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How to Reduce Disorder in European Identity Research

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Abstract

The article aims at opening a debate by offering some ideas about how we can avoid analytical confusion in future inquiry on European collective identity. I discuss two important theoretical deficiencies that impede advancement in the research on this topic. These shortcomings are: (1) the two-level problem in analysing collective identities; and (2) the issue of equating ‘belonging to’ with ‘belonging together’. In doing so, I will also make some proposals on how we can deal with these problems. Finally, I present a few considerations on further research questions and point to several empirical desiderata.

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Notes

  1. In addition, some scholars consider identity as a resource that persons or a group of people use, as something individuals or a collective do (see for example Triandafyllidou and Wodak, 2003: 215). This idea of identity can be found in (socio)-linguistic approaches to identity research, which are linked to an ethnomethodological/conversation-analytic perspective (Triandafyllidou and Wodak, 2003: 215). I believe this is an important and promising approach for studying given identities. As for European identity, however, the existence of a supranational collective identity is still a matter of dispute.

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Acknowledgements

The article is based on studies I have done as a visiting fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research. This research was funded by a Heisenberg-scholarship of the German Research Foundation.

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  1. Department of Political Science Carl-Zeiß-Str. 3, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, D-07743, Germany

    Viktoria Kaina

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Kaina, V. How to Reduce Disorder in European Identity Research. Eur Polit Sci 12, 184–196 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2012.39

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