“European Natives,” Everyday Life, and the Digital Public Sphere. The Communication Dimension of European Integration

This chapter proposes a theoretical and conceptual reframing of the communication dimension of European integration. It focuses on the Z Generation, assuming that the EU and its institutions are largely taken for granted as part of their everyday practices. We identify young people as protagonists of a pragmatic Europeanism based on the fact that the European Union is constitutive of common sense and it is taken-for-granted. Young people are simultaneously European natives, post-democratic natives, and digital natives. They are socialized to a largely de-nationalized experience of everyday life, which finds a laboratory that is clearly defined and institutionally promoted in Europe. Our hypothesis is that the use of digital media can promote transnationalization through a virtual and imaginative dimension as well as a spatial dimension. We analyze some empirical evidence on the relationship between young Europeans and the EU and the differences observed with respect to previous generations. Finally, we reflect on the potential leading role of the new generations—digital natives and native Europeans in the development of an everyday digital European public sphere.