This book documents the unequal distribution and diverse forms of transnationalism among Europeans of different ages, gender, ethnicity, social classes and countries. Covering six countries (Germany, the UK, Denmark, Spain, Italy and Romania), the book will show that after more than fifty years of “ever closer union” the European Union in 2016 appears to be disintegrating due to the lack of will to unify the continent around a common political project.
It looks at the ways in which ordinary national citizens of Europe have been getting closer to each other across national frontiers: in terms of their everyday experiences of foreign countries – work, travel, personal networks – but also their knowledge, consumption of foreign products, and attitudes towards foreign culture. These evolving European dimensions to their lives, of course, are nested in increasing global dimensions to everyday life; but they have been clearly enabled by the EU-backed legal opening to cross-border economic and cultural transactions, while also differing according to national contexts.
