Empirical Measurement of Identity Change

Empirical Measurement of Identity Change Relations with the EU institutions and associated identity change of states at elite and mass level attract the attention of Europeanization and European Integration researchers. Scholars analyzing identity and identity change face several challenges. It is not an easy task detecting and measuring identity change, since it is not something that can be readily observed like behavior. This paper offers methodological strategies for measuring identity change in course of relations with the EU institutions. Based on the empirical findings of the doctoral dissertation, entitled “Socialization or Estrangement? Interactions of States with International Institutions and Associated Identity Change” the paper suggests applying discourse analysis for tracing the shift in identity which offers an ideal way to deal with the high level of abstraction. It illustrates that textual discourse analyses of political party discourses, as they appear in the daily newspapers, provide the opportunity to show the interplay between mass and elite level and to achieve meaningful and unbiased research results in measuring identity change.