Table Of Content

WHAT IS EUROPE? This authoritative yet accessible introduction to understanding Europe today moves beyond accounts of European integration to provide a wide-ranging and nuanced study of contemporary Europe and its historical development. This fully updated edition adds material on recent developments, such as Brexit and the migrant and Eurozone crises. The concept of Europe is instilled with a plethora of social, cultural, economic, and political meanings. Throughout history, and still today, scholars writing on Europe, and politicians involved in national or European politics, often disagree on the geographic limits of this space and the defining elements of Europe. Europe is, therefore, first and foremost a concept that takes different shapes and meanings depending on the realm of life on which it is applied and on the historical period under investigation. At a given point in time, depending on the perspective we adopt and the situation in which we find ourselves, Europe may represent very different things. Thus, we should better talk about ‘Europes’ in the plural. What Is Europe? explores these evolving conceptions of Europe from antiquity to the present. This book is all the more timely as Europe responds to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Britain’s departure from the European Union, financial slump, refugee emergencies, and the COVID-19 pandemic. This book offers a fully updated introduction to European studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. It is a crucial companion to any undergraduate or graduate course on Europe and the European Union. Anna Triandafyllidou holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), Canada. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the governance of migration and asylum; nationalism and ethnic studies; and overall, the contemporary challenges of migration and integration across different world regions. Her authored books include Rethinking Migration and Return in Southeastern Europe (with E. Gemi, Routledge, 2021), Migrant Smuggling (with T. Maroukis, 2012), and Immigrants and National Identity in Europe (Routledge 2001). She recently edited a volume on Migration and Pandemics (2022, Springer). Her recent journal publications have appeared in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2022), Environment and Planning A: Economy and Society (2022), Ethnicities (2022), International Migration (2021), and Nations and Nationalism (2020). Ruby Gropas is Visiting Professor in European Studies at the College of Europe at Bruges, Belgium, and works on social and economic issues in the European Commission. Her research focuses on various aspects of European integration, migration, foreign policy, and fundamental rights. She is author of Human Rights & Foreign Policy: The Case of the European Union (Sakkoulas, 2006), co-editor of The Greek Crisis and European Modernity (Palgrave, 2013) and European Immigration: A Sourcebook (Second Edition, Routledge, 2014), and has numerous journal publications. She writes in her personal capacity and the views do not express the official opinion of the European Commission. WHAT IS EUROPE? Second Edition Anna Triandafyllidou and Ruby Gropas Cover image: Getty Images Second edition published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Anna Triandafyllidou and Ruby Gropas The right of Anna Triandafyllidou and Ruby Gropas to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The Open Access version of this book, available at www .taylorfrancis. com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. First edition published by Palgrave 2015 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Triandafyllidou, Anna, author. | Gropas, Ruby, author. Title: What is Europe?/Anna Triandafyllidou and Ruby Gropas. Description: Second edition. | Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2023. | “First edition published by Palgrave 2015.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2022022387 (print) | LCCN 2022022388 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032243931 (hbk) | ISBN 9781032243948 (pbk) | ISBN 9781003278375 (ebk) Subjects: LCSH: Europe–Civilization–21st century. | National characteristics, European. | Europe–Politics and government–21st century. Classification: LCC D2021 .T758 2023 (print) | LCC D2021 (ebook) | DDC 940.56–dc23/eng/20220525 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022387 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022388 ISBN: 978-1-032-24393-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-24394-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-27837-5 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003278375 Typeset in Bembo by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India From Anna to Bo Strath, Stefano Bartolini, and Tariq Modood. From Ruby to Loukas Tsoukalis, Thanos Veremis and in memory of Theodore Couloumbis. As friends, colleagues, and mentors they have inspired us to hold our professional and academic ethics high, speak our minds, and keep cool no matter what. CONTENTS Preface x Funding acknowledgement xiii 1 What is Europe?: An introduction 1 Why ask the question? 1 Defining Europe 3 Concluding remarks 14 References 15 2 The changing shape of Europe 16 The changing shape of Europe in history 17 Does Europe make history? 40 Europe and power 41 Concluding remarks 43 Notes 44 References 44 3 Visions of a united Europe 47 What visions has Europe stirred? 47 Why unify Europe? 48 Twentieth-century Europe: war and peace 54 Europe: institutions and integration 58 Enlarging the club – how far? 62 viii Contents From ‘how to unify Europe’ to ‘what kind of Europe’ and ‘how much Europe’ do we want 65 Concluding remarks 68 Note 69 References 69 4 Cultural Europe 72 Defining culture 73 The building blocks of European culture 75 ‘First among equals’: Europe and the ‘Others’ 77 Europe’s most distinctive cultural cleavages 82 When an aspirational vision of Europe became a dominant cultural narrative 86 Concluding remarks 90 References 92 5 European identity – European identities 95 What is identity? 96 European identity and national identity 100 Class and nation within European identity 105 Diversity as identity 106 European identity and racism 110 Religion, European identity, and the Muslim ‘Other’ 113 Concluding remarks 120 Note 121 References 121 6 The borders and boundaries of Europe 126 Why do borders matter? And where does Europe end? 127 The rise and fall (and rise again) of borders 130 Changing Europe and its borders 136 Europe as fortress, with gateways and migrants 142 Concluding remarks 146 Note 147 References 147 7 Political Europe 152 Politics and political cleavages 154 Europe’s political systems 157 Values, ideologies, and main political currents 159 Contents ix The political legacies of Europe 165 European politics transformed and contested 171 Concluding remarks 178 References 178 8 The social dimension of Europe 183 What matters for Europe’s social dimension? 184 The historical, cultural, and socio-economic foundations of social protection 187 The transition to the post-industrial phase in Europe 189 Diversity and welfare state legitimacy 193 European social model(s) 195 The EU’s social dimension 207 Concluding remarks 208 Note 209 References 209 9 Global Europe 214 Europe in world politics, from then to now 214 The Cold War and the emergence of Europe 215 What sort of power is the EU? 218 The EU as a normative power 220 Europe as a security actor 222 The EU and global trade 226 And how do others see Europe as a global actor? 227 Concluding remarks 230 References 231 10 Europe is … 236 The historical viewpoint 237 Projects and visions of Europe 239 The cultural dimension of Europe 241 A European identity or an identification with Europe 242 Ideological and geographical borders 243 The European political landscape 245 A European social model 246 Geopolitical Europe 247 Concluding remarks 248 References 249 Index 251