Is it possible to create a collective European identity? In this volume, leading scholars assess the link between collective identity construction in Europe and the multiple memory discourses that intervene in this construction process. The authors believe that the exposure of national collective memories to an enlarging communicative space within Europe affects the ways in which national memories are framed. Through this perspective, several case studies of East and West European memory discourses are presented. The first part of the volume elaborates how collective memory can be identified in the new Europe. The second part presents case studies on national memories and related collective identities in respect of European integration and its extension to the East. This timely work is the first to investigate collective identity construction on a pan-European scale and will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students of political sociology and European studies.

Is it possible to create a collective European identity? In this volume, leading scholars assess the link between collective identity construction in Europe and the multiple memory discourses that intervene in this construction process. The authors believe that the exposure of national collective memories to an enlarging communicative space within Europe affects the ways in which national memories are framed. Through this perspective, several case studies of East and West European memory discourses are presented. The first part of the volume elaborates how collective memory can be identified in the new Europe. The second part presents case studies on national memories and related collective identities in respect of European integration and its extension to the East. This timely work is the first to investigate collective identity construction on a pan-European scale and will be of interest to academics and postgraduate students of political sociology and European studies.

Is there a common ground on which a European citizenship can be constructed? This volume looks at four foundations of citizenship in Europe: the legacy of national identities, current designs and projects for social and political citizenship in Europe, a transitional public space as the basis of an active European Citizenship in Europe, and a transitional collective identity as a symbolic boundary marker for European citizenship.

This volume brings together leading scholars in the field who examine the complex and growing debate on citizenship. The contributors systematically address the ambiguities of citizenship and confront the growing marketization of citizenship.

OEkologische Kommunikation bezieht sich nicht nur auf industriell erzeugte Selbstgefahrdungen moderner Gesellschaften. Sie stellt auch einen symbolischen Fokus der Neudefinition gesellschaftlicher Identitaten und Ordnungsvorstellungen dar. Diese Studie fragt, wie sich das symbolische Interaktionsfeld dieser Debatten mit der Institutionalisierung oekologischer Risikokommunikation verandert hat. Sie rekonstruiert die spezifische "Rahmung" von Umweltproblemen in der deutschen Medienoeffentlichkeit und untersucht die Herausbildung eines neuen Typus oeffentlichkeitsvermittelter, "dialogischer" Interaktion zwischen Umweltbewegung, Politik und Wirtschaft.

Demonstrating that our ideas of nature are culturally determined, The Social Construction of Nature critically examines the connection between nature and culture. Author Klaus Eder focuses on the relationship between modern, industrial societies and discusses how they have become increasingly violent and destructive. He questions the view of nature as an object while carefully analyzing symbolism, ritual, and taboo. Showing how nature is socially constructed, the work presents a critique of Marx and Durkheim while offering a radical reinterpretation of the intersection among society, culture, and nature. This original work concludes with an examination of the symbolic order of society and the role of religion in modern culture. Using a culturalist interpretation, Eder explains how environmentalism, and the social construction of nature, are a key indexes of social order and structure. The Social Construction of Nature is a unique agenda-setting interpretation of nature and ecology that will become the essential reference in any debate on environmental politics and sociology.

Are contemporary societies organized by class? In recent years the apparent fragmentation of established class structures and the emergence of new social movements - in particular the women's movement and environmentalism - have altered the traditional expressions of class in society. At the same time, these changes have posed fundamental questions for the concept of class in sociology and political science. In this major reassessment, Klaus Eder offers a new perspective on the status of class in modernity. Drawing on a critique of Bourdieu, Touraine and Habermas, he outlines a cultural conception of class as the basis for understanding contemporary societies. His model reevaluates the role of the middle classes, traditionally the crux of class analysis, and links class to social theories of power and cultural capital. The result is a cultural theory of class which incorporates the changing forms of collective action and the new social movements of contemporary societies.