Civic education as a buffer against discursive shaming in the European Union

Abstract

Contemporary narratives about the European Union are increasingly shaped by moralizing discourses that operate through practices of public judgment, comparison, and symbolic sanctioning. Framed as a form of shaming, these discourses act as an additional stress factor for European democratic resilience, transforming the way the EU is represented and evaluated in the public sphere. Rather than fostering constructive accountability, moralizing narratives often shift attention from institutional performance to moral hierarchies, reconfiguring European identity along an unstable axis oscillating between pride and self-doubt, honor and shame. This paper argues that such discursive pressures not only challenge the legitimacy of the European Union but also test its capacity to sustain a coherent and confident democratic self-understanding. In this context, civic education emerges as a crucial mediating mechanism, capable of reframing moralizing discourse from a source of delegitimation into an opportunity for critical reflection and democratic learning. By equipping citizens with interpretative tools to navigate normative judgment and symbolic pressure, civic education can strengthen democratic resilience rather than undermine it. Drawing on discourse analysis of selected contemporary narratives about the EU, the paper examines how shaming reshapes identity, legitimacy, and democratic resilience, while highlighting the pivotal role of civic education in moderating these effects within the European public sphere.