CIAO DATE: 04/2008
Volume: 2, Issue: 1
January 2006
Preface (PDF)
Reframing Identities: Some Theoretical Remarks on 'European Identity' Building (PDF)
Michaela Ferencová
In the recent years, the issue of ‘European identity’ has been repeatedly brought to the fore. In the emerging discussions, it’s mostly the existence of a common ‘identity’ on the European level that has been questioned as well as the ‘European character’ of certain candidates for the EU membership (i.e. Turkey). My aim here is not to contribute to further development of these discussions. It is rather to point to the requirement for a fundamental shift in the formulation of key questions addressing ‘European issues’, whether designed to guide scientific studies or to solve practical problems. In what follows, I make some theoretical remarks on the ‘identity’ research in the context of ‘European identity’ building. I suggest that the issue should be approached from two principal points of view: as a set of institutional practices on the one hand, and as a cognitive process of classification on the other hand. My theoretical consideration will result in an outline of alternative questions on ‘European identity’.
I argue that ‘European identity’ is neither a real entity waiting to be explored, nor a feature firmly attached to individuals, but a concept. Consequently, I consider the question of its existence no longer relevant. I also point to the chiefly intuitive application of the concept of ‘identity’, not only in public or political discourse, but also in scholarly writing. Following Brubaker’s and Cooper’s1 critical account of this concept, I propose that the relevance of the term as an analytical tool in social sciences should be reconsidered. Accordingly, more appropriate elementary analytical units should be identified, which should result in the required reformulation of theoretical as well as practical questions.
Thomas Brendel
There can be no doubt that a profound and purposeful debate on European identity requires considering the history of Europe in general and that of European thinking in particular. For, every facet of European identity is based on either specific or common historical experience. Besides, the historical background helps the scientists to illustrate and to specify the many facets of European identity and provides them with important contextual information on this subject. Thus, for example, the fear of some Western European citizens of balkanisation of the continent can only be understood and analysed as a specific aspect of European identity by taking in consideration the historical background of such a stereotype.
European Integration and European Identity: Towards a Politics of Differences? (PDF)
Georg Kamphausen
The concepts of European identity are manifold and span from historical and political to cultural criteria.
The question of the European identity constantly surfaces in debates about European integration. Locating such an identity is supposed to lend legitimacy to the project of a unified Europe with a viable “demos” or people who feel that they share a common European citizenship. A slightly different set of questions is: what kind of identity is already being built in public European spheres? How does this identity work in relation to other identities, national or other? Most importantly, what kind of an identity can Europe really afford? With the growing impact of EU legislation on every aspect of national economic life, and the threat it poses to particular national institutional arrangements for the fiscal and monetary policy, the welfare state and even foreign policy, it has become clear that the EU can no longer be viewed as an instrument of national governments, but, instead, has become a governing body in need of legitimacy. It is obvious that I will not be able to address all these questions. Instead, I will focus on some more programmatic reflections of our topic.
Changing Identities in the European Enlargement Process (PDF)
Silvia Miháliková
The paper refers to the preliminary outcomes of the EC 5th FP project CULTPAT (Cultural Patterns of the European Enlargement Process). The overarching objective of the research was defined as an attempt to reconstruct those cultural patterns that, in the new political surroundings, frame the European enlargement process and thus influence the redefinition of the EU as well. The EU enlargement process intensifies the redefinition of national and regional identities as well as of European identities from the perspective of both the European institutions and the countries involved.
European Identity 2006 (PDF)
Sylvia Tiryaki
A lot has been written about the concept of identity as a perception of self in relation to the others. A lot has been said and written about the European identity and a lot has been discussed about Turkey being a factor in the European identity crisis. However, not much has been articulated, yet. What has been avoided are usually the inconvenient facts which don’t correspond with the anti-enlargement mood of the European public yet further enhanced by the vote-seeking politicians. These facts reveal that a homogeneous society of Europe is a chimera and that the European culture is a sterile category born and locked within the present EU borders.
European Identity and the Christian Heritage (PDF)
Peter Nitschke
A European identity does not yet exist. What exists are multiple approaches to what Europe should or could be. In this respect, most contemporaries obviously have a geographic shape in mind which, however, does not have a clearly defined boundary in the East. When, at the beginning of the 8th century, Islamic holy warriors crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and conquered the south of present Portugal, they called this region Al Gharb, the west. Anyone who has ever stood at Europe’s south-westernmost point at the Atlantic Ocean at Cabo de Săo Vicente knows why: nothing but water as far as the eye can see – to the West, the South and the North. Undoubtedly, this is the geographical end of Europe. On the contrary, Europe’s boundary to the East is vague. Where is it? – At the Ural Mountains, at the Bosporus – or even further in East Anatolia where the Turkish representatives in all seriousness want to locate the cradle of (European) civilization. Then one could also include the whole Caucasus area, including Chechnya.
The Turk as a Threat and Europe's "Other" (PDF)
Ingmar Karlsson
For most Europeans the words Turk and Turkey have negative connotations. A fear of Turks was impressed on western minds during the long period when the Turks governed a large part of Europe and seemed to threaten the existence of Christianity. The comment made in the autumn of 2004 by the then EU Commissioner, Bolkestein, in the discussion about whether or not Turkey should be given a negotiation date shows the persistence of this threat scenario. In the case of a yes, he warned, the victory over the Turks outside the gates of Vienna in 1683 would have been in vain. Instead, we would see the Turks rioting inside the gates of Brussels.
Peter Colotka
Mária Cierna
Miroslav Mojžiš
Jelena Stojsavljevic