These overlapping concepts are the base of a rapidly growing field of interest at the Institute of European Studies (IES), connected to the Jagiellonian Centre for Migration Studies. Academics involved in this interdisciplinary field focus, amongst others, on the processes of Europeanisation through the spectrum of internal and third-country migrants within Europe; migration flows and processes from sociological and legal perspectives, integration policies, citizenship testing schemes and civic education for migrants, as well as the transformation of collective identities in light of the interaction of migrants and ‘hosts’, towards or away from ‘European’ values and identity. Current migratory issues and societal reactions are at the forefront of discussion and analysis, focused by not limited to the Central-Eastern European region.

Key words: citizenship, migration, culture, integration, multiculturalism, social capital, Europeanisation, values, identity.

This is a key research area of IES, focusing on the transcultural and transnational memory of Europe and the construction thereof. Objects of analysis are the symbolic, socially constructed past, the forging of European identity and heritage in tension/relation with/to a national vision of the past.  Sociological, anthropological and historical theories are used here, taking into account European frames of reference and the process of Europeanisation. Furthermore, researchers in the field are seeking to define lieux de memoire and European heritage, which take into account material as well as symbolic goods, real and mythical figures, events, buildings and monuments, institutions and concepts, literature and art, to name a few. In the words of Pierre Nora, the object of study are lieux de memoires européens and structures symbolizing European heritage.

Key words: heritage and European heritage, collective and cultural memory, European realms of memory / lieux de mémoire européens, Europeanisation of memory, emblematic figures, European myth and mythologies, construction of identity. 

(Working language: English, French)

Research in this domain is focused on the relationship between democracy, national political cultures and current discourses of Europeanisation vs Euroscepticism, populism and new nationalisms. Political science and sociological approaches may be applied here, and possible topics of research could include the analysis of extreme right-wing parties (on a national or European level), the resurgence of populism, Central and Eastern European ‘brand’ of illiberal democracy and the concept of democratic backsliding, amongst others.

EU3D’s main objective is to develop a critical theory of political differentiation that specifies the conditions under which differentiation is politically acceptable, institutionally sustainable and democratically legitimate, and the conditions under which it is not, i.e. when conditions of dominance prevail.

This practical political, institutional and intellectual (theoretical and philosophical) challenge pertains to how the EU manages to work out the relationship between the three Ds in EU3D: differentiation, democracy and dominance. Some forms of differentiation sustain democracy; other forms of differentiation foster dominance. The latter forms are not acceptable to those affected and thus not conducive to sustainable governance. EU3D systematically examines the question of how and in what sense certain forms of differentiation cause dominance and, in addition, in developing a program of action that spells out how and in what sense the EU can avoid those forms of differentiation that engender dominance.

The student researcher could focus his/her tasks on particular issues, such as the refugee crisis or Eurozone crisis, and how these have engendered differentiated integration (and forms of dominance) in the European context (study of parliamentary debates, civil society actors, claims, frames, etc). Tasks would include database collection and analysis.