Shades of Blue: Claiming Europe in the Age of Disintegration

In Shades of Blue, Félix Krawatzek, Friedemann Pestel, Rieke Trimçev, and Gregor Feindt investigate the political project of "Europe" as it oscillates between the extremes of expectations of an ever-wider integration and fear of disintegration. The authors interrogate and chart the space between these polarities by tracking the many competing conceptions of Europe in European public discourse and relate these meanings to national, regional, and ideological divisions.

Based on qualitative discourse analyses of newspaper articles from six European Union member states between 2004 and 2023, Shades of Blue shifts how we think about Europe's integration and disintegration and offers a new perspective on Europeanization. With twelve debates chronicling Europe's past and discussing the implications for Europe's future, these authors uncover how politicians, intellectuals, and journalists negotiate European senses of belonging. Shades of Blue moves beyond the binaries of hope and despair to uncover a more nuanced picture of Europe.

Félix Krawatzek is a political scientist at the Centre for East European and International Studies.

Friedemann Pestel is a historian at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

Rieke Trimçev is a political theorist at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Gregor Feindt is a historian at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz and Associate Member of the Special Research Center on human differentiation at the University of Mainz.