EUROPE IN MIND: SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF TURKEY-EUROPE RELATIONS IN CASE OF TURKISH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

In this article, social representations of Europe are studied in case of Turkish university students. The sample consists of 382 students from various departments of Faculty of Letters at Ege University. The students were asked to write a short text on what they think on Europe-Turkey relations and to order the first five things that the word “Europe” reminds them of. Additionally, participants fulfilled a questionnaire containing several sociodemographic questions and specified whether they have been to Europe or not. The texts written by students were subjected to content analysis, connotations were classified and the results were compared as to departments. The results indicate that Turkey’s relations with Europe for university students are independent from the historical development that it followed in the western context and objectivity of Turkey-EU relations and social representations of Europe have developed on ideological background more than geographical basis.