Euroscepticism has increased since the onset of what has been termed Europe's ‘polycrisis’. From the 2008 global financial meltdown through the 'migrant crisis' and into the era of COVID-19, populist politics and protest movements have become common. Prolonged crisis conditions threaten not only the credibility of the European Union, but also erode social trust more generally. Governance challenges go beyond the surface level of perceived emergency, economic anxiety, and contentious politics: taken-for-granted assumptions become less stable, sometimes shifting into unexpected and contradictory alignments. Long established narrative frames become weakened and new ones vie to overtake them. Studies often correlate these indicators of so-called ‘post-truth politics’ with the medium of digital social media, whereas the role of compound crises has been less explored.
The objective of this Research Topic is to develop better understandings of the interplay between crisis frames and Euroscepticism. How have different political actors taken up discourses of crisis to mobilize or make claims at various levels of governance? What are the governance conditions under which such mobilizations or framings have led to politically important outcomes for European integration or disintegration? New research affirms that nationalist populism continues to be associated with relatively surgent or effective mobilizations, and that coercive and undemocratic governance measures can counterproductively fuel such opposition. In this context, we also aim to contribute to scholarly and policy discussions around better governance strategies and enhancing social trust in political institutions and processes. What reform options are available to authorities at various levels of European governance, given the need to rebuild public confidence? New research points to more adaptive, dialogical, and democratic policy responses.
The contributors to this Research Topic explore some of the ways that crisis interacts with European dis/integration. Effective narratives around identity, for example, have been framed as simultaneously pro-European and anti-European Union, even pitting one against the other, as in the case of Hungarian populism. Similarly, crises reveal contradictions of ‘sovereignty’, as in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, when nationalist independence movements internal to the UK championed EU membership in their pursuit of national sovereignty. Across the continent, new protest movements defied simple categorization, bridging social divides and blurring the lines between conventional repertoires of action and violence, as with the Yellow Vests in France and the Catalan Revolt in Spain. The discourse of ‘crisis’ itself has proven selective, over-looking less visible crises already impacting minority and marginalized populations. Diverse studies on these topics and more shed light on European governance challenges in an age of crisis.
We acknowledge the funding of the manuscripts published in this Research Topic by the University of Victoria. We hereby state publicly that the University of Victoria has had no editorial input in articles included in this Research Topic, thus ensuring that all aspects of this Research Topic are evaluated objectively, unbiased by any specific policy or opinion of the University of Victoria.
Euroscepticism has increased since the onset of what has been termed Europe's ‘polycrisis’. From the 2008 global financial meltdown through the 'migrant crisis' and into the era of COVID-19, populist politics and protest movements have become common. Prolonged crisis conditions threaten not only the credibility of the European Union, but also erode social trust more generally. Governance challenges go beyond the surface level of perceived emergency, economic anxiety, and contentious politics: taken-for-granted assumptions become less stable, sometimes shifting into unexpected and contradictory alignments. Long established narrative frames become weakened and new ones vie to overtake them. Studies often correlate these indicators of so-called ‘post-truth politics’ with the medium of digital social media, whereas the role of compound crises has been less explored.
The objective of this Research Topic is to develop better understandings of the interplay between crisis frames and Euroscepticism. How have different political actors taken up discourses of crisis to mobilize or make claims at various levels of governance? What are the governance conditions under which such mobilizations or framings have led to politically important outcomes for European integration or disintegration? New research affirms that nationalist populism continues to be associated with relatively surgent or effective mobilizations, and that coercive and undemocratic governance measures can counterproductively fuel such opposition. In this context, we also aim to contribute to scholarly and policy discussions around better governance strategies and enhancing social trust in political institutions and processes. What reform options are available to authorities at various levels of European governance, given the need to rebuild public confidence? New research points to more adaptive, dialogical, and democratic policy responses.
The contributors to this Research Topic explore some of the ways that crisis interacts with European dis/integration. Effective narratives around identity, for example, have been framed as simultaneously pro-European and anti-European Union, even pitting one against the other, as in the case of Hungarian populism. Similarly, crises reveal contradictions of ‘sovereignty’, as in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, when nationalist independence movements internal to the UK championed EU membership in their pursuit of national sovereignty. Across the continent, new protest movements defied simple categorization, bridging social divides and blurring the lines between conventional repertoires of action and violence, as with the Yellow Vests in France and the Catalan Revolt in Spain. The discourse of ‘crisis’ itself has proven selective, over-looking less visible crises already impacting minority and marginalized populations. Diverse studies on these topics and more shed light on European governance challenges in an age of crisis.
We acknowledge the funding of the manuscripts published in this Research Topic by the University of Victoria. We hereby state publicly that the University of Victoria has had no editorial input in articles included in this Research Topic, thus ensuring that all aspects of this Research Topic are evaluated objectively, unbiased by any specific policy or opinion of the University of Victoria.