Newsletter 13/ 26.03.2019

Coimbra Group Lectures: Narratives of/for Europe

In light of the elections for European Parliament, the University of Cologne is organizing a lecture series on views on European Integration within the EU member states. We want to focus on the development of master narratives accompanying and supporting the individual countries’ way into and stance within the European Union.

Even recognizing the contribution of the Pan-European Movement since WWI and acknowledging the philanthropic motivation of many promoters of European Integration since WWII, the most powerful drivers of the European Integration process were common and individual political and economic interests of the single member states. These highly individual constellations of interests, combined with the respective national historical background, led to very different “master narratives”, which formed the backbone of public debate on the EU and European integration in the single member states. In this sense, narratives provide a simplified image of reality. Their analysis is based on the assumption that narratives play a critical role in the construction of political behaviour insofar as they affect our perceptions of political reality. They shape the cognitive and normative dimensions of problems in order to persuade and suggest what action should be taken. Moreover, they reflect the variety of emotional and affective dimensions of a European identity.

The entire lecture series will be broadcast live on the Internet, using the web conferencing tool “Adobe Connect”. All CG member Universities are invited to join and transmit the lectures to a local lecture hall. Furthermore, the series will be published as a video podcast on the Coimbra Group’s YouTube channel. All lectures will be made available in a Playlist.

Further Information:
► Coimbra Group Lectures: European Narratives