Idea Transcript
Princeton-Sciences Po Strategic Partnership Summer 2016 Fellowship Program: “Europeanization vs. Globalization: The Euro Crisis and the Changing Politics of Economic Interdependence in Europe” (EUROGLOB)
What do we talk about when we talk about the EU? A topic modelling approach to Portuguese and Spanish newspapers during the crisis
Tiago Moreira Ramalho Sciences Po, Centre d’Etudes Européennes
1. Introduction The question of what the European Union represents to its citizens is a crucial component in the longstanding debates regarding its political deepening and its legitimation. Such questioning gains extraordinary relevance in a moment of still deep crisis, of prolific institutional innovation, and certainly in a moment of remarkable distrust and even extreme dissent, such as in the case of the British referendum decision to leave the Union. Attempting at making a contribution to a more comprehensive understanding of the webs of meaning that are associated with the European integration project, but also at shedding some light on countries that are usually not as covered by the literature or at least not as targeted in broader analyses, this paper asks a rather simple question: what do we talk about when we talk about the EU in Portuguese and Spanish newspapers? The two countries under study went (and to an extent still are going) through dramatic economic crises that, at least to some degree had roots in the functioning of European institutions, namely the European Monetary Union. It is thus no wonder that attitudes towards the EU in these countries have turned negative in the course of recent years. Even if the degree of comparison is limited, for the formulation of the question in the Eurobarometer was changed 1, in 2008 the percentages of people saying that the EU was a good thing were of 50% in Portugal and of 65% in Spain, whereas in 2015 these percentages came down to 42% and 34%, respectively. Against this backdrop, it is important to understand what people have in mind when they talk about the EU, for the EU, as most political entities, is not one thing or institution, but rather a complex network of agents and institutions with starkly different roles and possibilities for intervention. Certainly, when answering this sort of question about a general attitude, the
1
The question changed from “Generally speaking, do you think that (OUR COUNTRY)’s membership of the European Union is… [a good thing; a bad thing; neither good nor bad; don’t know]?” (Standard Eurobarometer 69, Spring 2008) to “In general, does the EU conjure up for you a very positive, fairly positive, neutral, fairly negative or very negative image” (Standard Eurobarometer 83, Spring 2015).
interviewed will probably make a general assessment. They will think of the Union as a whole. Yet, that “whole”, to use a possibly tired metaphor, is a black box. One that is particularly interesting to open. The article will follow a rather standard structure, with a section on methodology followed by the presentation of the main results and then by a section gathering some concluding remarks. At the end, it will be possible to find an appendix with the detailed coded models used to carry out the topic modelling approach. The , labeltype = "frex", xlim =c(0, .5), n=12) # plot results either with high frequency words (default option) or distinctive words (labeltype=”frex”) # mod.out.gs.corr = topicCorr(result) plot.topicCorr(mod.out.gs.corr)
# plot spatial correlation #
41 Princeton-Sciences Po Strategic Partnership Summer 2016 Fellowship Program