Europa - en plats eller en idé? : En diskursanalys av den europeiska identitetens konstruktion

Today Europe is faced with an identity crisis concerning its borders. Turkey stands at the threshold for an EU-membership while the EU-Commission is trying to formulate what constitutes a European identity. This identity seeking process will determine the future not only for Turkey, but also for immigrants now living in Europe. In this thesis a discourse analysis, underpinned by socialconstructionist theory, is conducted to explore how the European identity has been constructed throughout history up until today. A starting point is that identity always is defined through a dialectical relationship to "otherness". Therefore the analysis is focused not only on what a European identity consists of but also what and who it excludes. A conclusion is drawn that the two main competing discourses of European identity, the ethno-cultural and the socio-political, have different modes of exclusion. The thesis finds that Europe's own history (primarily the world wars) constitutes an important "other" for today's European identity. This historical "other" is then used as a tool to explain EU:s criticism of Turkey. The thesis is also able to show in what ways immigrants in Europe are "othered" by today's European identity construction in terms of the two above mentioned discourses