Article published In:
Identity Politics[Journal of Language and Politics 1:1] 2002
► pp. 59–83
Searching for Europe
The problem of legitimisation and representation in recent political speeches on Europe
Europe is in a phase of institutional and political transformation. It is however not only the restructuring of the organisational procedures, i.e. the so-called reform of the institutions in the face of the coming enlargement of the European Union (EU), but also questions of the overall identity and legitimacy of Europe that are increasingly approached in political discourses. This essay analyses recent political speeches on Europe; it focuses on the problems of legitimisation and political representation at the “new” supranational level. In a comparison between French and German speeches the different semantic fields in talking about Europe are explored. Particular emphasis will be given to the interplay of ideational and organizational aspects — Making meaning of Europe and Organizing Europe — as being constitutive for these speeches. The discursive construction of past and future, experience and expectation; will be illuminated as well as problems of space and time, strategies of territorialisation and temporalisation.
References (17)
Abélès, M. (2000). “Virtual Europe”. In: I. Bellier and Th. Wilson (Ed.), An Anthropology of the European Union. Building, Imagining and Experiencing the New Europe. Oxford/New York, p. 75–92.
Bohrer, K.-H. (2000). “Die europäische Differenz. Epitaph auf eine deutsche Utopie”. Merkur. Deutsche Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken, 617/6181, p. 991–1003.
Brague, R. (1993). Europa. Eine exzentrische Identität. Frankfurt a. M./New York.
Cioran, E. M. (1990). Über das reaktionäre Denken. Frankfurt a. Main.
Gonzáles, F. (1999). “European Union and Globalization”. Foreign Policy, 1151, Summer 1999, p. 28–43. 
Habermas, J. (1997). Die Einbeziehung des Anderen. Studien zur politischen Theorie. Frankfurt a. M.
Koselleck, R. (1989). Vergangene Zukunft. Zur Semantik geschichtlicher Zeiten. Frankfurt a. M.
Levy, D. (1987). Political Order. Philosophical Anthropology, Modernity, and the Challenge of Ideology. Baton Rouge and London.
Luhmann, N. (1969). Legitimation durch Verfahren. Neuwied/Berlin.
Moisi, D. (1999). “Dreaming of Europe”. Foreign Policy, 1151, Summer 1999, p. 44–61.
Muntigl, P., Weiss, G., and R. Wodak (2000). European Union Discourses on Un/employment. An interdisciplinary approach to employment policy-making and organizational change. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Rosenstock-Huessy, E. (1993). Out of Revolution. Autobiography of Western Man. Oxford/Providence.
Sandoz, E. (2000). The Voegelinian Revolution. A Biographical Introduction. New Brunswick and London.
Schulze, H. (1999). Staat und Nation in der europäischen Geschichte. München.
Voegelin, E. (1952/1987). The New Science of Politics. An Introduction. Chicago/London.
(1974). The Ecumenic Age. Order and History Vol. IV. Baton Rouge/London.
Wodak, R., R. de Cillia, M. Reisigl, K. Liebhart, K. Hofstätter & M. Kargl (1998). Zur diskursiven Konstruktion nationaler Identität. Frankfurt a. M.
Cited by (38)
Cited by 38 other publications
Brusenbauch Meislová, Monika & Vít Hloušek
2024. A tale of two memberships: analysing post-2004 official governmental discourse on the EU in Czechia and Slovakia. Journal of Contemporary European Studies ► pp. 1 ff. 
Salamurović, Aleksandra
2023. The Metonymy EUrope as a Means of Legitimizing Nations in the Western Balkans. In Konzepte der NATION im europäischen Kontext im 21. Jahrhundert [Linguistik in Empirie und Theorie/Empirical and Theoretical Linguistics, ], ► pp. 219 ff.
Сардарян, Генри
2021. Политическая философия свободы в христианской аксиологии республиканизма. Полис. Политические исследования ► pp. 132 ff.
Kutter, Amelie
2020. The Constitution Process in the Discourse Field of Multilateral Negotiation. In Legitimation in the European Union, ► pp. 261 ff.
Lähdesmäki, Tuuli, Aino-Kaisa Koistinen & Susanne C. Ylönen
2020. Introduction: What Is Intercultural Dialogue and Why It Is Needed in Europe Today?. In Intercultural Dialogue in the European Education Policies, ► pp. 1 ff.
Takovski, Aleksandar
Lykou, Christina & Bessie Mitsikopoulou
2017. Chapter 4. The chronicle of an ongoing crisis. In Greece in Crisis [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 70], ► pp. 113 ff.
Mitsikopoulou, Bessie & Christina Lykou
2017. Chapter 4. The chronicle of an ongoing crisis. In Greece in Crisis [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 70],
Klymenko, Lina
2016. Nation-building and presidential rhetoric in Belarus. Journal of Language and Politics 15:6 ► pp. 727 ff.
Bennett, Samuel
2015. Bayley & Williams, (eds.), 2012. European Identity: What the Media Say. Journal of Language and Politics 14:2 ► pp. 309 ff.
Wodak, Ruth & Salomi Boukala
2015. European identities and the revival of nationalism in the European Union. Journal of Language and Politics 14:1 ► pp. 87 ff.
Boukala, Salomi
2014. Waiting for democracy: Political crisis and the discursive (re)invention of the ‘national enemy’ in times of ‘Grecovery’. Discourse & Society 25:4 ► pp. 483 ff.
Boukala, Salomi
2019. The Construction of European Identity: From Nation State to the European Union. In European Identity and the Representation of Islam in the Mainstream Press, ► pp. 19 ff.
Krzyżanowski, Michał
2014. Values, imaginaries and templates of journalistic practice: a Critical Discourse Analysis. Social Semiotics 24:3 ► pp. 345 ff.
Krzyżanowski, Michał
2015. International leadership re-/constructed?. Journal of Language and Politics 14:1 ► pp. 110 ff.
McEntee-Atalianis, Lisa & Franco Zappettini
2014. NETWORKED IDENTITIES. Critical Discourse Studies 11:4 ► pp. 397 ff.
Tekin, Beyza Ç.
2014. Rethinking the Post-National EU in Times of Austerity and Crisis. Mediterranean Politics 19:1 ► pp. 21 ff.
Zappettini, Franco
Forchtner, Bernhard & Christoffer Kølvraa
2012. Narrating a ‘new Europe’: From ‘bitter past’ to self-righteousness?. Discourse & Society 23:4 ► pp. 377 ff.
Clark, Julian R A & Alun R Jones
2011. The Spatialising Politics of EUropean Political Practice: Transacting ‘Eastness’ in the European Union. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 29:2 ► pp. 291 ff.
de Oliver, Miguel
2011. Nativism and the Obsolescence of Grand Narrative: Comprehending the Quandary of Anti-Immigration Groups in the Neoliberal Era. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 37:7 ► pp. 977 ff.
Krzyżanowski, Michał & Ruth Wodak
2011. Political strategies and language policies: the European Union Lisbon strategy and its implications for the EU’s language and multilingualism policy. Language Policy 10:2 ► pp. 115 ff.
Bischof, Karin, Florian Oberhuber & Karin Stögner
2010. Gender-specific constructions of the ‘other religion’ in French and Austrian discourse on Turkey’s accession to the European Union. Journal of Language and Politics 9:3 ► pp. 364 ff.
Fløttum, Kjersti
2010. EU discourse: Polyphony and unclearness. Journal of Pragmatics 42:4 ► pp. 990 ff.
Fløttum, Kjersti
2010. A linguistic and discursive view on climate change discourse. ASp :58 ► pp. 19 ff.
Just, Sine Nørholm
Krzyżanowski, Michal
2009. EUROPE IN CRISIS?. Journalism Studies 10:1 ► pp. 18 ff.
Antonsich, Marco
2008. The Narration of Europe in `National' and `Post-national' Terms. European Journal of Social Theory 11:4 ► pp. 505 ff.
Antonsich, Marco
2008. EUropean attachment and meanings of EUrope. A qualitative study in the EU-15. Political Geography 27:6 ► pp. 691 ff.
Antonsich, Marco
2012. BRINGING THEDEMOSBACK IN. European Societies 14:4 ► pp. 484 ff.
Gaski, Lina
2008. Contesting the Sami Polity: Discursive Representations in the Sami Electoral Campaign in 2005. Acta Borealia 25:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Jenkins, Richard
2008. THE AMBIGUITY OF EUROPE:. European Societies 10:2 ► pp. 153 ff.
Tekin, Beyza Çağatay
2008. The construction of Turkey's possible EU membership in French political discourse. Discourse & Society 19:6 ► pp. 727 ff.
Oberhuber, Florian
2006. The Convention Method: An Institutional Device for Consensus-building. In The Making of a European Constitution, ► pp. 90 ff.
Oberhuber, Florian, Christoph Bärenreuter, Michal Krzyżanowski, Heinz Schönbauer & Ruth Wodak
Triandafyllidou, Anna & Ruth Wodak
2003. Conceptual and methodological questions in the study of collective identities. Journal of Language and Politics 2:2 ► pp. 205 ff.
[no author supplied]
2015. Contending metaphors of the European Union as a global actor: Norms and power in the European discourse on multilateralism. Journal of Language and Politics 14:1 ► pp. 18 ff.
[no author supplied]
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.