In this volume we approach the question of what it is to be European by considering the way in which citizens talk about their everyday lives, as they are perceived against the background of Europe and European issues. Hence, the volume will offer insights into the rarely glimpsed micro political world of ordinary talk and explore the way in which such talk in social interaction and other spheres might help us understand what Europe means to a range of its citizens. Using a range of broadly discursive approaches we will touch on, inter alia, issues of identity, youth, borders, ethnicity, local politics, and minority languages. In the end, we suggest, it is a common sense view of pragmatic utility that centres what it is to be European, and this is something which is continually fluid and shifting within ever changing social, historical and political circumstances.

Richard Watts, University of Berne:
In the wake of the narrative turn, this book provides a welcome approach to ways in which European citizens, not just those within the EU, narratively construct and live their versions of what Europe means to them. It is rich in materials from a variety of countries within Europe and provides a welcome “missing link” between ways in which politicians and economists conceive of Europe and how ordinary citizens discursively construct their versions of it.