Europe between integration and globalisation social differences and national frames in the analysis of focus groups conducted in France, francophone Belgium and the United Kingdom

Abstract

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Why Educational Exchange Programmes Miss Their Mark: Cross‐Border Mobility, Education and European Identity*

“…White (2009) argues that survey respondents may have difficulties in relating to abstract concepts such as ‘identity’ or ‘attachment’. Equally, Duchesne et al . (2010) claim that quantitative surveys tend to create an artefact of European identity as ordinary people would not relate to the EU if not explicitly asked in survey questions.…”

“…(2010) claim that quantitative surveys tend to create an artefact of European identity as ordinary people would not relate to the EU if not explicitly asked in survey questions. Indeed, to fully grasp the dynamics of identity change in an integrating Europe, it is best to combine insights from experiments (Bruter, 2005; Cram et al ., 2011), focus groups (Duchesne et al ., 2010), qualitative interviews (White, 2009) and anthropological research (Bellier and Wilson, 2000). Bearing these caveats in mind, I believe that quantitative analyses of European identity contribute to our knowledge by pointing to broader patterns of identity change that cannot be detected in small‐n studies.…”

Using Focus Groups to Study the Process of (de)Politicization

“…In a way, they constitute the data as much as do the transcripts themselves. Our first results are indeed a comparison of these narratives (Duchesne et al, 2000), according to our double segmentation, national and social. Content analysis came second, along with more specific discourse analyses.…”

“…xx Indeed, most of the publications that resulted from our focus groups analysis address the topic itself (Duchesne et al, 2000;Duchesne et al, 2013;Van Ingelgom, 2014)…”

Europe As a Missed Opportunity

“…As a result, French citizens have gained a new political community and have become accustomed to it, in a way that does not particularly meet the expectations of modernity that Europe integration could have raised. Citizens have come to accept Europe as an inevitable but stable reality, and to consider themselves European as a consequence of being French (Bozec 2010, Duchesne & al 2010, Throssell 2010, Van Ingelgom 2010, Weil 2010. French identity is clearly the link between citizens and the European Union; they see the EU through the lens of the nation.…”