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Charlotte Galpin

From the Euro to the Eurozone Crisis: A Comparative Analysis of Identity Discourses in the UK, Germany and Poland 2002-2012.

Supervisors: Professor Sarah Colvin and Dr Tim Haughton

My PhD seeks to examine the importance of the Eurozone crisis on European identity discourses, looking at three case study countries: Germany, the UK and Poland. Beyond issues of economics, the Eurozone crisis has arguably signalled a “crisis of identity” in the European Union. I combine social constructivist and historical institutionalist theory to consider the extent to which the crisis has acted as a 'critical juncture' for the EU. I take a discursive approach to highlight the contested nature of European identities and consider whether the Eurozone crisis has opened up the discursive options available in different contexts. In particular, I examine the growing disjuncture between elite and mass level European identities and public opinion, evidenced particularly since the demise of the 'permissive consensus' era following the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Particularly since the Eurozone crisis, there has been a growing discourse from EU elites on the need to complete economic/fiscal union in order to 'Save the Euro'. How does this resonate with mass-level European identities? I consider the extent to which the Eurozone crisis has exacerbated or compounded this disjuncture and how it might affect the future legitimacy of the EU.

Profile

I graduated with a BA in French and German Studies from the University of Warwick in 2008, having spent a year at the Technische Üniversität Dresden. After graduating, I completed a six-month internship in a translation company in Hamburg, after which I continued to work as a freelance translator of French and German. In 2009, I began my Master’s degree in European Integration in the Department for Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham with a dissertation topic entitled “How Far Can the European Union’s So-Called “Democratic Deficit” Be Understood as an Identity Deficit? A Critical Assessment of Democracy in the European Parliament”. This won me the Joseph Beeby Prize for the highest dissertation mark in the Graduate School. In October 2010, I began my PhD at the Institute for German Studies (IGS) in POLSIS as the IGS/DAAD project scholarship holder and project assistant on the Institute’s major interdisciplinary research project “Zeitgeist: What does it mean to be German in the 21st century?”. I am also Co-Chair of the Graduate Centre for Europe, an interdisciplinary initiative for postgraduate students of Europe.

Qualifications

BA (Hons) (Warwick), French and German Studies, First Class
MA (Birmingham) International Studies (European Integration) with Distinction

Research interests

European Union
European integration theory
Political participation
National and European identities
British politics and democracy
Democratic reform
German politics and society
Central and Eastern Europe

Professional memberships

German Studies Association

Teaching responsibilities

SD1D Research Skills and Literacy: Philosophy and Methods

Conference papers

Critical Europeans? The Impact of the Eurozone Crisis on “Normalised” Expressions of European Identity in Germany, German Studies Association Conference, Louisville, KT, 22-25th September 2011