Two sides to every story(teller): competition, continuity and change in narratives of European integration

Abstract

The word ?narrative? has gained prevalence in the vocabulary of European politics and European Union (EU) studies in recent years. Enduring questions about the history, purpose and finality of the European integration process now fall within the scope of the narrative turn: narratives underpinning political discourses and intellectual writings about European integration are increasingly being scrutinised. Yet few of these types of narrative have been put into a longitudinal perspective, in order to address elements of change and continuity in their construction and diffusion of narratives. This article presents a historical survey of the twentieth century, looking at political and intellectual types of narration. This highlights the value of a competitive model for narratives of European integration. Whereas hegemonic narratives are rare, new and competing narratives appear as the norm in the majority of political debates about Europe during the twentieth century, from the interwar antecedents until present-day discussions about the EU. This article questions the singular replacement of an ?old? by a ?new? narrative and provides evidence for a degree of continuity in how narratives present themselves in diverse forms, as constructions and reproductions of political realities, intellectual thought, and the European past.Peer reviewe

Narrating Europe: (Re‐)constructed and Contested Visions of the European Project in Citizens' Discourse

“…The EU's ability to bring economic benefits as well as peace in Western Europe has also been, for many years, an important enabler of the permissive consensus (Hooghe and Marks, 2005). Like any narrative, however, the peace narrative is far from homogeneous and consensual, as even the European ‘founding fathers’ had different visions of the goals behind it (Cloet, 2017). Despite its primary goal – peace – having been achieved within the EU, the peace narrative remains meaningful today as it ‘can be either backwards‐looking (an ex‐post rationalisation of “what Europe was”) or future‐oriented (a description of “what Europe should be”)’ (Rosoux, 2017: 326).…”

“…This challenge has not escaped the attention of European officials. Since the 1950s, EU elites and institutions have produced several official European narratives (Bouza García, 2013; Cloet, 2017; Gilbert, 2008; Manners and Murray, 2016; Schrag Sternberg, 2013), and scholars have studied their role in the construction of identity and political legitimacy (Eder, 2012; Hepp et al, 2016). The debates surrounding the adoption of various controversial European treaties or policies in times of crisis confirmed the importance of shared narratives to give a common meaning to European integration.…”

Historical Sociology and Secularisation: The Political Use of ‘Culturalised Religion’ by the Radical Right in Spain

“…Thirdly, narratives emerge from these ruptures and permanencies (Cloet, 2017), which are not only a reflection of change, but which also possess agency within the socio‐historical dynamic itself. The term “culturalised religion” underlies this force of narratives in contemporary society and particularly, of the trajectories and reconfigurations of cultural and collective memory, forcing us to be attentive to these different levels interacting in the sociological present (Olick, 2010).…”

Narratives modes and foreign policy change: the debate on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal

“…The recent "narrative turn" in International Relations (Subotić 2016) has emphasized the causal role played by narratives in politics. It warrants "the discursive construction of international relations" (Holland and Aaronson 2014, 3), unveiling how states and political actors project narratives in the international system (Miskimmon et al 2015;De Graaf et al 2015;Roberts 2006;O'Bryan et al 2014;Breuer and Johnston 2019;Suganami 2008;Linklater 2009;Boswell 2011;Goddard and Krebs 2015a;Krebs 2015b;Cloet 2017;Hagström and Gustafsson 2019;Kuusisto 2019;Holland 2020).…”