Hybridisation in EU academic discourse: the representation of EU social actor(s)

The aim of this study is to investigate the academic discourse operationalised by the European Union (EU) as a supranational institution through the hybridisation of discourses (academic, institutional and promotional). An ad hoc corpus has been built as a collection of Erasmus brochures published in a time-span from 2007 to 2010. Such texts, which are meant to popularise the Erasmus programme on the Web, have been examined with particular reference to the social dimension in the EU academic programme. A quantitative-qualitative analysis has been carried out with a special focus on students as EU social actors and the construction of social inclusion, as a gateway to European identity, through building consensus grounded in students??? involvement and participation in the academic actions promoted by the supranational institution. The analysis has revealed the role of hybridisation towards legitimation, self-promotion and self-representation of the supranational institution which is made possible because students as EU social actors feel at one with the EU on its actions and values. The analysis is carried out along the following path: analysis of the social dimension and of hybridisation in the EU academic programme in relation to issues of legitimation and self-promotion.