Narrating Europe at the Border
Media, Political and Citizen Perspectives in the French German borderland
Abstract
This article explores the narratives that shape perceptions of European integration in the Franco-German border region. Drawing on a three-fold approach combining media content analysis, political interviews, and citizen focus groups conducted within the Horizon Europe project B-SHAPES, the study identifies three dominant narrative frameworks: Franco-German friendship as a symbolic foundation of cooperation, a functional yet politically distant European Union, and a border that remains latent but reactivates during crises. By analyzing these narratives across those thee sources, a complex 'border narrative ecology' is revealed, in which integration is experienced, contested, and reimagined. The findings underscore both the symbolic centrality and structural fragility of border regions as 'laboratories of European integration'.
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