RESPOND Dataset - Conflicting Europeanization

Work Package 6 asked partners to investigate the impact of migration debates on competing discourses of Europeanization. The intention was to chart, on a comparative basis, changing national contestation of belonging to a European community. Below we present qualitative data collected from a sample of political speeches and media sources in six EU countries: Sweden, Greece, Hungary, Germany, Italy and Poland. Heuristic and thematic models were derived from a literature review of theoretical debates on the post-crisis contestation of “Europe”, with particular focus on themes of identity, sovereignty and borders. This allowed for a unified comparative perspective on conflicts over Europeanisation, which formed the basis of country reports and the comparative report. 

For political speeches, teams were presented with an analytical grid for analysing statements by political leaders in their respective countries. This was arranged into three core categories of analysis: the polity (EU or member state); the audience (who was talked to/who was talked about); and migration-related propositions for action. Teams were asked to extract keyword phrases exemplifying themes. A similar approach was taken with analysis of media texts, with a four-part analytical grid divided into EU institutions (e.g. “conflict with Commission”); European values (e.g. “solidarity”); migration/refugees (e.g. “hordes”); and identity frames (e.g. “insiders/outsiders”). This allowed us to undertake comparative analysis which formed the groundwork of the Work Package 6 comparative report. 

This work package was a joint project under the leadership of Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OEAW). The following partners participated: 

• Uppsala University (dataset entries from Sweden) 

• Göttingen University (dataset entries from Germany) 

• Glasgow Caledonian University (dataset entries Hungary) 

• University of Florence (dataset entries from Italy) 

• University of Aegean (dataset entries from Greece) 

• University of Warsaw (dataset entries from Poland) 

• Austrian Academy of Sciences (dataset entries from Austria)