European Public Spheres Politics Is Back

The Euro crisis has led to an unprecedented Europeanization and politicization of public spheres across the continent. In this volume, leading scholars make two claims. First, they suggest that transnational crossborder communication in Europe has been encouraged through the gradual Europeanization of national as well as issue-specific public spheres. Second, the politicization of European affairs - at the European Union (EU) level and in the domestic politics of member states - is inevitable and here to stay. Europeanized public spheres, whether elite media, mass media, or social media such as the internet, provide the arenas in which the politicization of European and EU issues takes place. European Public Spheres explores the history of these developments, the nature of politicization in the public spheres as well as its likely consequences, and the normative implications for European public life.

1. Introduction Thomas Risse; Part I. How to Grasp the Europeanization of Public Spheres: Theory, Methods, Empirics: 2. Theorizing communication flows within a European public sphere Barbara Pfetsch and Annett Heft; 3. How advanced is the Europeanization of public spheres? Comparing German and European structures of political communication Ruud Koopmans; 4. National media as transnational discourse arenas: the case of humanitarian military interventions Cathleen Kantner; 5. European issue publics online: the cases of climate change and fair trade W. Lance Bennett, Sabine Lang and Alexandra Segerberg; Part II. Consequences: Does the Europeanization of Public Spheres Matter?: 6. European public spheres, the politicization of EU affairs, and its consequences Thomas Risse; 7. Media and identity: the paradox of legitimacy and the making of European citizens Sarah Harrison and Michael Bruter; 8. The restructuring of political conflict in Europe and the politicization of European integration Edgar Grande and Hanspeter Kriesi; Part III. Theoretical and Normative Implications: 9. Identity, Europe and the world beyond public spheres Jeffrey T. Checkel; 10. Democracy, identity, and European public spheres Andreas Follesdal.

Thomas Risse is Professor of International Politics at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science at the Freie Universität Berlin as well as co-ordinator of the Research Center 700 'Governance of Areas of Limited Statehood' and co-director of the Research College 'Transformative Power of Europe', both funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). He is one of the world's leading scholars of the international politics of European integration and his publications include A Community of Europeans? Transnational Identities and Public Spheres (2010), The Persistent Power of Human Rights: From Commitment to Compliance (Cambridge, 2013, co-edited with Stephen C. Ropp and Kathryn Sikkink), External Actors, State-Building and Service Provision in Areas of Limited Statehood (2014, with Stephen D. Krasner) and Handbook of International Relations, 2nd edition (2013).