Studies

European Identity:
Europeans’ biographical experiences and images of the present day Europe

How do people perceive united Europe? Do they feel represented, included, respected, heard? Are they interested in what politicians decide in Brussels? Do they feel European? The sociological study that has been conducted examines whether people living in Europe today feel European, and what Europe means to them.

A sociological core group created a manual and a methodology. Then sociological teams conducted interviews in ten countries. The interviewees were a diverse group: people well known by the public (politicians, philosophers, and authors), people living in rural areas, young people who have encountered Europe as immigrants and a second group of young people who have experienced Europe through programmes such as Erasmus and other cultural exchanges. The final group of interviewees consisted of the artists who are presenting their works in the exhibition.

Interviewees were asked about their travel experiences and how these influenced their attitude towards Europe, their evaluation of the status of European economic, socio-political and cultural integration, and their personal feelings and hopes regarding the sense of belonging to Europe.

For this particular project both biographical methods and structured questions were used, as the objective was to produce somehow comparable results.

Below you are able to see short video excerpts from interviews. On the website you can also read short excerpts from interviews.

We would also like all website – and exhibition visitors to participate actively and share your points of view.
Here on the website you are able to submit photos and stories on the theme « My Europe ». The contributions could consist of photos and written stories (short or long) based on your personal ideas, thoughts and points of view on your life in today’s Europe and what Europe means to you.

Please go the headline ‘Stories from Europe’.

The team behind the project also plans further analysis of all the interview material that has been assembled. This is a new project and more information will come further ahead.

The sociological core team for U.S.E is :
DR Lyudmila Nurse, Oxford XXI, UK,
Prof. AndrzeJ Piotrowski, University of Lodz, Poland
DR Tomasz Ferenc, University of Lodz, Poland

Sociologists who have conducted the interviews:

Tomasz Ferenc (PL), Elena Stylianou (CY), Tuija Saresma (FI), John Mc Namara (IE), Siyka Kovacheva (BG), Julia Bernstein (DE), Tania Juhl (FR), Francois Ghesquière (BE), Claudia Madeira (PT), Viktorija Zillinskaite (LT), Vida Kasparaviciene (LT), Eugenija Krukauskienè (LT)