European Years – A Discursive Solution to the EU’s Crisis of Representation

This paper outlines a shift from a centered visibility focused on the images of EU high officials towards a peripheral visibility focused on an awareness of different European issues. The analysis provided to this shift from a centre to some margins (European citizens) will include three European Years: 2010 – combating poverty and social exclusion, 2011 – volunteering, 2012 – active aging and solidarity between generations. Following Thurlow and Aiello’s strands of discursive interpretation, I will analyze the official posters of the three European Years on three levels: a) the descriptive micro-level: the quantitative analysis of the social participants; b) the interpretative micro-level: the qualitative analysis of the processes that the European social actors are visually involved in; c) the critical macro-level: a qualitative analysis of the power relations established through the European Years’ issues.