European Stories

Intellectual Debates on European Integration in National Contexts

Lacroix Justine, Nicolaïdis Kalypso

European Stories Intellectual Debates on European Integration in National Contexts

European Stories is the first book of its kind in any European language. Its authors explore the many different ways public intellectuals have debated Europe - the EU and its periphery - within distinct epistemological, disciplinary, ideological and above all national traditions. The chapters focus on the post-1989 era but with a view to the long history of the European idea and its variants across the continent. To what extent such ideas frame the attitude of European publics is left open. But the authors assume that they matter to the European project as a whole.

While the twelve national cases have been selected for the broad range they offer, from founding to non-EU member states, they are not exhaustive as the book is meant to encourage further research. The authors of these chapters are all themselves fully immersed in their respective public spheres although generally not strongly identified with one camp or another.

The expected readership is broad and interdisciplinary, ranging from political philosophy, to political science, international relations, history, sociology and the history of ideas. Beyond academia, European Stories is meant for all readers interested in the intellectual debates of our time.

Type Book
Language En
Themes
  • Europe as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
  • Europe as an Area of Economic and Social Regulation
Discipline(s)
  • Science politique générale
Publisher Oxford University Press
Publication date 2010
Notes
  • Romanians see Europe as an ethical hazard; The French as La Grande France; The Germans as (still) their best bet at national atonement; the Spaniards as the key to their democracy and the Italians as the one to their unity; and so on. These may be but simplistic clichés as each national debate in Europe about Europe pits schools of thought against schools of thoughts, ideology against ideology, national trope against national trope. Nevertheless, they belong to distinctly different national debates about the XXIst century project that is the European Union (EU), its relationship to the respective nations’ history and the promises or threats it may hold for the national project today. This book is about the constellation of different “European stories” woven by these national debates and ultimately what their differences tell us about Europe itself.
ULB Institutional Reference http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/44716