This article examines the representation of the European protagonist in Autumn by Ali Smith from a gender, intersectional and cultural studies perspective. The novel is a pioneering work in Brexlit, ...an emergent literary movement which aims to reflect the current political and social landscape of the United Kingdom after the 2016 European Union referendum. Firstly, this article offers an overview of the political, social and literary phenomenon of Brexlit, followed by an outline of Sara Ahmed's theorisation of the sociological concept of the stranger. Secondly, the article further contextualises Brexit fiction, presenting its crucial role in putting forward a fair portrayal of migrants, a collective largely misrepresented in the UK media. The article then considers the centrality of Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet to the reworking of the British social imaginary. The subsequent two sections explore the encounters in which Daniel's strange(r)ness manifests itself through his heterogeneous and relational yet singular identity, owing to his connection to the migratory experience. Retaining his differences and from a position of agency, the solidary bonds he establishes with Elisabeth convey strange(r)ness as a label that must be overcome in order to ensure a better coexistence within the British nation.
The paper’s aim is to underline the growing phenomenon of categorization of EU migrants despite the existence of a common EU citizenship. It addresses legal categorization deriving from EU ...legislation and the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union, but also factual categorization arising from host member states’ practices. The legal categorization of EU migrants reveals a clear differential treatment between economically active and inactive EU mobile citizens. Member states’ practices very often go further than legal categorization by excluding poor mobile citizens, viewed as abusers of rights (benefit tourism) or as a potential threat to local public order or security (ill health, begging, violence). This paper also investigates the incompleteness of EU citizenship, being unable to prevent categorization of EU migrants.
Full text
Available for:
IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this paper I try to unpack the nest of issues that recent waves of migrations bring to the floor and show how immigration plays a crucial role in the making or unmaking democratic citizenship in ...post-national Europe. Although recurrent terrorist attacks make harder and harder for many opinion-makers and ordinary citizens to associate immigration with positive opportunity for European citizenship, the paper argues that the right to free movement and of emigration is embedded in the nucleus of principles and ideals that makes for European citizenship since the Treaty of Rome. Subsequently, the paper introduces the category of statelessness and uses it to tackle the problem of the legal and political evolution furthered by the practice of rights within the horizon that is defined by the ideal of a European post-national citizenship. Refugees and immigrants are interpreted as a challenge and an opportunity in the spirit of Hannah Arendt’s intuition that citizenship brings to the floor an unsolvable paradox between the human and the political. The conclusion of the paper argues that stateless people—the migrants—personify this paradox as they can be the locus of a new political practice that signals an incipient form of citizenship, truly disconnected from the nation as the European citizenship aspires to be. The denial of many civil and political rights to undocumented immigrants and the detention of thousands of migrants in the camps located at the peripheries of Europe contrast radically with the community of rights that Europe has sought to be since its inception.
A cidadania europeia na escola: complementando o currículo Piedade, Filipe; Ribeiro, Norberto; Malafaia, Carla ...
Educaçao e Pesquisa: Revista da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo,
2021, Volume:
47, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Resumo O projeto de criação de uma cidadania europeia comum pede aos sistemas educativos dos vários estados-membros da União Europeia (UE) que contribuam para a formação de cidadãos europeus ...críticos/as e ativos/as relativamente ao objetivo de prossecução e aperfeiçoamento do projeto europeu. Em Portugal, estudos anteriores ao nível do ensino secundário identificaram sérias lacunas, tanto nos currículos como nos manuais escolares de algumas disciplinas, nas abordagens pedagógicas sugeridas para o processo de ensino/aprendizagem acerca dessa dimensão europeia. Neste artigo, procurou perceber-se que tipos de atividades extra e co-curriculares as escolas têm vindo a dinamizar no sentido de complementar essas lacunas. Para tal, foram entrevistados/as 16 professores/as de 4 escolas do ensino secundário português. Os seus discursos permitiram identificar vários tipos de atividades extra e co-curriculares que têm vindo a ser dinamizadas pelas escolas para aumentarem o conhecimento e o nível de reflexividade dos/as estudantes sobre a UE. A análise desses relatos permitiu ainda identificar potencialidades e limitações inerentes ao desenvolvimento destas atividades, assim como produzir algumas recomendações para que as escolas possam dar uma contribuição mais eficaz ao projeto de consolidação de uma cidadania europeia ativa e crítica.
Abstract The project of creating a common European citizenship requires that the educational systems from the different member-states of the European Union (EU) contribute to the education of European citizens that are critical and active regarding the objective of continuing and perfecting the European project. In Portugal, previous studies of upper secondary education have shown serious shortcomings, both in the curricula and the textbooks of several subjects, in the pedagogical approaches suggested for the process of teaching/learning about this European dimension. In this article, we have tried to find out which kind of extra and co-curricular activities the schools have been organizing to fill the previously mentioned shortcomings. To that end, we have interviewed 16 teachers from 4 different schools of the Portuguese upper secondary educational system. Their accounts have allowed us to identify several kinds of extra and co-curricular activities that have been implemented by their schools in order to increase their students´ level of knowledge and reflexiveness regarding the EU. The analysis of these accounts has also allowed us to identify both the potential and limitations involved in developing these activities and to make some general recommendations towards improving the conditions for the schools to give a more efficient contribution to the objective of consolidating a active and critical European citizenship.
Citizenship education typically focuses on the nation and citizens' supposed natural affinity to the nation-state. In this global age, this is challenged by cosmopolitans who propose a form of ...education which encourages a primary commitment to fellow humanity and/or the planet Earth. However, citizenship education has been re-emphasized by those who assert that in a globalized world and nation-states characterized by diversity, one requires a primary commitment to the nation-state. The latter group proposes a renewed focus on civic education which promotes national belonging and loyalty, often targeting, either explicitly or implicitly, students from minority or migration backgrounds. Within EU member-states, this binary between education for national and global citizenship is troubled by the issue of European citizenship and belonging. This article analyses the official citizenship curriculum for England and reports on qualitative research with teachers, designed to explore their perceptions of the curriculum and their students' needs as learner-citizens. The teachers reflect on local, national, European, and global dimensions of citizenship. Expressing concern about the ethno-nationalistic attitudes of some students, they work to engage with and extend students' experiences. The article proposes education for cosmopolitan citizenship to meet students' needs, whether their affinities are apparently fixed or flexible; local; national; global; or multiple.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In the context of globalization and economic crisis, the European Union is facing a series of challenges on a political, economic and identity level, due to the fact that the pillars on which the EU ...stands no longer satisfy the demands and necessities of the European citizens (Dobrescu and Palada, 2012; Habermas, 2012). As a result, “the foundational myth of the European Union as a vehicle for peace, stability and economic growth is apparently losing its appeal, particularly among younger generations of Europeans” (Kaina and Karolewski, 2009, p. 35). The youth represents an important resource for the European Union and at the same time a major concern, taking into consideration the political and economic trends that have determined them to experience “a general crisis of trust and values” (Future Lab Europe, 2013, p. 7). Therefore, this paper aims to identify the way in which European identity is defined in the case of Romanian students. Our main concern is to understand what is determining them to act and feel as members of the European community and, essentially, to identify or not with the EU brand. In this regard, we used a qualitative approach to explore whether the attachment to the European Union is grounded on emotional or utilitarian bonds by taking into consideration the following aspects: attitudes towards the European Union, values, identity markers of the EU brand. Results of the study indicate that at this point, the EU brand has a major scarcity of substance and relevance for Romanian students.
This study supports topical discussion about the possibilities to use social media as a tool for citizen involvement in democratic processes. Contemporary academic views and statistics on the use of ...social media for communication between institutions and citizens are gathered in the study. The research focus is on social media publications, analysing the content of four European Parliament’s social media accounts in Latvian during the period from 1 July 2015 to 31 December 2015. The aim of the research is to identify the potential of the information published on European Parliament’s social media accounts in shaping the European citizenship notion among youth in Latvia. The conclusions present clear idea on the frequency of European citizenship topics in the corresponding social media accounts as well as on the amount of feedback and the share of youth involvement in this communication. The results of the study suggest that for now European Parliament’s social media publications in Latvian have little potential to develop the notion of European citizenship and there is a need for a well-considered use of social media to assure that the opportunity for two-way communication is fruitfully used.
European Democracy after COVID-19 Guerot, Ulrike; Hunklinger, Michael
Democratic theory (Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)),
12/2020, Volume:
7, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In the past 70 years, situations that featured a lack of solidarity were always followed by the communitization of structures in the European Union. This contribution reflects on possible ...consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for the European Union. Even though the initial response from the EU looked unpromising and was driven at the nation-state level, the crisis may lead to new forms of solidarity through communitization. We argue that the EU needs equality for all EU citizens as well as institutionalized solidarity in order to finally become a real European democracy.
This work seeks to analyze and deepen the argument of European citizenship once again based on the jurisprudence of the CJEU. In particular, the latest Rottmann and Tjebbes and others judgments ...present elements of continuity in relation to the proportionality test required by the CJEU to the courts and authorities of the Member States, if the loss of the citizenship of a Member State also causes the loss of European citizenship. And after Brexit? The authors are also applying to British citizens after the last positions of the CJEU in European citizen politics.
Highlights Fostering national or European identities can be compatible with education for tolerance. Social relationships in school are important predictors of national and European identity. Formal ...learning opportunities are especially important for fostering a European identity. Purpose: The aim of this article is to analyse the concept of national and European identities through multidisciplinary lenses and to examine empirically how schools develop those identities in adolescents. Method: The study employs data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2016. Correlation and regression analyses are conducted with data from over 45,000 students from fourteen different national educational systems. Country-specific weighted statistical analyses are conducted. Findings: A combination of perspectives from the fields of psychology, political culture, and civic and citizenship education is useful to reflect upon the dimensions and desirability of overarching identities. Formal learning opportunities are shown to be particularly relevant for fostering a European identity. Positive relationships between students and teachers and between students statistically predict stronger identities. Practical implications: Good social relationships at school help to develop national and European identities. Moreover, the development of a European identity especially depends upon its explicit inclusion in the curriculum. Teachers should guide students to reflect on the meaning and content of tolerant and complex national and European identities.
PDF
