Berlin and London head teachers' attachment to country and Europe: Beyond apparent cross-national differences Pöllmann, Andreas Comparisons of British and German public opinion show marked cross-national differences in levels of attachment to country and Europe. The respective trends are empirically well-documented and can be framed in plausible socio-historical explanations. Based on a mail survey administered to all Berlin and London state secondary school head teachers, my research offers an alternative view on apparent cross-national cleavages in levels of attachment to Britain/Germany and Europe. Looking beyond one-dimensional comparisons and macro-level explanations, my statistical analyses reveal a number of striking cross-national similarities. Conceptually, my research draws on Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and cultural capital. Within this framework, I regard people’s attachments to country and Europe as learned and habituated, yet open to modification and reconstruction through reflexive agency, educational practices, and the acquisition of intercultural capital. I operationalise the latter as a combination of language skills, experience of living abroad, and intercultural friendships. My statistical analyses demonstrate that if respondents share intercultural experiences and skills as well as notions of the respective object of attachment, they are likely to report similar levels of attachment to country and Europe – irrespective of their national background. Further cross-national similarities include the perceived salience of Europe’s cultural history, positive evaluations of EU policies in the area of human rights and minority protection, and positive associations between levels of attachment to country and levels of attachment to Europe. The respective findings illustrate how cleavages between ‘us’ and ‘them’ often turn out to be less clear-cut than they may appear at first glance. As I argue throughout, teachers and school managers can play an important part in furthering reflexive engagement with easily taken for granted and stereotyped notions of the ‘Other’. Department of Sociology, University of Essex 2008 info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis doc-type:doctoralThesis text http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_46ec https://ris.uni-paderborn.de/record/66835 Pöllmann A. <i>Berlin and London Head Teachers’ Attachment to Country and Europe: Beyond Apparent Cross-National Differences</i>. Department of Sociology, University of Essex; 2008. eng info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess