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» NEW! » Tsaliki - The Construction of European Identity and Citizenship Through Cultural Policy

Tsaliki, L. (2007). "The Construction of European Identity and Citizenship Through Cultural Policy". In Media and Cultural Policy in the European Union. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401204156_010

Developing a ‘European’ citizenship and identity has become a major priority for the EU in order to address the democratic deficit it is faced with and legitimize itself. As a result, it would be interesting to examine how exactly is this objective operationalised and materialised within EU cultural policy. Hence, this article discusses the patterns of construction of European culture and citizenship through cultural policy-making. What does culture mean for the European Union? What kind of citizenship does the EU envisage for its peoples, and what kind of action does the Union take towards this goal? In order to frame and better illustrate this discussion, I will be using a number of European cultural policy initiatives as examples of the way in which Europe tries to construct its citizens. These examples, I argue, encapsulate the Commission’s quest of a new common European identity and articulate ‘a new politics of cultural belonging’.