The book is the result of a joint research project between the Universities of León, Leeds, Oslo and Humboldt University Berlin: 'Building the European Union’s social constituency: exploring the dynamics of public claims-making and collective representation in Europe', funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF).
The authors unravel the democratic deficit that disconnects European citizens from the political elites by way of conducting an empirical study of the news coverage of the constitutional debates in major newspapers. On this basis, the book demonstrates how the democratization of the European Union depends on the transformation of the structure and function of the European public sphere(s).
Beside the editors the contributors to the book are:
Miguel Azpitarte, Adrián Crespo, Ben Crum, Julie Firmstone, John Erik Fossum, Erik Jentges, Francesc Morata, Cesáreo Rodríguez-Aguilera, José Luis Rodríguez, Paul Statham and Regina Vetters.
The book was launched and discussed at the seminar Cuando los ciudadanos dicen "no" in September, which was attended by a select number of key Spanish journalists and opinion-makers.
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¿Y por fin somos europeos?
La comunicación politica en el debate constituyente europeo
Hans-Jörg Trenz, Agustín José Menéndez and Fernando Losada (eds), Dykinson 2008