This paper develops from a series of studies conducted in the last years which have considered the construction of the European identity and of the European public space. The assumptions of the social constructivist approach to the study of the European integration process, which has recently led the research in this field, will constitute the theoretical background to be discussed in the first part of this paper. The main argument is that the EU is selfrepresenting itself and its own identity referring explicitly to concepts such as the public sphere and the European citizenship, and to a broad set of policies in areas such as information and communication, culture, education etc. Particularly, the aim is to show how the definition of the EU's identity given by the European Commission has changed depending this on the different contexts faced by the integration process and by the functionality of the concept of identity in order to integrate more and better the European citizens. In the paper it will be argued that from a concept of identity based on imagined elements, as it emerged in the 1980s, the EU's has recently proposed a definition of EU's identity based on civic features and strictly linked to a wider concept of democracy.

Gezi Park represents a unique example of a mobilization process focused on the right to public space and democracy in Turkey, where forms of bottom up active citizenship have emerged in order to bring forward demands for environmental and social justice. This paper is focused on the role of social media in triggering the protests and in establishing these two central frames. By conducting a discourse analysis of social media content, we provide an overview of the principal narratives that emerged during the days of the Gezi movement. Our article is centrally focused on the adoption of a connective action framework. We argue that social media in occupygezi played the role of mobilizing agent that brought together a heterogeneous mix of participants and offered the chance to personalize the individual grievances that were expressed and promoted by the participants.

This article looks at current policies concerning the civic and political participation of youths, women, migrants and minorities in the European

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<p>This thematic issue brings together ten articles from political psychology, political sociology, philosophy, history, public policy, media studies, and electoral studies, which examine reactionary politics and resentful affect in populist times.</p>