Event Date: November 13, 2008 - 1:00 pm
Location: Social Science Building, University of Ottawa, Room 4007

A talk by Kathleen McNamara, Associate Professor of Government, Georgetown University.

Registration is not required. This event will be in English.

The European Union is a novel and innovative political entity, but one whose existence is largely taken for granted as an unremarkable fact. What social processes underpin its broad acceptance as a legitimate political authority? Kathleen McNamara argues that one key element is the creation of the EU as an “imagined” political community, or a cultural construction that imparts emotional legitimacy to the EU as an actor in its own right. Yet this imagined community is uneven: it has only part traction on the identities and loyalties of the citizens of Europe. McNamara maps out the contours of this emerging European consciousness and focuses on the role of symbols and social practice as they vary in use across several key EU policy areas–the Euro, citizenship and mobility policies, and common foreign and security policy.

This event is part of the CIPS Study Group on Global Governance.