Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Europeanising the Public Sphere – Meaning, Mechanisms, Effects

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Interdisziplinäre Europastudien

Abstract

The emergence of a pan-European public sphere as a correlate of democratic governance in the EU appears desirable to some, but impossible to others. As a consequence, the research agenda of European studies has shifted from the European public sphere to the Europeanisation of public and media communication. Different forms and degrees of a “European public sphere light” can be identified by observing the Europeanisation of existing national media spheres. In empirical research, however, the notion of “Europeanisation” remains often very fuzzy and contested. The new agenda of “Europeanisation” (see also the chapter by Mau, in this volume) therefore frequently follows a pragmatic research strategy that lacks theoretical grounding and methodological coherence. The present chapter aims to clarify this question of standards by following Johan Olsen's distinction between the what, how, and why of Europeanisation. It examines, firstly, the standards for diagnosing what is changing; secondly, the methodological standards governing how to measure the Europeanisation of public and media communication, and thirdly, the standards for explaining why Europeanisation takes place. Finally, the chapter addresses the question of the impact of Europeanisation, examining whether it promotes a qualitatively new and emerging public sphere.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For instance, the European Commission aims at enhancing a European public sphere, acknowledging that the so-called gap between the EU and its citizens was grounded in a communication deficit and that the EU therefore needed to improve its legitimacy through more public accountability, openness and participation, in other words more democracy (Commission 2006).

  2. 2.

    Friedhelm Neidhardt (2006, p. 46) observes this analogy in promoting the European public sphere with the early nineteenth century proliferation of the concept Öffentlichkeit.

  3. 3.

    For the normatively inspired research literature, see the contributions in Franzius and Preuss 2004 and Fossum and Schlesinger 2007, for instance.

  4. 4.

    According to Weischenberg (2000, p. 275), the construct of world-society as a new reference point of media and communication studies has proven to be of little analytical value.

  5. 5.

    The report is based on the accumulative findings of case studies on news-making cultures in nine European countries.

  6. 6.

    It is of course impossible to conceive the nation as a carrier of communication. One alternative way would be to identify the nation as a reference group of identitarian discourse (Giesen 1999). Within the ongoing contentions that make up political life we observe a multiplication of possible reference groups of identitarian discourse. Moments in which political discourse addresses the whole of the nation (the national interest, the national soul, etc) are still crucial but also become increasingly contingent on parallel discourses, which address the regional community, the professional group, the sectoral constituency, Europe, or the world.

  7. 7.

    These different logics of quality media compared to tabloids have been demonstrated by comparative media surveys (see Koopmans and Erbe 2004; Roose 2006; Vetters 2006). Regional newspapers show only restricted capacities for European news coverage and tabloids tend to avoid EU issues altogether.

  8. 8.

    For Eurobarometer, see the Linkliste, in the Appendix to this volume.

  9. 9.

    This is an unnecessary restriction as the method can be equally applied to the analysis of normative discourse (Vetters et al. 2006).

  10. 10.

    The so-called Stanford school of neo-institutionalism (Meyer et al. 1997) speaks of a world polity that is based on the diffusion of ideas and meanings. For modes and impacts of cross-national diffusion in the study of contention, see also Snow and Benford (1999).

  11. 11.

    From a deliberative-democratic perspective, we would expect the public sphere to support a process of communicative understanding among speakers who equally participate in open debates, exchange arguments and search for the good reasons in support of their positions (Ferree et al. 2002; Eriksen 2005; Wessler 2008).

  12. 12.

    See the programme of radical democracy as proposed by Laclau and Mouffe (1985), which is based on the deconstruction of the deliberative and the liberal paradigms of democracy.

  13. 13.

    This is a clear difference in the semantic use of Europeanisation as compared to the negative and disintegrative meaning that is frequently associated with the term globalisation.

References

  • AIM Research Consortium (ed) (2007) Understanding the Logic of EU Reporting from Brussels. Analysis of interviews with EU correspondents and spokespersons. Projektverlag, Bochum

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson BR’OG (1991) Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism, 2. ed, Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck U (2003) Toward a new critical theory with a cosmopolitan intent. Constellations 10(4):453–468

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Best J (ed) (2001) How claims spread: Cross-national diffusion of social problems. Aldine de Gruyter, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Börzel TA (2001) Europeanization and territorial institutional change: towards cooperative regionalism? In: Caporaso JA, Cowles MG, Risse T (eds) Transforming Europe. Europeanization and domestic change. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, pp 137–158

    Google Scholar 

  • Brüggemann M (2005) How the EU constructs the European public sphere. Seven strategies of information policy. Javnost—Public 12(2):57–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Brüggemann M, Sifft S, Kleinen-von Königslow K, Peters B, Wimmel A (2006) Segmented Europeanization. The transnationalization of public spheres in Europe: trends and patterns. TranState working papers (37). University of Bremen, Bremen

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruter M (2004) Civic and cultural components of a European identity. A pilot model of measurement of citizens levels of European identity. In: Herrmann RK, Risse T, Brewer MB (eds) Transnational identities: becoming European in the EU. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, pp 186–213

    Google Scholar 

  • Commission of the European Union (2006) White Paper on a European Communication Policy, COM (2006) 35 final, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook TE (2005) Governing with the news. The news media as a political institution, 2. ed, University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cram L (1998) The EU institutions and collective action: constructing a European interest? In: Greenwood J, Aspinwall M (eds) Collective action in the European Union. Interests and the new politics of associability. Routledge, London, pp 63–80

    Google Scholar 

  • De Wilde P, Zürn M (2012) Can the politicization of European integration be reversed? J Common Mark Stud 50(S1):137–153. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5965.2011.02232.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delanty G, Rumford C (2005) Rethinking Europe. Social theory and the implications of Europeanization. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Deutsch KW (1953) Nationalism and social communication: an inquiry into the foundations of nationality. MIT Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Díez Medrano J (2003) Framing Europe. Attitudes to European integration in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Eijk C, Franklin MN (2004) Potential for contestation on European matters at national elections in Europe. In: Marks G, Steenbergen MR (eds) European integration and political conflict. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Eising R (2003) Europäisierung und Integration. Konzepte in der EU-Forschung. In: Jachtenfuchs M, Kohler-Koch B (eds) Europäische Integration, 2. ed. Leske + Budrich, Opladen, pp 387–416

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Eising R, Kohler-Koch B (1999) Introduction: network governance in the European Union. In: Kohler-Koch B, Eising R (eds) The transformation of governance in the European Union. Routledge, London, pp 3–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Eriksen EO (2005) An emerging European public sphere. J Eur Soc Theory 8(3):341–363. doi:10.1177/1368431005054798

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esmark A (2005) The Europeanization of public spheres—modes of resonance and institutional anchorage. Paper presented at the CONNEX-workshop “A European Public Sphere: How much of it do we have and how much do we need?” Amsterdam, 9. December–10. December 2005

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferree MM, Gamson WA, Gerhards J, Rucht D (2002) Four Models of the Public Sphere in Modern Democracies. Theory Soc 31(3):289–324. doi:10.1023/A:1016284431021

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fossum JE, Schlesinger P (eds) (2007) The European Union and the public sphere. A communicative space in the making? Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Fossum JE, Trenz HJ (2006) The EU’s fledgling society: from deafening silence to critical voice in European constitution-making. J Civil Soc 2(1):57–77. doi:10.1080/17448680600730959

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franzius C, Preuss UK (eds) (2004) Europäische Öffentlichkeit. Nomos, Baden-Baden

    Google Scholar 

  • Gellner E (1983) Nations and nationalism. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerhards J (1993) Westeuropäische Integration und die Schwierigkeiten der Entstehung einer europäischen Öffentlichkeit. Z Sozial 22(2):96–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerhards J (2000) Europäisierung von Ökonomie und Politik und die Trägheit der Entstehung einer europäischen Öffentlichkeit. In: Bach M (ed) Die Europäisierung nationaler Gesellschaften. Sonderheft der Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. Westdeutscher, Wiesbaden, pp 277–305

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerhards J, Neidhardt F (1991) Strukturen und Funktionen moderner Öffentlichkeit. Fragestellungen und Ansätze. In: Müller-Dohm S, Neumann-Braun K (eds) Öffentlichkeit, Kultur, Massenkommunikation. Beiträge zur Medien- und Kommunikationssoziologie. Bibliotheks-und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, pp 31–89

    Google Scholar 

  • Giesen B (1999) Kollektive Identität. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giesen B (2002) Europäische Identität und transnationale Öffentlichkeit. Eine historische Perspektive. In: Kaelble H, Kirsch M, Schmidt-Gernig A (eds) Transnationale Öffentlichkeiten und Identitäten im 20. Jahrhundert. Campus, Frankfurt a. M., pp 67–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Haas EB (1958) The uniting of Europe. Political, social and economic forces, 1950–1957. Stevens, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas J (1995) Remarks on Dieter Grimm’s ‘Does Europe need a Constitution?’ Eur Law J 1(3):303–307. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0386.1995.tb00034.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas J (1996) Between facts and norms: contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Hafez K (2005) Mythos Globalisierung. Warum die Medien nicht grenzenlos sind. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden

    Google Scholar 

  • Hannerz U (2004) Foreign news. Exploring the world of foreign correspondents. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooghe L (2003) Europe divided? Elites vs. public opinion on European integration. Eur Union Polit 4(3):281–304. doi:10.1177/14651165030043002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Imig DR, Tarrow SG (eds) (2001) Contentious Europeans. Protest and politics in an emerging polity. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaelble H (2002) Das europäsiche Selbstveständnis und die europäische Öffentlichkeit im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. In: Kaelble H, Kirsch M, Schmidt-Gernig A (eds) Transnationale Öffentlichkeiten und Identitäten im 20. Jahrhundert. Campus, Frankfurt a. M., pp 85–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Kantner C (2003) Öffentliche politische Kommunikation in der EU. Eine hermeneutisch-pragmatistische Perspektive. In: Klein A, Koopmanns R, Trenz HJ, Klein L, Lahusen C, Rucht D (eds), Bürgerschaft, Öffentlichkeit und Demokratie in Europa. Leske + Budrich, Opladen, pp 215–232

    Google Scholar 

  • Kantner C (2006) What is a European identity? The emergence of a shared ethical self-understanding in the European Union. EUI working papers (28). European University Institute, Florence

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler-Koch B (2000) Framing: the bottleneck of constructing legitimate institutions. J Eur Public Policy 7(4):513–531. doi:10.1080/13501760050165343

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohli M (2002) Die Entstehung einer europäischen Identität: Konflikte und Potentiale. In: Kaelble H, Kirsch M, Schmidt-Gernig A (eds) Transnationale Öffentlichkeiten und Identitäten im 20. Jahrhundert. Campus, Frankfurt a. M., pp 111–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Koopmans R, Erbe J (2004) Towards a European public sphere? Innov Eur J Soc Sci Res 17(2):97–118. doi:10.1080/1351161042000238643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koopmans R, Statham P (1999) Political claims analysis: integrating protest event and political discourse approaches. Mobilization 4(2):203–221

    Google Scholar 

  • Koopmans R, Statham P (2002) The transformation of political mobilisation and communication in European public spheres: a research outline, WZB. http://europub.wzb.eu/Data/reports/Proposal.pdf. Accessed 21 Oct 2013

  • Laclau E, Mouffe C (1985) Hegemony and socialist strategy: towards a radical democratic politics. Verso, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lacroix J (2005) Euroscepticism among the Intellectuals (…and how it can help to understand the true nature of the European construct). Paper presented at the workshop National identity and Euroscepticism. University of Oxford, 13th May 2005. http://oxpo.politics.ox.ac.uk/materials/national_identity/Lacroix_Paper.pdf. Accessed 21. Oct 2013

  • Latzer M, Sauerwein F (2006) Europäisierung durch Medien: Ansätze und Erkenntnisse der Öffentlichkeitsforschung. In: Langenbucher WR, Latzer M (eds) Europäische Öffentlichkeit und medialer Wandel. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, pp 10–44

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Liebert U (2007) Introduction: structuring political conflict about Europe: national media in transnational discourse analysis. Perspect Eur Polit Soc 8(3):235–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann N (1996) Die Realität der Massenmedien, 2. ed, Westdeutscher, Opladen

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mak J (2002) Selling Europe: communicating symbols or symbolic communication? The role of the European Commission and the Dutch and German National Governments in achieving public acceptance of the Euro. PhD Thesis, European University Institute, Florence

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcinkowski F (2002) Politische Öffentlichkeit: Systemtheoretische Grundlagen und politikwissenschaftliche Konsequenzen. In: Hellmann KU, Schmalz-Bruns R (eds) Theorie der Politik: Niklas Luhmanns politische Soziologie. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M., pp 85–108

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer CO (2002) Europäische Öffentlichkeit als Kontrollsphäre: Die Europäische Kommission, die Medien und politische Verantwortung. Vistas, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer JW, Boli J, Thomas GM, Ramirez FO (1997) World society and the nation-state. Am J Sociol 103(1):144–181. doi:10.1086/231174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neidhardt F (2006) Europäische Öffentlichkeit als Prozess. Anmerkungen zum Forschungsstand. In: Langenbucher WR, Latzer M (eds) Europäische Öffentlichkeit und medialer Wandel. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, pp 46–61

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen JP (2001) The Many Faces of Europeanization. J Common Mark Stud 40(5):921–952. doi:10.1111/1468-5965.00403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Page BI, Shapiro RY (1992) The rational public. Fifty years of trends in Americans policy preferences. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Peters A (2004) Europäische Öffentlichkeit im europäischen Verfassungsprozess. In: Franzius C, Preuß UK (eds) Europäische Öffentlichkeit. Nomos, Baden-Baden, pp 375–393

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters B, Sifft S, Wimmel A, Brüggemann M, Kleinen von Königslöw K (2005) 7 National and transnational public spheres: the case of the EU. In: Leibfried S, Zürn M (eds) Transformations of the state? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 139–160

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Preston P, Horgan J (2006) Comparative report on newsmaking cultures and values, EMEDIATE, work package 3, deliverable 7

    Google Scholar 

  • Risse T (2002) Zur Debatte um die (Nicht-)Existenz einer europäischen Öffentlichkeit. Berl Debatte Initial 13(5/6):15–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Risse T (2004) Auf dem Weg zu einer europäischen Kommunikationsgemeinschaft: Theoretische Überlegungen und empirische Evidenz. In: Franzius C, Preuß UK (eds) Europäische Öffentlichkeit. Nomos, Baden-Baden, pp 139–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Roose J (2006) Europäisierte Regionalberichterstattung? Europäische Integration und die Bedeutung von Staatsgrenzen für die Zeitungsberichterstattung. Berliner Studien zur Soziologie Europas, Arbeitspapier (4). http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-114068. Accessed 21 Oct 2013

  • Salovaara-Moring I (2006) Beyond East and West: comparing public sphere(s) of New Europe. Conference paper to public sphere(s) and their boundaries Tampere, 25. May–27. May 2006

    Google Scholar 

  • Saurwein F (2006) Europäisierung der österreichischen Öffentlichkeit: Mediale Aufmerksamkeit für EU-Politik und der veröffentlichte Diskurs über die EU-Erweiterung. Forschungsbericht. Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, Wien

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger PR (1994) Europe’s contradictory communicative space. Deadalus 123(2):25–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlesinger PR (2003) The babel of Europe? An essay on networks and communicative spaces. ARENA Working Paper (22). University of Oslo, Oslo

    Google Scholar 

  • Siapera E (2004) EU correspondents in Brussels: between Europe and the Nation State. In: Herrmann RK, Risse T, Brewer MB (eds) Transnational identities: becoming European in the EU. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, pp 129–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Slaatta T (2006) Europeanisation and the news media: issues and research imperatives. Javnost—Public 13(1):5–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow DA, Benford RD (1999) Alternative types of cross-national diffusion in the social movement arena. In: Della Porta D, Kriesi H, Rucht D (eds) Social movements in a globalizing world. St. Martin’s Press, New York, pp 23–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Statham P, Trenz HJ (2012) The politicization of Europe. Contesting the constitution in the mass media. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Statham P, Trenz HJ (2013) How European Union politicization can emerge through contestation: the constitution case. J Common Mark Stud 51(5):956–980. doi:10.1111/jcms.12032

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tobler S (2006) Konfliktinduzierte Transnationalisierung nationaler und supranationaler Öffentlichkeitsarenen. Indikatoren einer europäischen Öffentlichkeit. In: Langenbucher WR, Latzer M (eds) Europäische Öffentlichkeit und medialer Wandel. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, pp 107–130

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Trenz HJ (2005) Europa in den Medien. Die europäische Integration im Spiegel nationaler Öffentlichkeit. Campus, Frankfurt a. M.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trenz HJ, Eder K (2004) The democratizing dynamics of a European public sphere. Towards a theory of democratic functionalism. Eur J Soc Theory 7(1):5–25. doi:10.1177/1368431004040016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van de Steeg M (2002) Rethinking the conditions for a public sphere in the European Union. Eur J Soc Theory 5(4):499–519. doi:10.1177/136843102760513884

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van de Steeg M (2004) Does a public sphere exist in the EU? An analysis of the content of the debate of the Haider-case. EUI Working Papers (5). European University Institute, Florence

    Google Scholar 

  • Vetters R (2006) Die EU-Berichterstattung von Regionalzeitungen. Ein Vergleich der Berichterstattung zur europäischen Verfassung in deutschen Qualitäts- und Regionalzeitungen. Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Unpublished Paper

    Google Scholar 

  • Vetters R, Jentges E, Trenz HJ (2006) Exploring the EU’s social constituency: patterns of public claims-making in constitutional debates in France and Germany. ARENA Working Paper (18). University of Oslo, Oslo

    Google Scholar 

  • Weischenberg S (2000) Luhmanns Realität der Massenmedien. Zu Theorie und Empirie eines aktuellen Objektes der Systemtheorie. In: Gripp-Hagelstange H (ed) Niklas Luhmanns Denken. Interdisziplinäre Einflüsse und Wirkungen. UVK, Konstanz, pp 157–178

    Google Scholar 

  • Wessler H (2008) Investigating Deliberativeness Comparatively. Polit Commun 25(1):1–22. doi:10.1080/10584600701807752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wimmel A (2006) Transnationale Diskurse in Europa. Der Streit um den Türkei-Beitritt in Deutschland, Frankreich und Großbritannien. Campus, Frankfurt a. M.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zürn M (2001) Overcoming methodological nationalism. Paper presented at the International Workshop “Global Governance”. European University Institute, Florence

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, P. O. Box 1143 Blindern, 0317, Oslo, Norway

    Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Trenz

Authors
  1. Prof. Dr. Hans-Jörg Trenz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hans-Jörg Trenz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Ulrike Liebert

  2. Jean Monnet Centre for European Studies, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Janna Wolff

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Trenz, HJ. (2015). Europeanising the Public Sphere – Meaning, Mechanisms, Effects. In: Liebert, U., Wolff, J. (eds) Interdisziplinäre Europastudien. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-03620-1_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-03620-1_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-658-03619-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-658-03620-1

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Science (German Language)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation