This book analyses how domestic and European structures impact on national actors’ identities, interests and foreign policy practices. Employing Norway as the case study area, the author uses this nation as an example to assess Europeanization and identity politics across the European Union (EU). Utilising an original and innovative approach called ‘social constructivist fusion perspective’, the author addresses Europeanization across several key factors. The author assesses the influence of the EU on ‘half-way member countries’, and the impact of identity politics and domestic structures, which factors contribute to or hinder Europeanization, and attempts to empirically measure Europeanization at the actor level. It analyses the impact of domestic and European structures on the identities, interests, attitudes and foreign policy practices of the Norwegian policy-makers. Whilst contributing to knowledge and literature on how constructivist approaches can be utilized in empirical studies of political elites, this book goes beyond theory to demonstrate that Europeanization is not only institutional, and provides evidence of the influence of identity politics. Europeanization, Integration and Identitywill be or interest to students, scholars and policy-makers in the field of European Union politics, international relations, social constructivism and Scandinavian politics.

Discusses how a distinctive 'European' identity has grown over the centuries, especially with the EU.

The text lays out a new framework for studying national debates on European integration. This framework - developed by Ole W?ver - uses discourse analysis and applies it to foreign policy. The empirical chapters on each of the four countries adopt this framework and identify firstly, the key ideas of nation and state; and, secondly, how these ideas influenced the debate over the European Union.

Collective identity, the emotionally powerful sense of belonging to a group, is a crucial source of popular legitimacy for nations. However efforts since the 1990s to politically support European integration by using identity mechanisms borrowed from nationalism have had very limited success. European integration may require new, post-national approaches to the relationship between culture and politics. This controversial and timely volume poses the logical question: if identity doesn't effectively connect culture with European integration politics, what does? The book brings together leading scholars from several of the disciplines that have developed concepts of culture and methods of cultural research. These expert interdisciplinary contributors apply a startling diversity of approaches to culture, linking it to facets of integration as varied as external policy, the democratic deficit, economic dynamism and the geography of integration. This book examines commonalities and connections within the European space, as well as representations of these in identity discourses. It will be useful for students and scholars of sociology, geography, anthropology, social psychology, political science and the history of European integration.

In The Background Of New Questions Of Identity, Culture And Community Emerged After Maastricht Treaty This Book Explores The European Integration Process Since It Throws Immanent Challenge To The Existing Theoretical Paradigms Such As Nationalism And Globalization . Drawing Influence From This Intellectual Climate, This Book Tries To Understand The Integration Process Within The Cultural History Of Europe.The Study Structured Itself Along Three Axes: First, It Circled Down On The Problematic Over Defining What Europe Means; Here The Efforts Were On To Highlight The Constant Flux And Contingent Nature Of The Definition Of Europe. Second, How This Contingent Nature Of Europe Has Compelled The European Union To No Longer Skirt Away The Question Of Identity If It Is To Consolidate The Process And Expand Its Boundary Towards East. By Focusing Upon The Cultural Policy Of The Union, The Study Brought Forth The Various Efforts Of The Union, Particularly The European Commission To Transform The Loyalties And Identities Of People From The National Crucible To A Broader European Spectrum. Thirdly, The Study Critically Evaluates These Policy Initiatives And Highlights How They Are Structured Around The Nineteenth Century Colonial Discourse Of Europe.

The theme of Europeanization has, in recent years, come to figure prominently in a wide range of social science analyses concerning both the process of European integration and broader patterns of change in contemporary Europe. Yet, though increasingly a staple of academic discourse, no widely accepted definition of the term has emerged. This volume of the European Studies represents one of the first interdisciplinary attempts to examine the manifold uses and possibilities of a Europeanization problematic. An international team of contributors drawn from the disciplines of Politics, Sociology, History, Anthropology, and Law explore processes of institution-building and identity formation through the optic of Europeanization. Their work offers new insights as regards the development of European integration, pointing particularly to the need for a genuinely interdisciplinary European Studies which encompasses, but is not limited to, the study of the European Union.

This book analyses how domestic and European structures impact on national actors’ identities, interests and foreign policy practices. Employing Norway as the case study area, the author uses this nation as an example to assess Europeanization and identity politics across the European Union (EU). Utilising an original and innovative approach called ‘social constructivist fusion perspective’, the author addresses Europeanization across several key factors. The author assesses the influence of the EU on ‘half-way member countries’, and the impact of identity politics and domestic structures, which factors contribute to or hinder Europeanization, and attempts to empirically measure Europeanization at the actor level. It analyses the impact of domestic and European structures on the identities, interests, attitudes and foreign policy practices of the Norwegian policy-makers. Whilst contributing to knowledge and literature on how constructivist approaches can be utilized in empirical studies of political elites, this book goes beyond theory to demonstrate that Europeanization is not only institutional, and provides evidence of the influence of identity politics. Europeanization, Integration and Identity will be or interest to students, scholars and policy-makers in the field of European Union politics, international relations, social constructivism and Scandinavian politics.