Collective Identity and Democracy in the Enlarging Europe

The enlarged and enlarging European Union is a novel political project in motion. The supranational institutions created for six member states over 50 years ago are influencing the everyday lives of more than 500 million European citizens in 27 countries. In addition to being national citizens, such as French, Polish or Hungarian, they are now also Europeans. This generates the following questions: How do ongoing political processes affect who the Europeans are? What is the content of their reconstructed identity? What are the consequences of changes in collective identity formation for political processes in Europe? This book is the result of five years of research on the link between democracy and the functioning of the European Union. It brings together contributions covering recent research dealing with the changing nature of collective identity formation processes in contemporary Europe.

Autorentext

Magdalena Góra is Assistant Professor at the Institute of European Studies at Jagiellonian University, Kraków (Poland). Her academic interests include processes of collective identity formation in the context of EU enlargement, the European Union as an actor in international relations, contemporary Polish foreign policy, and Polish-Jewish and Polish-Israeli relations. Zdzis aw Mach is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute of European Studies at Jagiellonian University, Kraków. His research interests are identity issues such as nationalism, minorities and ethnicity, the development of European citizenship, migration and the reconstruction of identity, the ethnic origin of nation and the construction of identities, as well as the development of the idea of Europe. Katarzyna Zieli ska is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Sociology and International Programmes Coordinator at the Institute of European Studies at Jagiellonian University, Kraków. Her academic interests include gender issues in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the intersection of religion and politics in modern democratic societies.

Inhalt

Contents: Magdalena Góra/Zdzis aw Mach/Katarzyna Zieli ska: Introduction Magdalena Góra/Zdzis aw Mach: Democracy and Identity in Europe after Enlargement Ulrike Liebert: Competing Projects of European Identity. The German Debate Nora Fisher Onar/Meltem Müftüler-Baç: Turkey in Cosmopolis? Turkish Elite Perceptions of the European Project Mária Heller/Borbála Kriza: Hungarians and Europe - A Rather Strange Relationship Marcin Galent and Pawe Kubicki: Urbanity and Identity after the Accession of Poland to the EU Beata Czajkowska: Leave Me Alone - Civic Disengagement of the Intelligentsia Dariusz Nied wiedzki: European Identity of Polish Pendulum Migrants Katarzyna Zieli ska: Challenging the Nation - Polish Women s Quest for Democracy and Justice Richard C. M. Mole: Homophobia in Central and Eastern Europe: the Failure of Europeanisation in the Latvian Context.