 6.1.1 Strategies and topoi 6.1.2 Linguistic Realisations 6.1.3 Metaphorical scenario of spatial dynamics 6.1.4 The indexicality of Europe and nationhood 6.1.5 A transnational conceptualisation of Europeanness 7. Conclusions 7.1 Summary of this study 7.2 Contribution of this study 7.3 Limitations of this study 7.4 Where to now? Notes Bibliography Appendix 1.1 Transcription conventions used in this study Index

About the Author :
Franco Zappettini is Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at the University of Liverpool, UK.

Review :
A well-structured study of grassroot perspectives on Europeanness ... An important contribution to how we perceive post-nationalist European identities and our knowledge of how they may come about at what seems as a critical moment for European integration. This book offers an innovative approach to the ‘question’ of European identity from original transnational and grassroots perspectives. It insightfully combines Critical Discourse Analysis with political and sociological theories of the Europeanisation of the civil society. As a study of how young Europeans involved with a transnational NGO articulate their regional, national, European and cosmopolitan identities, this book offers ample evidence of the complexities and contradictions of discursively constructed notions of the self. The author seamlessly combines macro-level analysis of topics with micro-analysis of linguistic detail, bringing to life theoretical notions such as imagined communities, glocalisation and transnational flows. In looking at how transnational identities emerge at a grassroots level, the book provides an important complement to studies of institutional identities in the EU. This contribution is much needed in times of resurging nationalism within Europe and beyond. At a time when the very possibility of identifying with Europe has been denied by many, this book forcefully asserts the emergence of a discursively constructed new European identity suggesting on the basis of empirical research a transnational conception of European identity valid in times of globalization and cosmopolitan imaginaries. Zappettini produces an engaging and comprehensive book that lays out a holistic, multi-layered approach to the complex discursive construction of European identity. I would most certainly recommend this book. Undoubtedly, this book should be treated as an important contribution to European Studies, Identity Studies and Critical Discourse Studies.