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The EU still has a democratic deficit and its legitimacy is strongly questioned. This reveals the importance of citizenship and participation in the context of the challenges the EU faces today. The article contributes to the current discussions on the shifting frameworks of participation and citizenship through empirical research into the EU's participatory governance. It asks how participation is framed in terms of scale and how these scalar framings are used to formulate citizenship in selected projects funded by the EU programmes on citizenship and culture. This microlevel analysis yields new insights into the politics of scale in the EU's multilevel participatory governance. Frame analysis of the texts produced in these EU projects indicates how the combination of European and local scales is articulated to shape and regulate participation, citizenship and the EU as a community. The article therefore introduces a new concept, Euro-local scale, to make sense of this rehierarchisation of scales in the EU's participatory governance. ; peerReviewed

The EU still has a democratic deficit and its legitimacy is strongly questioned. This reveals the importance of citizenship and participation in the context of the challenges the EU faces today. The article contributes to the current discussions on the shifting frameworks of participation and citizenship through empirical research into the EU's participatory governance. It asks how participation is framed in terms of scale and how these scalar framings are used to formulate citizenship in selected projects funded by the EU programmes on citizenship and culture. This microlevel analysis yields new insights into the politics of scale in the EU's multilevel participatory governance. Frame analysis of the texts produced in these EU projects indicates how the combination of European and local scales is articulated to shape and regulate participation, citizenship and the EU as a community. The article therefore introduces a new concept, Euro-local scale, to make sense of this rehierarchisation of scales in the EU's participatory governance.

This chapter investigates how peace is used in attempts to build a collective identity for the European Union in the context of the European Heritage Label (EHL), a central instrument in the EU's cultural heritage policy. The official EHL documents and the websites of the EHL sites are analysed using a conceptual approach that particularly focuses on the interconceptualizations between peace and Europe. The ways peace is discussed can be divided into four thematic categories: treaties, institutions, practices, and symbols related to peace. The chapter concludes that heritage related to peace is mainly discussed in a non-contradictory manner, with little space for dissonance. ; peerReviewed

Participation, citizenship and democracy form a triad consisting of multiple conceptual and practical links in political life and theory. The popularity of the concept of participation and various participatory practices is growing, and in the administration of the European Union, one way of increasing participation is the EU programmes through which funding is distributed for citizens' co-operation across the member states in different fields. The chapter investigates conceptualisations of participation at the level of individual projects funded by two EU programmes, Europe for Citizens and Culture, in the programme period 2007-2013. Union citizenship as a conceptual change and a political innovation embodies the complexity of citizenship, and EU projects like these can be seen as attempts to give practical contents for the concept of Union citizenship. The chapter seeks to analyse the conceptions of citizenship produced through the conceptual choices related to participation made in the textual material of the selected EU projects. Particular attention is paid to the links built between participation, citizenship and democracy. Such an analysis provides a practical level contribution to the debate on the quantity and quality of democracy in the context of the emerging EU polity. Analysing EU projects is useful for exploring the extent to which the participatory practices organized by the EU administration may create spaces for new forms of democracy. The conceptual reading of the project texts shows that participation is primarily conceptualised as networking, cooperation and exchanging information. Such activities can be seen as prerequisites for democratic action, but this understanding of participation does not seem to meet the ideas of republican, radical, participatory or input types of democracy. It also lacks many of the forms of participation that are generally viewed as central for democracy. This represents a depoliticised conception of both participation and citizenship and a conceptual discontinuity from understanding them as instruments of change and sources of democracy. EU projects thus exemplify the complex relations to democracy and politics typical for participatory governance: they may offer opportunities for more direct democracy, but they may also mean participation under the conditions defined by the administration. ; peerReviewed

The formulation of Union citizenship has concentrated on rights since the 1970s. In the Maastricht and subsequent EU treaties, Union citizenship is defined through rights. Against this background, discussion on rights in the EU documents on citizenship analysed in this article is surprisingly scarce. The research material consists of 15 documents produced by EU institutions in 2003–2007 as part of three programmes on citizenship. In the documents, the discussion on rights focuses on mobility instead of other aspects of rights. Electoral rights and fundamental rights are discussed a little, but in general, the minuscule discussion on rights is dominated by discussions on freedom of mobility, which appears to be the most important right of the Union citizen. Union citizenship is understood above all as citizenship of a mobile person and as a status guaranteeing freedom of movement. Conception of free movement as the core of citizens' rights keep up the citizenship discussions in the history of integration. Freedom for mobility lies also in the core of the area of freedom, security and justice – an area construct discussed in the documents. Both Union citizenship and the area of freedom, security and justice are innovations, through which EU can use power in the nation states' traditional fields of action: border control and citizenship. The central position given to the freedom of mobility and its connection with the economy as well as understanding citizenship rather as a status than practice link the Union citizenship formulated in the rights discussions to the liberalist tradition. Discussions on freedom of mobility imply both promoting and regulating mobility as well as crossing and drawing borders. In this kind of discussions on rights, Union citizenship appears as a category with which people and mobility as well as the entire integration can be governed. These discussions do not promote citizenship as political agency. ; peerReviewed

The question in this article is how citizenship is reinvented and recontextualized in a newly founded European Union after the launching of Union Citizenship. What kind of conceptions of citizenship are produced in this new and evolving organization? The research material consists of documents presented by EU organs from 1994 to 2007 concerning eight EU programs on citizenship and culture. I will analyze conceptual similarities (continuities) and differences (discontinuities) between these documents and previous conceptualizations in various contexts, including citizenship discussions in the history of integration since the 1970s as well as theories of democracy and nation-states. Based on the analysis of participation, rights, and identity as central dimensions of citizenship, I will discuss the relationship of Union Citizenship to democracy and nationality.

The question in this article is how citizenship is reinvented and recontextualized in a newly founded European Union after the launching of Union Citizenship. What kind of conceptions of citizenship are produced in this new and evolving organization? The research material consists of documents presented by EU organs from 1994 to 2007 concerning eight EU programs on citizenship and culture. I will analyze conceptual similarities (continuities) and differences (discontinuities) between these documents and previous conceptualizations in various contexts, including citizenship discussions in the history of integration since the 1970s as well as theories of democracy and nation-states. Based on the analysis of participation, rights, and identity as central dimensions of citizenship, I will discuss the relationship of Union Citizenship to democracy and nationality. ; peerReviewed

Pääkirjoitus 4/2023

Pääkirjoitus 3/2022

Pääkirjoitus 2/2022.

Pääkirjoitus 63:4.

Pääkirjoitus 3/2021.

Pääkirjoitus 63:2.

Vuoden ensimmäisessä Politiikka-lehden numerossa tarkastelu suunnataan luottamukseen, epäluottamukseen, osallistumiseen ja tietoon.