1 Regional, National and European Identities in Interaction. María Ros & Héctor Grad. Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and european identity. Who do you think you are?

2 1. Importance of Regional, National and European identities (Survey). Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and european identity.

3 2. Situations that stimulate a European Identity (Survey & Interviews).  Intergroup situations.  Socialization and educational processes.  Construction of EU as an imagined community. Formal aspects of EU membership. Personal experiences. Sports events. Political confrontation. Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and european identity.

4 3. Reasons for European Identification (Interviews). Less Personal Implication.  Automatic Mechanisms - being born or living in their nation.  Culture: Shared Values and Style of life.  Pride with its History, Standard of life & Safety.  Political Attitudes.  Personal Experiences with Europe.  Personal Sense of Belonging - their home. More Personal Implication. Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and european identity.

5 4. Reasons for Lack of Identification with Europe (Interviews). More Personal Implication.  Rejected Attitudes and Behaviors.  Excessive Power for some Countries.  Unnecessary Identity.  No Personal Implication.  A Distant or Nonexistent concept. Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and european identity. Less Personal Implication.

6 5. Empirical Relations between European, State-related and Regional Identities (Survey). PatternsStrength of associationsExemplar locations State- Region State- Europe Region- Europe AHighestMediumLowestMadrid Manchester Vienna Vorarlberg BMediumHighestLowestBielefeld Chemnitz Edinburgh CLowestHighestMediumBilbao Associations between European, State-related and Regional Identities* *Note: Bratislava and Prague are not included because their regional category is not comparable to the other locations. Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and european identity.

7 6. Configurations of European Identity (Interviews).  Neo-European identity. Postnational identification with the EU (Vienna & Vorarlberg, Bielefeld & Chemnitz).  Traditional Nation/State. Weak identification with Europe and the absence of EU as social category (Manchester).  Modern State/National & European. Implies automatic-nested identities (Prague & Bratislava, Madrid & less frequently in Edinburgh). Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and european identity.

8 6. Configurations of European Identity (Interviews).  Modern Region/National & European. Hegemony of regional national identity, which displaces the state-related identity and is compatible with the European identity (Bilbao).  No Identification with any Political category. Arises either with cosmopolitan (“citizen of the world”) or individualist arguments (Edinburgh and Bilbao).  Traditional Region-National. Hegemonic Regional/National identity (usually) compatible with the state-related identity ( most frequent in Edinburgh). Orientations of young men and women to citizenship and european identity.

9 7. Conclusions Who do we think we are? Identification with the EU is seen as compatible with national and regional identities. European identity is associated to state- related identity, even in localities where regional identity is more important. European identification can be strengthened by increasing the number of personal experiences with the EU. The construction of the EU is also reinforced by perceiving the EU as an independent social and political actor.