Focus and aims

The purpose of this Core Activity consists in evaluating both theoretically and practically the way in which deliberative democracy can contribute to bringing out a common identity liable to create a plural and inclusive European people in a double context of a “democratic deficit” in the European Union and a ramp up of ethnonationalism amid the community space. 

The main issue is to establish to what extent the opening of a transnational public sphere based on dialogue and cooperation between citizens, political leaders and actors of the European civil society and embodied in deliberative mini-publics could help democratise community governance and strengthen the civic identity of a European people within a variety of political diversity in terms of history and culture. 

Three investigation lines will be used within the common experimental design: 

• To what extent would a deliberative and bottom-up management of community affairs strengthen a European political identity based upon the people’s constituent power at a continental scale? 
• To what extent could the setting up of deliberative procedures favour the emergence of a shared cultural identity in which permanent and institutionalised dialogue between the actors of various national history and ways of life could limit the risk of essentialist antagonisms thanks to the coproduction of a common future? 
• By which deliberative and participatory means could a European public sphere be liable to develop in order to couple the institutionalised decision-making in Brussels with a public and media European identity and an inclusive horizontal and decentralised process?

Method

EuComMeet will undertake the following steps to achieve the results of this Core Activity:

• Literature analysis of deliberation and identity construction in the past deliberative experiments at EU level;
• Comparative analysis of deliberation and identity construction in 4 European social networks at EU level linked to different political tendencies;
• Analysis of deliberation and identity construction in the experimental devices of the EUComMeet research, with a special focus on the multilingual dimension;
• Comparison of the results of the first three phases and and pragmatic proposal of scenarios for developing new deliberative protocols fostering shared European identities.

Who’s in the first line

Paris 8 University will lead this Core Activity, with the contribution of the University of Stuttgart and University of Siena

Meet our Team Members!

Expected outcomes

D6.1: Report on literature review on identity – The first deliverable will first consist of an internal report to be shared by the EUComMeet teams. It will be due 6 months after the beginning of the research. It will be discussed during an online workshop with the other EUComMeet teams and will be transformed for month 12 in a scientific article which will be submitted to peer- reviewed journals specialised on EU studies. 

D6.2: Report on comparative analysis of deliberation and identity construction in 4 European social networks at EU level – It will be discussed during an online workshop with the other EUComMeet teams and will be transformed for month 30 in a scientific article which will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals specialised on social networks. 

D6.3: Report on deliberation and identity construction – Report on Analysis of deliberation and identity construction in the experimental devices of the EUComMeet research. 

D6.4: Proposal for new protocols on identity construction – Short essay on deliberation and identity construction at EU level. The fourth deliverable will consist on a short essay on deliberation and identity construction at EU level, including pragmatic proposal, which will be directed to a broad public sphere (officials, politicians, activists and interested citizens).

Most of these outcomes will be made publicly available. Find them here once ready!