New Publication by BIGSSS PhD fellow Stefan Wallaschek › view all

11.03.2019

"Framing Solidarity in the Euro Crisis: A Comparison of the German and Irish Media Discourse"


BIGSSS PhD fellow Stefan Wallaschek published a new article on "Framing Solidarity in the Euro Crisis: A Comparison of the German and Irish Media Discourse". The article was published in New Political Economy.

Access the article "Framing Solidarity in the Euro Crisis" through the journal's website.

 

Abstract

The article analyses the framing of solidarity in the Euro crisis discourse. Previous research has argued that the Euro crisis and the debtor–creditor constellation highlight the political conflict around solidarity in the EU. Based on a discursive institutionalist framework, the article investigates the different meanings of solidarity as well as the constellation of actors in Germany and Ireland from 2010 to 2015. Whilst Germany as the biggest creditor country is understood as a potential giver of solidarity, Ireland as a debtor country is conceptualised as a potential receiver of solidarity. The discourse network methodology is applied to study the relation of framing and actor presence. The findings show that the ideational structure of both discourses is different, but the actor constellation is rather similar. In particular, solidarity and austerity are linked in the German discourse, while the Irish discourse focuses predominantly on responsibility and solidarity, and less so on austerity. The actor constellation shows a dominance of German actors in both countries, highlighting the central position of Germany within the Eurozone. The article is the first study to analyse the construction of solidarity in the Euro crisis and contributes to the study of solidarity in hard times.