Transnational Actors and Stories of European Integration

This book makes a major contribution to understanding European politics and identity. It examines how politicians, cultural elites, and other actors fight over Europes future with words and stories, telling narratives about European integration in different political, social, and cultural contexts. The chapters explore how actors formulate stories to make sense of Europes past and contemporary challenges and to legitimise their own positions and preferences. The contributors explore themes ranging from divisive stories about the European Union (EU), mobilised in institutional reform referendums, to the top-down deployment of legitimising narratives by EU institutions, religiously inspired apocalyptic narratives of European unity, and stories about nations and Europe told by museums and academics. Combined, the chapters of this book are essential reading for everyone interested in Europes common past and contemporary challenges, and the EUs highly contested nature in times of apparently increasing disintegration.