Danubius International Conferences, 6th International Conference on European Integration - Realities and Perspectives
Visions of Europe at the eastern and western border of EU. A comparison between Romanian and Portugese students.
##manager.scheduler.building##: A Hall
##manager.scheduler.room##: A 36
Date: 2011-05-13 03:30 PM – 05:00 PM
Last modified: 2011-05-10
Abstract
The present presentation is inserted in the problematic of perception of the European space in the world, not only as a physic entity but also as an economical and socio-cultural one, according to the vision of the graduated students in Portugal and in Romania. The study is also intended to validate how the experiences of life and the socioeconomic status of this population determine its vision of a territory. The study is based on a survey done on 919 students from 5 cities in Romania and Portugal. The analyses demonstrate that the different perceptions and the spatial feeling of belonging of students from two peripheries of the European Union have a close relation with gender, language, nationality, domain of study, etc. Different discourses about Europe are also revealed by the study, in relation with these variables. As a general conclusion, we can deduct that in both countries there is in fact a rather mental border of Europe than a physical one, associated to the concept of European Union and to the identity feeling of belonging to that community.
