| Post-identity?: Culture and European Integration Subjects: Geography; Humanities; Politics & International Relations; Social Sciences; European Politics; European Union Politics; International Relations; Sociology & Social Policy; Human Geography; History; Anthropology - Soc Sci; Cultural Geography; European Integration; European Union Institutions; European Union Policy; Political & Economic Anthropology; Social & Cultural Anthropology; Sociology of Culture; European History; Social Policy; Social Theory; Collective identity, the emotionally powerful sense of belonging to a group, is a crucial source of popular legitimacy for nations. However efforts since the 1990s to politically support European integration by using identity mechanisms borrowed from nationalism have had very limited success. European integration may require new, post-national approaches to the relationship between culture and politics. This controversial and timely volume poses the logical question: if identity doesn't effectively connect culture with European integration politics, what does? The book brings together leading scholars from several of the disciplines that have developed concepts of culture and methods of cultural research. These expert interdisciplinary contributors apply a startling diversity of approaches to culture, linking it to facets of integration as varied as external policy, the democratic deficit, economic dynamism and the geography of integration. This book examines commonalities and connections within the European space, as well as representations of these in identity discourses. It will be useful for students and scholars of sociology, geography, anthropology, social psychology, political science and the history of European integration. Richard McMahon lectures in history at University College Cork. He holds a PhD from the European University Institute, Florence and was previously a Brussels-based journalist of EU external relations and an ESRC research fellow in politics at the University of Bristol. |