Transforming Europe through Crises : Thin, Thick, Parochial and Global Dynamics

‘How many Europes?’ is a critical question that led to several attempts to analyse European crises and transformations globally. This book builds upon the argument that Europe cannot be reduced to a singular dynamic, identity or vision, but rather provides a four-fold taxonomy: Thin, Thick, Parochial and Global Europe. The book contributors aim to respond to the emerging necessity to incorporate both the parochial dynamics unmaking Europe and the globalist dynamics decentering Europe into the analysis of European crises and transformations in diverse sectors ranging from security and foreign policy to the rule of law and democracy. Accordingly, this book is unpacking Europe in a time of severe crises facing the EU—such as Brexit, the Syrian refugee crisis, Catalan secessionism, the rise of far right, and terrorism—, which have accelerated the resurgence of formerly marginalized and repressed dynamics as influential trends in national, regional and global politics. It reveals an ongoing hegemonic struggle over the representation of Europe among ‘many Europes’ involving two separate integrationist models of regionalization —or ‘Europe-making’— and two distinct dynamics that have sought to fragment and de-centre the European Union through nationalism and globalism respectively. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of European Politics and Society.