KrakowMay10

WP 5 - Civil Society and the Public Sphere

Krakow, 28-29 May 2010

Within the framework of RECON Work Package 5 - Civil Society and the Public Sphere, this workshop will discuss findings from the sub-project on Euroscepticism in the 2009 EP election campaigns. With existing scholarly attention predominantly focused on party politics and public opinion, the question of how Euroscepticism is advanced in public and media discourse appears relatively unchartered. The focus of the workshop will be on how Eurosceptic discourse is made salient by political actors and journalists through the media. Particular attention will be paid to the internet as a platform of political contestation and campaigning in the context of EP elections.

This includes an assessment of the performance of professional journalism websites as well as citizens’ journalism through commenting, online fora and political blogs. The results will be used in order to: (a) evaluate the online European public sphere in light of existing knowledge on its ‘offline’ counterpart; and (b) assess the nature of Eurosceptic discourse, compare manifestations of Euroscepticism across countries and websites and study the extent to which Euroscepticism features in the election campaign and results.

WP 5 partners have taken stock of the scholarly literature on Euroscepticism in a variety of member states and have identified themes, actors and forums for Eurosceptic discursive practices in the context of campaigns surrounding the European Parliament elections of June 2009. The RECON researchers will present individual country chapters covering a representative sample of 12 EU member states including Austria, Germany, the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Greece. All RECON WP 5 partners will deliver two inputs for the workshop: one chapter on the shape of the EU online public sphere and its democratic assessment and a second chapter on the manifestations of Euroscepticism and the dynamics of EP election campaigning in their country of analysis.

Paper presentations will be followed by commentaries provided by distinguished scholars in the fields of media and European studies. Their critical feedback will bring an external perspective to the project’s conceptual and empirical aspects and will set the framework for further discussion and evaluation of our findings.

Programme

Friday 28 May 2010
08:45-09:15	Registration
09:15-09:30	Opening of the workshop Welcoming words Zdzislaw Mach, Jagiellonian University Krakow Introductory remarks Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA, University of Oslo
09:30-11:00	Research framework The internet and EP elections (paper) Asimina Michailidou and Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA, University of Oslo Comment Nick Jankowski, University of Nijmegen Euroscepticism: A new framework of analysis (paper) Pieter de Wilde and Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA, University of Oslo Comment Paul Statham, University of Bristol
11:00-11:15	Coffee
11:15-12:30	Comparative findings Comparative European New Media Election Project Carlos Cunha, Dowling College Comment Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA, University of Oslo Euroscepticism comparative project findings (paper) Pieter de Wilde and Asimina Michailidou, ARENA, University of Oslo Comment Carlos Cunha, Dowling College
12:30-14:00 14:00-15:30	Lunch Country case studies Poland (paper) (paper) Natasza Styczyńska, Jagiellonian University Krakow Comment Barbara Jabłońska, Jagiellonian University Krakow France and Belgium (paper) (paper) Amandine Crespy and Francois Foret, Université Libre de Bruxelles Comment Florence Haegel, Science-Po Paris
15:30-15:45 15:45-16:30	Coffee Country case studies Germany and Austria (paper) (paper) Kathrin Packham, University of Bremen, and Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA, University of Oslo Comment Ann Zimmermann, University of Bern
16:30-17:30	Discussion
19:30	Dinner

Saturday 29 May 2010

09:00-10:30

Country case studies

United Kingdom (paper)
Asimina Michailidou, ARENA, University of Oslo

Comment
Paul Statham, University of Bristol

The Netherlands (paper) (paper)
Pieter de Wilde, ARENA, University of Oslo

Comment
Nick Jankowski, University of Nijmegen

10:30-10:45

Coffee

10:45-12:15

Country case studies

The Czech Republic (paper) (paper)
Petra Guasti and Zdenka Mansfeldova, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

Comment
To be confirmed

Hungary (paper) (paper)
Maria Heller, Borbala Kriza and Tamas Kohut, Eötvös Loránd University

Comment
Dora Husz, European Commission

12:15-13:45

13:45-14:30

Lunch

Discussion

14:30-15:00

Closing remarks

Magdalena Góra, Jagiellonian University Krakow and Hans-Jörg Trenz, ARENA, University of Oslo

For further information, please contact Magdalena Góra

Workshop

Euroscepticism and the future of European democracy

WP 5 - Civil Society and the Public Sphere