The outcome of the Brexit referendum is the apex of a long history of Euro-British relationships characterised by two opposing but coexisting stereotypes. On the one hand, England appears as the freedom-seeking nation resisting... more
The outcome of the Brexit referendum is the apex of a long history of Euro-British relationships characterised by two opposing but coexisting stereotypes. On the one hand, England appears as the freedom-seeking nation resisting restrictive collective policies imposed by a totalitarian EU regime of faceless Brussels bureaucrats. On the other hand, England seems to resurrect its imperialistic superiority against the purported democracy and horizontality of European institutions. Adopting the notion of “cultural intimacy”—with which Michael Herzfeld analyzes the mutual engagement of contrasting positions in political and administrative practices—this paper addresses the equally stereotypical images of an indifferent, inhuman European bureaucracy and of an insular, cynical Great Britain in the works of Malcolm Bradbury and Tim Parks. Be it the allegedly liberal yet nationalistic stance of Thatcherist anti-Europeanism in Bradbury, or the British disaffection with the purported identitarian and cultural levelling within the common borders of the Schengen area and of the single currency, both authors’ symbolic constructions of European institutions and of British Euroscepticism are built as cultural entanglements of these two realities, and show the need to overcome the reductive conception of Europe as a failed super-state.
This paper is concerned with the hopes and fears of the Estonian society related to its membership in the EU. The article illustrates the Estonians opinion towards EU, as well as Estonia's eurosceptic movement.
The authors aim at defining the “EURO-scepticism” as an analytical category. The paper starts with an overview of the most important works on the wider concept of Euroscepticism, following the positioning of Eurosceptic views on the... more
The authors aim at defining the “EURO-scepticism” as an analytical category. The paper starts with an overview of the most important works on the wider concept of Euroscepticism, following the positioning of Eurosceptic views on the monetary integration in Europe. This part of the article focuses on the subject-approach to EUROscepticism. Next, the authors indicate the most important factors determining the phenomenon. Special attention is dedicated to the economic crisis (2007–2014) which is understood as an important contextual variable of EURO-scepticism. The analysis is summarised with the concluding remarks on the present state of EURO-scepticism in Europe as well as with a speculative statement on the probable end of the “permissive consensus” phase in the process of legitimising the European integration project. Autorzy niniejszego tekstu stawiają sobie za cel doprecyzowanie kategorii EUROsceptycyzmu. Artykuł rozpoczyna przegląd literatury w zakresie szerszej koncepcji eurosc...
