When the European Union (EU) was established in 1992 from the framework of the European Community, Europe became a geographical space where territory, membership and identity keep shifting, according to a Cornell University sociologist.

In a new book, Europe Without Borders: Remapping Territory, Citizenship, and Identity in a Transnational Age (Johns Hopkins Press), Cornell associate professor of sociology Mabel Berezin takes an interdisciplinary look at the challenges that the EU poses for European politics, culture and society. She and her co-editor, New York University professor Martin Schain (Cornell Ph.D. '71), focus on the subject with experts in sociology, political science, psychology and anthropology.

Contributors to the book address topics such as: how Europeans view themselves in relation to national identity, whether they identify themselves as citizens of a particular country or as members of a larger sociopolitical entity, how both natives and immigrants experience national and transnational identity at the local level, and the impact of globalization on national culture and the idea of the nation-state.

"The dissolution of national borders in Europe has contributed to a radical rethinking of such basic concepts as national sovereignty and citizenship," explains Berezin. "The essays in the book explore an emerging global phenomenon that will have profound political, social and economic consequences both in Europe and around the world."

Part I of the book focuses on the spatial and historical characteristics of Europe as a political community. Part II looks at the impact of the EU from a historical and policy-oriented perspective. Part III deals with how Europeans view the "new Europe," and Part IV looks at the tensions, complexities and opportunities emerging in new visions of Europe.