En narrativ studie av framställningen av den europeiska integrationsprocessen på Europeiska Historiens Hus

Författare

Sofia Stridsberg

Summary, in Swedish

This paper seeks to analyze what meaning the European House of History in Brussels, a museum founded in 2017, attributes to the European integration process. With the use of narrative analysis, the permanent exhibition on the European House of History´s English website will serve as material for the study. The paper examines which aspects of the European integration process the museum has chosen to present as well as the attributed meaning of these aspects. Theories related to Europeanization, identity and legitimacy have been chosen to serve as a foundation for the narrative analysis.
In short, it is concluded that the exhibition presents the European integration process as a relatively uncomplicated and uncontroversial process. The European Union is in the analyzed narrative presented as a protector of democracy, peace, and human rights. As the exhibition repeatedly emphasizes that the European Union defends these values, a narrative emerges that seeks to show that the Union has, and has had, legitimacy to deepen the European integration process.
Although the taken approach may be understandable, it is at the same time difficult to avoid pointing out the obvious risk that the lack of self-criticism may result in given that there are issues that are politically sensitive which largely remain unmentioned. Seen from an analytical perspective, a narrative emerges that wants to escape any difficult questions and controversies. The risk is that too flattering approach risks undermining the validity of the exhibition.

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