This book explores the processes through which European solidarity is constructed. More specifically, it investigates how the media's framing of European identity can facilitate and/or impede the emergence of European solidarity on the individual level. Through an online experiment that tested the effect of two different media identity frames on individual solidarity during the European debt crisis, the author argues that the exposure to news articles using a value-based identity frame boosts solidarity compared to an economic identity frame.

This interdisciplinary work will be of interest to scholars of political sociology, political communication and political psychology, as well as any researchers who study European integration.

Analyses the unique potential of solidarity to offer solutions for social problems, when other control mechanisms such as coercion or compensation fail Advances theoretical, methodological and empirical insights on the drivers of European solidarity Provides a novel theoretical concept of individual European solidarity, distinguishing between an attitudinal and a behavioral dimension

Autorentext

Christopher Starke is a Post-Doctoral Researcher of political communication at the Department of Social Sciences at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. He is also affiliated with the Düsseldorf Institute for Internet and Democracy (DIID).

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- The European Debt Crisis and the Quest for European Solidarity.- 3. Solidarity in the European Union.- 4. Media Identity Framing.- 5. Method and Data.- 6. Results & Discussion.- 7. Conclusion.