What Leads Young People to Identify with Europe? An Exploration of the Impact of Exposure to Europe and Political Engagement on European Identity among Young Europeans

Abstract

The paper looks at young people's sense of being European in a number of European regions: Madrid and Bilbao, Vienna and Vorarlberg, Manchester and Edinburgh, Chemnitz and Bielefeld, Prague and Bratislava. We considered the ways in which ‘exposure’ to Europe through travel and speaking languages as well as cognitive mobilisation through discussing politics made young people aged 18–24 more European. However, the most important factor in differentiating ideas of Europe was the region itself with people in Central European regions (Austria, Germany, Czech and Slovak Republics) having much stronger European identification than those in peripheral regions (Spain and the UK). These ideas are explored using both quantitative and qualitative data from the regions and the explanations advanced are framed in terms of a theory of ‘entitativity’ or people's identification with something beyond themselves.

Key Words:

• European identity
• young people
• languages
• mobility
• cognitive mobilisation

Notes

Website http://www.sociology.ed.ac.uk/youth/.

Edinburgh N = 308, Manchester N = 364, Madrid N = 401, Bilbao N = 424, Bielefeld N = 400, Chemnitz N = 400, Bratislava N = 397, Prague N = 396, Vienna N = 400, Vorarlberg N = 400. In total N = 3,980.

This and the following quotes are taken from two focus group discussions which were carried out in Vienna within the frame of the EU-project described above. The young people who took part in these discussions might be characterised as belonging to the European elite: Well educated and mostly middle class. One group consisted of young people who had already been abroad for a longer period of time either as an au pair, as an exchange student or travelling on her/his own accord. For the other group we had invited active members of youth organisations such as Catholic Youth, Conservative Youth and Trade Union Youth. In the following section we will present some of the statements not as proof but as illustrations of our conceptual considerations.

The data were collected in 2002, i.e. before the accession of the Slovak and Czech Republic.