Between Globalisation and integration. Social differences and national frames in focus group discussions in France, French-speaking Belgium and Britain

European studies experienced a qualitative turn at the end of the 1990s. This was intended to facilitate the deeper investigation into the nature of the relationship that European citizens have with their Union and more particularly it was supposed to better account for the emotional and identity dimensions of this relationship. The comparative research presented in this article, based on focus groups, show on the contrary the clear indifference towards European integration that characterizes working class people in the three countries studied. We explain this indifference notably by the fact that national framing of the integration process tends to drown it in globalization. The “constraining dissensus” dreaded by European Studies scholars concerns only the more educated and above all the more politicized of the participants. The magnifying glass that this qualitative approach provides us thus does not allow us to better observe the emergence of European identity. On the contrary, it leads us to emphasize the diversity of the appropriation or reaction processes to European integration as well as the lack of autonomy of the European level in relation to the national and global levels in the representations of citizens