May 27, 2020
Objectives:
I. European Identity
This unit discusses the question of European identity, and how it can be constructed.
1. Introduction
The question of European identity is pervasive in contemporary European politics and culture. The erasure of the iron curtain, the opening up of “Eastern Europe,” the influx of migrants, the construction of a united Europe, and discourses defending “the West” against terrorism all have functioned to shake up the boundaries of Europe. As Europe’s political boundaries modulate, the economic and social structures of Europe are changing as is the meaning of Europe, i.e. that which Europe stands for. This unit addresses the construction of European identity from a multi-disciplinary perspective.
2. What is European Identity
For the sake of clarity, identity is a set of values that provide symbolic meaning to people’s life by enhancing their individuation (or self-definition) and their feeling of belonging. Of course people may have various identities, according to different spheres of their existence: one can feel Portuguese, socialist, catholic, woman, and all these identities can overlap without major contradiction. Which one is dominant depends on the moment of life and on the realm of activity.
European identity would be the set of values that would provide shared meaning to most European citizens by making possible for them to feel that they belong to a distinctive European culture and institutional system that appeals to them as legitimate and worthwhile. Which could be the sources of such an identity? It is essential to know, first, what is not European identity. It is not a “civilization” based on religion, past history, or a set of supposedly superior “Western values”. European countries have spent centuries (and particularly the last one) killing each other, so the notion of a shared history has a sinister connotation. Religion (meaning Christianity) is an unthinkable source of identity once the Europeans have established the separation between the church and the state, and in the historical moment when non-Christian religions (e.g. Islam) are growing fast in the European Union, both among ethnic minorities, and in future member countries (Turkey). Language, one of the most important sources of cultural identity, is excluded as a common source of European identity, although a certain approach to language is essential in constructing identity. National identity as European identity is also impossible, by definition.
3. Questions of method: Building identity by making society
Who are the actors of the identity construction process? In the current state of affairs they are mainly the European national governments, acting through the council of ministers of the European Union. The Commission can only be a relatively autonomous manager of shared political decision making. Any attempt to make the Commission the center of power and sponsor of new identity will ultimately provoke the revolt of national and local identities, thus jeopardizing the European Union. The European Union is not, and will not be, a classical federal state. It is a new form of state. And in this new form of state the connection to societies rests on the various nodes that assume direct political representation. The construction of European identity, if it ever happens, will be the fact of European societies, under the strategic impulse of the Council of Ministers, reflecting a common project shared across the political spectrum by the countries participating in it. To say so is to say that there cannot be an agreement on the content of European identity. What could be the method of identity building in a shared consensus between countries and political forces throughout Europe?
Identity is built by sharing cultural and social practices throughout Europe, letting the outcome of this sharing emerge from the experience. In other words, we do not know what this European identity will be, but we could create the material possibilities for its emergence from society, then reinforcing and communicating emerging embryos with the help of European institutions.
The first, and most obvious, of such mechanisms is education. There must be introduced in all levels of the education system of every country, some common elements, including the history, and culture, and language of other countries in the programs of all schools. Hopefully larger proportions of teachers and students will spend periods of their school activity in other countries, along the lines pioneered by the Erasmus program for university students. Yet, a true interpenetration of education systems requires a serious effort, and a concerted policy of European countries in this direction. Equivalence of pedagogic systems and programs (which does not mean the uniformization of all programs, quite the contrary) will allow passages from one system to another, and will make possible to use the degrees obtained in one country in the entire European market, in real terms.
The second mechanism, still to be explored, is the widespread diffusion and use of Internet in the population at large. Internet is a privileged tool of communication and access to information. It is not just a technology, it’s the economic, cultural, and political backbone of the information age. An Internet literacy campaign, aimed mainly at the adult population (the children will have it at school) would provide the communication bridge among Europeans, and would bring all societies on the same technological level.
The third mechanism is a pan-European linguistic policy, aiming at the cross-cultural diffusion of all languages in all countries, through the education system at all levels, via Internet, by cultural programs etc.
Fourth, Europe needs a pan-European media policy. The coming of multimedia may be dominated by Hollywood and San Francisco and New York multimedia designers. The European reaction is nationalistic, defensive, and ultimately doomed in a market economy. Europe should not subsidize private groups just because they are European, but European governments should allow their merger and strengthening, or they will not be competitive. A Pan-European media system, both public and private, will be the corner stone of an emergent European culture.
II. European Identity: Definitions, categories
III. European Identity as a multilevel construct: Which factors influence support for the European Union and European Identity, presented by Saskia Buggert and Katrin Preller
