№ 3 - 2004
Petrov K.Ye.
The “Europe” Concept in Modern Political Discourse

The article presents an essay of creating an integrally coherent explanatory model of the functioning of the “Europe” concept (and of supporting discourses) in the policy of the European Union. By analyzing the metaphoric systems behind the concept, and the derivative category “European identity”, the author explains how a concrete denotatively geographical “term” that has accumulated centuries-old coatings of various meanings, can generate and legitimize modern policies. It is the constructionist paradigm of conceiving social knowledge, discourse analysis methods, and methodological workings by a number of contemporary philosophers, that were assumed as a basis of the research.