^aFaculty of Sociology, University of Bielefeld, P.O.-Box 100131, D-33501, Bielefeld, Germany

Correspondence: Jochen Walter, E-mail: jochen.walter@uni-bielefeld.de; Mathias Albert, E-mail: mathias.albert@uni-bielefeld.de

Abstract

This paper seeks to provide a historically informed analysis of Europe, understood as an 'essentially contested concept', whereby Turkey is interpreted as a critical point of reference that evokes different discursive constructions of Europe, either including or excluding Turkey. At first, the theoretical-methodological section of this paper will introduce a discourse analytical research programme which utilizes the radically constructivist notion of communication as formulated by Niklas Luhmann in order to analyze the processes of inclusion and exclusion built into various constructions of Europe. Then, the empirical section of this paper analyzes more than 40 years of British and German news coverage (1960–2004). One of the main empirical findings is that Turkey is neither seen as a stable European 'Other' nor as a European 'Self'. Instead, Turkey is predominantly interpreted as 'the thing on the (European) doorstep', thereby stimulating various differing constructions of Europe.