Languages of Conflict: Ideas of Europe in European Memory
Languages of Conflict: Ideas of Europe in European Memory
in cooperation with Dr. Gregor Feindt (Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz), Dr. Friedemann Pestel (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), Dr. Rieke Trimçev (University of Greifswald)
Project description
The non-ratification of the EU Constitutional Treaty, the financial and economic crisis, migration, Brexit, a multitude of new nationalisms fuelled by the current wave of populism, and, since 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic have all posed major challenges to the European project. What political space can be carved out to keep the centrifugal forces of these processes in check? The answer to this question also depends on how ‘Europe’ is publicly represented vis-à-vis EU citizens. Yet there is little awareness of what ‘Europe’ has come to mean over time, to different actors, and within and across countries. This project studies the ideas of Europe through the multi-faceted debates on ‘European Memory’. These debates provide a crucial normative background for political and economic integration and draw on competing, and at times contradictory images of a European past.
Methodology
- Qualitative discourse analysis
- Comparative analysis of corpora on European memory from six European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the United Kingdom)
Key questions
- Which historical experiences are mobilised for the concept of Europe?
- What kinds of political demands are articulated by actors who draw on the concept of Europe?
- What logics govern the languages of ‘European Memory’ across public spheres?
- How do the conflictive languages in ‘European Memory’ deconstruct normative conceptions in favour of multifaceted relations of cores and peripheries within ‘Europe’?
