IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v61y2023i5p1194-1210.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Peace, Prosperity and Protection: Narratives of Integration and the ‘Justification Jungle’ of Europe's Public Spheres

Author

Listed:
  • Pieter de Wilde

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is in search of a new narrative to create a sense of common purpose, but it is unclear around which values that narrative should be built. To analyse how different narratives resonate in Europe's public spheres, this article presents a novel dataset based on claims analysis of newspaper articles from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and Denmark between 2012 and 2019 on the issues of migration, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), trade and counterterrorism. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses show how different frames have been used for various policy agendas. This reveals considerable variation, but comparatively low levels of explained variance. Europe's public spheres can thus be described as a ‘justification jungle’, where many actors use a range of arguments to back up diverging political demands. This poses a formidable obstacle to any single narrative of European integration.

Suggested Citation

  • Pieter de Wilde, 2023. "Peace, Prosperity and Protection: Narratives of Integration and the ‘Justification Jungle’ of Europe's Public Spheres," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1194-1210, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:61:y:2023:i:5:p:1194-1210
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13456
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13456
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13456?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian Manners & Philomena Murray, 2016. "The End of a Noble Narrative? European Integration Narratives after the Nobel Peace Prize," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 185-202, January.
    2. Helene Sjursen, 2002. "Why Expand?: The Question of Legitimacy and Justification in the EU’s Enlargement Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 491-513, September.
    3. Johannes Kaiser & Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw, 2017. "The Framing of the Euro Crisis in German and Spanish Online News Media between 2010 and 2014: Does a Common European Public Discourse Emerge?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 798-814, July.
    4. Kalypso Nicolaïdis & Robert Howse, 2002. "‘This is my EUtopia ...’: Narrative as Power," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 767-792, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christoffer Kølvraa, 2016. "European Fantasies: On the EU's Political Myths and the Affective Potential of Utopian Imaginaries for European Identity," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 169-184, January.
    2. Cengiz Erisen & Elif Erisen, 2014. "Attitudinal Ambivalence towards Turkey's EU Membership," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 217-233, March.
    3. Erdi Kutlu & Çağdaş Cengiz & Murat Necip Arman & Emir Ozeren, 2021. "Understanding the Role of Leadership Styles of Erdogan and Merkel in Sustainability of Turkey-European Union Relations: A Leadership Trait Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-17, August.
    4. Kilian Spandler, 2018. "Regional standards of membership and enlargement in the EU and ASEAN," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 183-198, June.
    5. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:1163-1184 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Senem Aydın‐Düzgit & Gergana Noutcheva, 2022. "External Contestations of Europe: Russia and Turkey as Normative Challengers?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(6), pages 1815-1831, November.
    7. Kalypso Nicolaidis, 2024. "The Third Democratic Transformation: From European to Planetary Politics," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 845-867, May.
    8. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:397-416 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Jutta Gunther & Gresa Latifi & Judyta Lubacha-Sember & Daniel Tobelmann, 2017. "Scientific Cooperation in a German-Polish Border Region in the Light of EU Enlargement," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 42-53.
    10. Stefan Auer, 2010. "‘New Europe’: Between Cosmopolitan Dreams and Nationalist Nightmares," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 1163-1184, November.
    11. Besir Ceka & Aleksandra Sojka, 2016. "Loving it but not feeling it yet? The state of European identity after the eastern enlargement," European Union Politics, , vol. 17(3), pages 482-503, September.
    12. Johanna Hase, 2024. "Two and a Half Tales of Europe: How the European Commission Narrates Peoplehood in Migration and Citizenship Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 74-90, January.
    13. Kalypso Nicolaidis & Richard Youngs, 2023. "Reversing the Gaze: Can the EU Import Democracy from Others?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(6), pages 1605-1621, November.
    14. Thomas Plümper & Christina J. Schneider, 2007. "Discriminatory European Union Membership and the Redistribution of Enlargement Gains," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 51(4), pages 568-587, August.
    15. Marina Lambert, 2023. "Ritual and Affect in Europe Day Celebrations: Institutional Practices of European Identity Construction in Crisis," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 1394-1409, September.
    16. Toni Haastrup & Heather Macrae & Annick Masselot & Alasdair Young & Milford Soko & Richard G. Whitman, 2022. "Editing ‘Europe’: Reflections from Inside, Outside and Beyond," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 853-866, July.
    17. Kenneth Ka-Lok Chan, 2020. "Power through trade: opportunities and constraints of the European Union’s norm entrepreneurship—the case of Hong Kong," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 413-427, December.
    18. Laura Allison‐Reumann, 2020. "EU Narratives of Regionalism Promotion to ASEAN: A Modest Turn?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 872-889, July.
    19. Chris J. Bickerton, 2011. "Towards a Social Theory of EU Foreign and Security Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 171-190, January.
    20. Mai'a K. Davis Cross & Ireneusz Pawel Karolewski & Helene Sjursen & Guri Rosén, 2017. "Arguing Sanctions. On the EU's Response to the Crisis in Ukraine," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 20-36, January.
    21. Gasper, D.R. & van der Maesen, L.J.G. & Truong, T.-D. & Walker, A., 2008. "Human security and social quality: contrasts and complementaries," ISS Working Papers - General Series 18731, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    22. Natalia Chaban & Alister Miskimmon & Ben O'Loughlin, 2017. "The EU's Peace and Security Narrative: Views from EU Strategic Partners in Asia," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(6), pages 1273-1289, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:61:y:2023:i:5:p:1194-1210. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.