ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the analytical framework of ‘discursive Europeanization’ in a vertical and horizontal dimension. Discursive Europeanization is not only about compliance of national actors with EU ‘scripts’ but also the ongoing process of negotiating values and norms. National actors involved in headscarf debates overwhelmingly refrain from making references to values attributed to Europe or from quotations of European documents. The chapter deals with situating headscarf debates in struggles over shared values and norms in European countries. ‘Discursive Europeanization’ will be conceptualized as a double-sided communication, negotiation and diffusion of values and norms including a vertical dimension, namely a top-down and bottom-up perspective, and a horizontal dimension. In our framework, vertical discursive Europeanization relates to shared frames between the European level and nation state levels. The chapter concludes the findings with reference to processes of discursive Europeanization and/or national fragmentation.
