First, the paper provides theoretical reflections on the necessity to investigate the question of EU legitimacy from grassroots level. Following the qualitative turn in EU studies, it confirms the relevance of analyzing this macro question with a 'microscope' to address the normative debate relating to the foundations of the legitimization processes – based on inputs and/or outputs – towards the EU, especially in a time of crisis.
Second, this paper links this analytical framework to empirical research (focus groups) by analyzing the resonance of these reflections in the discourses of citizens who have been socialized in Brussels, the – wrongly or rightly – capital of the EU. Beyond national dissimilarities, this paper discusses the different images emerging from young people living in different neighborhoods of Brussels – proximate or distant from the European center. How is the experience of this geographical proximity integrated (or not) in their discourse? In so doing, this paper investigates among other things the potential influence of a specific experience of the EU – the fact of living in Brussels, close (or not) to the EU center – on the processes of legitimization towards it.
