The third morning of my trip into the Brussels bubble has begun; it is a little grey but still not less promising than the days before. What should I say, now that the first half of my time here in …
The local conversation model
We are sharing our daily life experiences on social media, brands are fishing for our ‘likes’ and people are having conversations in what McLuhan calls the global village. Politicians and (EU) political institutions are also starting to understand the importance of …
EU talking only to ‘Brussels Bubble’ inhabitants, not citizens
Internally-oriented communication initiatives and an overreliance on technical jargon prevent citizens from having a real conversation with the EU. In the midst of the European Union’s on-going struggle to communicate its message and plug an ever growing democratic gap, a …
The illusion of the EU bubble and the discovery of the EU foam
The EU bubble is a self-created illusion, and those who remain in this bubble simply fail to acknowledge that this bubble has actually become part of a foam over the last years. There are many bubbles in which European topics …
Far-right group in European Parliament no longer possible – but likely
Over the past few months I have been evaluating the rise of far-right political parties across Europe and their potential impact upon the post-2014 European Parliament. To form a political group in the European Parliament – a mechanism that unlocks …
Brussels: a city of VIPs?
I’m not quite sure how I came to be reading the latest annual activity report of the Brussels Ixelles police force (Ixelles is a commune of Brussels, near the centre). However I did come across some interesting statistics. The report lists the …
How information circulates in the EU bubble
I liked Julien Frisch’s qualification of the EU bubble as “the informality sphere” in his blog posts in four parts on the Brussels bubble (see here for part 2 specifically relating to this concept). But the concept of “informality” only reflects part …
Europe’s rise or fall as a technological superpower
It is part of mankind’s drive for knowledge to delve into the unknown, explore the undiscovered, dream up the uninvented. The founding fathers of Europe paved the way for the Industrial Revolution, and the scientific discoveries that allowed our …
The eu Bubble
The media’s reporting of the European Union is usually very factual and informative, which is good but at the same time lacks personal touch. This might be because there’s no single charismatic leader behind the union. According to some genius academic, …