Values: a core component in the discursive construction of Europe and the EU

ABSTRACT

The idea of a set of shared or common values constitutes a substantial component of EU-discourse. Values are mentioned at the beginning of the Lisbon Treaty, and can be easily found in any communication material produced by the European Union. This paper argues for the relevance of studying from a semiotic perspective the link between values, the European Union and the broader idea of “Europe”. Specifically, it discusses the place of values in the discursive construction of the European Union and “Europe” as distinct cultural units of meaning. As it is argued, values have a salient place in the discourses, narratives and social imaginaries about what “Europe” is and who and what “is” “European”. The paper draws on Fornäs (2012) study of the symbols of Europe and argues that values constitute a central nodal point in the discursive articulation of the EU – and with it, of the idea of Europe – in the level of the “forms of life”.

KEYWORDS:

• European Union
• Europe
• European identity
• values
• semiotics
• forms of life

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The author would like to thank Johan Fornäs for the insightful exchanges on the topic of this paper during the XII International Conference on semiotics, which took place in November 2019 at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki under the auspices of the Hellenic Semiotic Society, as well as for his comments after reading the first version of the article.

2 Some of these symbols are also addressed in chapters included in the volume Images of Europe. The Union between Federation and Separation, edited by Francesco Mangiapane and Tiziana Migliore, and published by Springer in 2021.

3 In the case of Europe, due to this deep entanglement of the discursive and the material dimensions, Carpentier (2021) refers to “the Europe assemblage”.

4 The title of Fornäs' book is a good example of this: while his focus is set mainly on the European Union, he entitled the book Signifying Europe. Furthermore, in what one could describe as a semiotic strategy, EU officials usually employ the signifier “Europe” to refer to the EU.

5 It goes without saying that, besides studying the core components of supranational collective identities such as the European, it is of utmost relevance to focus also on what happens in those boundaries and border regions, as well as how discourses about Europe and Europeanness play a role in local contexts.

6 This issue was pointed out by Paolo Fabbri during the discussion round that took place after the presentation of the ideas of this paper during the session “Futures of Europe”, in the XII International Conference on Semiotics, which took place in November 2019 at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

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Sebastián Moreno Barreneche

Sebastián Moreno Barreneche is Associate Lecturer at the Faculty of Management and Social Sciences of Universidad ORT Uruguay, where he teaches the courses “Contemporary Culture and Society” and “Europe, between Unity and Diversity”. His research in Semiotics has been published in various European and Latin American journals.