Imagined Geographies of European Identity

This paper looks at how different groups of Europeans imagine European geography, place, space, and territory, in relation to their identifications with regions, nations, and Europe. It is based on 95 mixed-mode interviews (qualitative, quantitative, visual) across various regions within Italy, Estonia, and the Netherlands. In particular, it examines the visual materials that were collected during these interviews, where interviewees were asked to draw cultural areas on a blank map of Europe. Drawing inspiration from Appadurai's five '-scapes', these imagined geographies are conceptualized as 'Euroscapes' that encompass identities, histories, and politics. The emphasis in the analysis is not only on how interviewees drew the European geographic space, but particularly on why. The analysis shows that a latent notion of 'Europeanness' underpins such categories, and examines further how these imaginations of geography shape people's politics, identities, and their attitudes towards Europe and the EU.