Dear Colleagues,

I am happy to welcome you at the Prague Summer School on “Europe Union: Interests versus Culture” (EUIC)!

The idea of launching the Summer School stemmed from the observation that the vital processes of the symbolic construction of the European polity are sadly underrepresented in didactic practices.

Many of us encounter symbols and myths of Europe on a daily basis, be it through the press article on the migrants’ “waves”, EuroNews TV channel, European museums or European Football Championship. Not many know, however, that social anthropologists, linguists and ethnographers, political scientists and sociologists have conducted a number of studies aimed at examining and explaining these phenomena and demonstrating what consequences they have for the European public sphere, politics, identities as well as the daily lives of the Europeans.

The idea of the Summer School is to offer students a variety of perspectives on symbolic and discursive construction of European political and social processes as well as European identities. These perspectives will allow students to gain cultural sensitivity and reflexivity, which no doubt are crucially important for successfully functioning in contemporary knowledge economies as well as global civil society.

The idea of the Summer School is also to allow young people from Europe and the world to meet and discuss the cultural aspects of EU policy making and to enrich each others’ understanding of these processes by introducing varying perspectives. The free time spent together while the School lasts will be as important as classes.

I wish you to enjoy you stay in a wonderful city of Prague and am sure it will be an enjoyable and rewarding academic and personal experience!

Kind regards,

Anna Horolets, PhD

Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities

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