European Identity National Identities

1
European Identity / National Identities

• Lecture Series
• European Studies
• Autumn 2007
• Markku Jokisipilä

2
The Lecture Series

• basic practicalities
• 4 ECTS, 24 hours
• Mondays 14-16
• no lectures on 17.9. (opening session), 1.10.,
  5.11.
• exams on 10. and 17.12.
• overall aim is to answer the question "Is
  European Identity possible?"
• politics, history, sociology, IR, social
  psychology, geography...

• complex and multifaceted question
• no definitive answers
• many possible angles
• controversial issues
• interaction of theory and practice
• first time lecture series
• experimental and tentative nature
• comments and suggestions welcome
• PP-slides made available

3
The Core Questions

• rise of a new kind of non-national identity
• post-Cold war and globalisation era predictions
• new world order
• end of history and ideological struggle
• weakening of nation states
• cosmopolitan perspectives

• crisis of national identity?
• postmodernism and fragmented realities
• interconnectedness on global scale, new
  mobilities
• IT-revolution, spatial and temporal shrinking
• new virtual platforms and non-territorial
  affiliations
• institutionalization of European integration

4
European Identity why ?

• further integration necessitates stronger common
  identity
• democracy deficit
• no sacrifice without legitimacy
• institutional vs. mental integration
• lacking sense of "Europeanness"
• preventive and restrictive nature of national
  identities

• we the Europeans
• mere economic integration is not enough
• stronger legitimacy of EU through identification
• defining the meaning and boundaries of Europe
• resisting potentially aggressive and dangerous
  nationalisms
• strengthening the global position of Europe

5
Meanings of Europeanness?

• 'unity in diversity'
• mild common identity
• Europe as 'a family of nations'
• mutual recognition of national special
  characteristics
• common European traits in philosophy, politics,
  culture, science, religion
• criticisms too vague and fuzzy, too
  Euro-nationalistic

• constitutional patriotism
• roots in Habermas's postnationalism and
  discursive democracy
• universal principles of human rights, democracy,
  rule of law
• culture and religion as private matters
• people united by same political and civic values
• critics too abstract, imposes values

6
What is identity anyway?

• ambiguous and often fuzzy concept with no
  clear-cut definition
• no objective existence
• self-undertanding rooted in society with
  collective and individual components
• anchor to the world who we are, who are the
  others

• relatively stable, change slowly
• individual can have many overlapping and
  concentric, even contradictory identities
• situational sensitiveness
• nested identities
• identities with exclusive claims compete and
  conflict with each other

7
Traits of identity

• interpreted sameness with local and temporal
  dimensions
• differentiation and continuity
• centrality of existence of 'the Other' as a point
  of comparison, adversary, often also enemy
• fear of outside threat towards one's culture and
  national existence

• identities do not exist independently, they have
  to be constructed and invented
• imperatives of internal cohesion and
  harmonization
• significance of shared symbols and idea of a
  common past
• rejection of the Other as a unifying force

8
Problems with history

• common and shared European history?
• strong and resilient national myths, symbols and
  memories
• traditionally strong grip of nationalism in
  Europe
• historical burdens and lines of division
• lack of all-European historical points of
  identification

• efforts of creating European nationalism
• flag, anniversary, common currency, passport
• common European memory?
• without experience of shared past Europeanness
  lacks historical depth and emotional power
• future of nationalism?

9
Whose Europe?

• European identity as an elitist project
• rhetorical emptiness of Europeanness
• Europe as a gigantic capitalist market area
• democratic Unites States of Europe vs. Europe
  Inc.
• colonialism of Western European values?
• ethnic overtones, fortress Europe

• who is included, who is excluded?
• Eastern Europe
• national minorities
• Turkey
• genuine universalism or political tactics?
• who defines 'European' values?
• risk of (Western) European self-righteousness

10
Problems with European narrative

• inbuilt vision of inevitable progress towards
  European Union
• teleological and deterministic view of constant
  progress is in contradiction with history
• dominant 'story of Europe' is a classical case of
  winners' history
• selective and purpose-oriented interpretation of
  the past as legitimator

• European past as death and destruction
• world wars
• communism, fascism and national socialism
• imperialism and colonialism
• definition of Europe
• scope, boundaries, nature, identity, internal
  tensions, relationship with the rest of the world

11
Collective Identity

• from individual to national identity
• many foundations of national identity
• ethnicity
• language
• geographical territory
• administrative system
• sense of togetherness
• shared convictions
• common history and culture

• identity implies the existence of an entity, real
  or imagined
• form of active self-recognition through symbols,
  language, myths, narratives etc.
• shared belief of belonging to a same whole more
  important than resemblance and kinship

12
Imagined Communities

• term coined by Benedict Anderson
• imagined vs. actual, face-to-face communities
• "nation is an imagined political community that
  is imagined as both inherently limited and
  sovereign"
• mental affinity within a group of people

• "the members of even the smallest nation will
  never know most of their fellow-members, meet
  them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of
  each lives the image of their communion"
• role of declining legitimacy of religion and the
  advent of print capitalism

13
Invented Traditions

• term by Eric Hobsbawm
• ritual or symbolic practices promoting certain
  values and norms
• fictitious continuity with the past achieved
  through repetition
• selective use of suitable elements of the past
• strategic tools in dealing with present situations

• three functional varieties
• establishment of social cohesion and collective
  identity
• legitimising institutions, social hierarchies and
  power
• socialising individuals into particular social
  contexts
• oriented towards present (cohesion) and future
  (legitimation)

14
History and Identity

• history tells us who we are, where we came from,
  also where we should be going
• historical identity has both individual and
  collective elements
• searching the roots of today from the past is an
  ancient human practice
• history as explainer and a giver of meaning

• history provides shared materials for individuals
  to construct and narrate stories about identity
• although history deals with the past, it is
  always written and consumed in the present
• history as an identity political resource search
  for the Golden Age and heroes

15
History and National Identity

• nation is an abstract, an artifact that needs to
  be defined
• history is central in constructing national
  identities
• history creates legitimacy by depicting the
  origins, development, special characteristics and
  destiny of a nation

• history defines nations place in the world, its
  friends and enemies, its successes and failings
  and gives it a strategy of survival and
  prosperity
• how to integrate mistakes, even crimes into the
  national story?
• Europeanization of national histories?

16
Collective Memory
In the previous episode Good vs. Bad Europe,
possible other interpretations...

• term by philosopher Maurice Halbwachs
• one of the most influential trends in recent
  social sciences and humanities
• collective vs. individual memory
• the perceived ability of a community to have
  shared memories
• cultural memory bank

• memories carried, passed on and constructed by a
  group, society or culture
• socialization and customs provide the individual
  with a set of conceptions of the past that are
  not personal
• manifestations individual thinking, museums,
  monuments, curricula, rituals of remembering,
  rhetorics

17
Symbolic Struggles

• collective identity and memory are contested
  representations of community
• symbolic struggle over power of inclusion and
  exclusion
• us/them, members/non-members, winners/losers,
  victims/perpetrators
• collective identity sharing a past that others
  cannot

• CI and CM are not constant and fixed but
  snapshots of permanent social struggles
• memories are malleable they can shrink, extend,
  disappear and be invented
• control of memories is about symbolic power
  making one narrative of the past obligatory for
  all members of community

18
Possibility of Collective European Memory?

• controversiality of European memory
• national lines of division
• different experiences, e.g. Holocaust, WW I II,
  Cold war, globalization
• responsibility for the dark sides of history?
• lasting power of national identities and
  traditions
• still primary frame of reference for people

• lack of necessary symbolic power
• EU does not have the tools of nation-states to
  impose its version of the past
• incentives for European history?
• diversity within Europe
• are there any basis for a strong collective
  European identity?

19
Constructing European Memory

• Bernhard Giesen's three ways of assimilating
  memories into a collective identity primordial,
  traditional and reflexive
• primordial mode of European identity construction
  relies on mythology and "Greek excellence"
• elitist, superficial and imperialist project

• traditional mode constructs triumphant histories
  of heroic Europe
• proudness of Europe's cultural contribution,
  social model and integration
• based on systematic distortion and selective
  retelling of the past
• effort to duplicate nation-state model on
  European level

20
Trying to have it all in the same story

• reflexive approach to European history
  incorporates both positive and negative elements
• integrating and learning from different memories
  of perpetrators and victims
• culture of guilt, mercy and forgiveness as the
  common ground for reconstructing memory
• bridging the gaps between former enemies

• highlighting the fates of collective victims of
  Europe
• engaging diverging memories (Eastern vs. Western,
  Northern vs. Southern Europe)
• requires European public sphere as an arena for
  reflexive communication
• potential starting point for strong European
  identity

21
20th Century as a European tragedy

• two world wars with 80 million deaths
• age of totalitarian ideologies, democracy was not
  the norm until after the Cold war
• technological and scientific revolutions coupled
  with unforeseen levels of violence, hatred and
  destruction

• 1914-1991 as a civil war of ideologies with
  Europe as the epicenter
• legacies of colonialism
• European history still has a lot of deliberate
  silence and unfinished business many uneasy
  ideological, cultural, political, economic and
  social fault lines despite the EU

22
Defining Europe Mission Impossible?

• Europe is a multilevel phenomenon
• history, culture, politics, ethnicity, geography,
  demographics
• Atlantic Ocean to the West, Arctic Sea to the
  North, Mediterranean Sea to the South
• Eastern border of Europe?
• geographical, political and cultural boundaries

• 40 states in total, European Commission
  definition of 34, membership of EU 25
• Russia, Turkey, Israel, Kazakhstan...
• besides states also regions, stateless people,
  supranational organs (EU, NATO, OSCE...)
• Europe is more than a list of constituent units

23
Who are the Europeans?

• again, contested issue
• CIs have core groups, who define the criteria of
  belonging
• Europeans can be
• those accepted by core group
• those considered by others to be so
• those considering themselves to be so
• criteria might be different for 1, 2 3

• three-layered definition of Klaus Eder
• EU passport holders as the core group
• not-yet Europeans
• potential Europeans
• Europeanness as a interactive collective learning
  process
• "We" as political community of free and equal
  people democratic Europe

24
Historical legitimation of Europe

• shared heritage of positive European values
• Greek philosophy
• Christian love
• Roman justice
• civilization based on science and technology
• Enlightenment notions of liberty, equality and
  fraternity
• Faustic curiosity, expanding one's horizons

• today's favourable situation
• renouncement of violence as a conflict-solving
  mechanism
• ceasing of ideological struggle, end of
  totalitarianism
• triumph of liberal democracy
• European social model
• Europe as a source of culture

25
Potential Foundations for European Identity

• civic vs. ethnic nationalism, adherence to
  democratic institutions and practices
• Europeanness as democratic problem-solving
• possible targets for identification
• liberal democratic governments and
  constitutionalization of basic liberties

• European institutions and practices
• rights guaranteed by European Court of Justice
• economic achievements of the European Union
• especially in comparison to the US,
  problem-solving through deliberation
• peace and tolerance
• does this amount to a genuine identity?

26
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29
Civic nationalism

• a.k.a civil nationalism
• political legitimacy based on citizen
  participation
• state as a embodiment of the will of the people
• from Rousseau and theories of social contract
• "a community of equal, rights-bearing citizens,
  united in patriotic attachment to a shared set of
  political practices and values"

• membership in civic nation voluntary
• part of liberal tradition
• significant in the development of representative
  democracy
• contrast between 'good' civic nationalism and
  'bad' ethnic one
• from national to rational belonging
• from legacy to choice

30
Ethnic nationalism

• 'nation' defined by ethnicity
• membership based on kinship and descent
• shared culture and history, often also language
• based on the idea of the right to
  self-determination of each ethnic group
• a.k.a ethnocentric or tribalist nationalism

• exclusive form of nationalism with strict
  boundaries between members and non-members
• political legitimacy derives from offering a
  homeland as a place of shared culture
• links to extremism, racism and violence

31
Constitutional patriotism

• by German philosopher Jürgen Habermas
• integral to theories of post-nationalsim
• citizenship based on voluntarily accepted shared
  values
• rejection of common history and ethnic origin as
  basis of identity
• centrality of liberal democratic practices

• attachment to universal moral principles
  crystallized in constitution
• "universalist constitutional morality"
• seen as a possible anchor for European identity
• criticized for its abstract nature and hidden
  (West-German) particularism
• risk of the emergence of intolerant and militant
  democracy?

32
Habermas' theories of Europe

• Europe as a postnational constellation
• constitution as a way to overcome national
  divisions and to create a more viable democracy
• connection between law and democracy
• democratization rooted in communication and
  discursive practices
• importance of the public sphere

• emerging European polity defined by rights and
  citizenship, not nationality
• becomes of memories of war and division, European
  community of fate is impossible
• unity in attachment to higher principles of
  political order than nationality

33
Europe as a network society

• Manuel Castells horizontally connected Europe
  (Information Age)
• informational economies based on knowledge
• space replaced by flows (economic, cultural,
  political)
• European integration as a reaction to and
  expression of globalization

• vertical connections replaced by multidirectional
  flows
• networks connecting local and regional levels to
  global level
• diminishing importance of nation-states
• potential for more open and democratic social
  order

34
The Idea of Cosmopolitan Europe

• European Constitution 'cultural, religious and
  humanist inheritance of Europe', 'universal
  values of inviolable and inalienable rights of
  the human person, freedom, democracy, equality
  and the rule of Law'
• culture as dynamic and creative process ?
  European society creates itself

• Europeanized public spheres, Europe as a social
  reality (e.g. education)
• state-led vs. social Europeanization
• not restricted to EU
• European society is not a supra-state replacing
  nation-states
• multiple identities and complemetary attachments

35
European vs. national identity

• misunderstanding of Europeanization as a
  transnational expansion of nation-state
• necessity of a more complex understanding of the
  concept of identity
• abandonment of the paradigm of national identity
  as prerequisite for thinking about European
  identity

• does Europe even need a traditional collective
  identity?
• current battleground of European identity
• relation to national identities
• challenge of globalization
• emerging new identities
• shift towards identity mixes and hybrid identities

36
Different understandings of European Identity

• constitutional meaning
• Document of European Identity (1973)
• international, economic and cultural independence
  of EC/EU
• idea of Europe
• constituted from texts and rhetorics of
  intellectuals and politicians
• large body of literature

• cultural practices
• creation and maintenance of meanings of Europe
• myths, anniversaries and holidays, museums,
  heroes, flags etc.
• realm of inveted tradition
• level of individual identities
• personal attachments of people
• feeling European

37
Europe A Gesellschaft or a Gemeinschaft?

• EU far as an infrastructure of governance, not as
  a cognitive region
• European sense of belonging and cultural
  consciousness?
• Ferdinand Toennis' two ideal types of social
  organization
• "natural" idea of "one people" vs. social
  contract of independent individuals

• key question for EU is redistribution of wealth
  possible in a society?
• transfer of resources from rich to poor
  necessitates widespread grass-roots political
  support
• how much homogeneity, solidarity and shared
  experience is needed?
• possibility of non-national, polycentric and
  civic Europeanism

38
Primordial conception of national identity

• currently two opposing opinions, primordial
  (native, original) and ephemeral (short-term,
  provisional) conceptions
• primordial view people belong by nature to some
  ethnic community
• J.G. Herder "national feeling", "soul, heart and
  depth of people and nation"

• J.G. Fichte and aggressive nationalism "mankind
  is already divided into nations by nature, and
  the dissemination of nationalist doctrines
  resembles calls to prayer of the faithfuls"
• exclusive and divisive
• clear-cut criteria for and boundaries between
  'us' and the others
• Anthony D. Smith's theory of premodern nations

39
Ephemeral conception of national identity

• ephemeral view no 'natural' links that bind
  people
• identity is a product of rational individual
  choice
• national identity as a mere cultural artifact
• nation-state as modifiable social construct
• youngness of contemporary state system

• nationalism as ideological legitimation for
  territorial state power
• diminishing relevance of nation-states in the era
  of postmodern realities
• emergent forms of political organization above,
  beyond and under state system
• postindustrialism, global mass consumerism, new
  ICT undermining national identities

40
Civic vs. ethnic revisited

• primordial view on NI linked to ethnic
  nationalism
• inescapable communities bound by ethnic origin
  and birth, jus sanguinis (right of blood)
• allegiance based on ethnicity
• (often) hostile towards tolerance and inclusion
• ephemeral view and civic nationalism

• voluntary societies based on shared values and
  rules, cultural assimilation
• jus soli (right of soil), centrality of place of
  birth and living)
• allegiance towards state and institutions
• third alternative multicultural model, allowing
  cultural and ethnic differences

41
Anthony D. Smith and persistence of national
identities

• most renowned proponent of the enduring relevance
  of nation-states
• centrality of memory to identity
• no emergent global identity, no cosmopolitan
  culture
• religious sense national dignity and chosenness
• exclusiveness of identity as cognitive boundaries

• "Without shared memories and meanings, without
  common symblos and myths, without shrines and
  ceremonies and monuments, except the bitter
  reminders of recent holocausts and wars, who will
  feel European in the depth of their being, and
  who will willingly sacrifice themselves for so
  abstract an idea? In short, who will die for
  Europe?"

42
Smith and European Identity

• deeply ingrained and diverse historical
  identities in Europe
• members of political community have a pre-history
  of distinct shared experience
• no 'European' popular values, traditions and
  memory ? no 'European' future
• no European continuum of memory-situation-fate

• obscurity of 'Europe', 'European identity' and
  'European culture'
• mythical and ethnic foundation of nationalism
• genuine EI only possible through
  nation-state-like European memories, traditions,
  myths, symbols
• EI cannot compete with national values, ideals
  and traditions for a long time

43
Exclusive vs. multiple identities

• primordial view of exclusive/dominant singular
  national identity
• ephemeral view of overlapping, shifting and
  multiple identities
• identity theorists individuals can choose either
  exclusive or inclusive-multiple identities
• what affects these choices?

• public debate on EI has the in-built and unspoken
  assumption of the hierarchical superiority of
  primordial exclusive identity resulting in
  skepticism
• appreciation of diversity instead of
  primordiality
• allowing multiple identities
• new conceptual tools and rethinking of old models
  needed

44
Towards multi-layered identities

• individualization and globalization widening
  range of identity options
• postmodern turn multiplication and fragmentation
  of self
• experimental and playful identity projects
• questioning the coherence and continuity of
  personal identity as misleading and even dangerous

• fragility and ambivalance of identity
• multiplicity of referents always present (e.g.
  family, subculture, region, nation, sexual
  orientation)
• situational dependency
• processual identity ? continual balancing of
  conflicting and competing identity claims

45
Co-existence of national and European

• empirical studies conflicting attachments exist
  simultaneously
• European and national identity are not
  (necessarily) opposed
• multi-level identity with local, regional,
  national and global references
• situationally varying importance of different
  levels

• overcoming dangers of nationalism doesn't require
  abolishment of nation-state
• nation-states have not become obsolete because of
  integration
• integration as a rescuer and invigorator of
  nation-state
• stonger democracy through surrending sovereignty

46
Growing relevance of politics of difference

• societies more tightly linked, interconnected and
  multicultural than ever
• growing concern for identity and recognition of
  uniqueness and equality
• individuals, localities, nations, regions,
  groups, transnational communities etc. seek
  recognition of their particular and unique
  identity, of their difference

• does Europe allow diversity of identities or does
  it try to replace it?
• is identity-formation a zero-sum game or
  inclusive by nature?
• tension between politics of difference and claims
  for equal dignity
• how to reconcile different identity-based claims
  for difference/recognition?

47
Identity politics

• originally meant political action by groups
  suppressed or marginalized because of their
  identity
• raising consciousness "personal is political"
• today refers often to any deliberate effort of
  creating and sustaining a particular identity

• aims at defining community and making its members
  accept definition
• exercised from individual to transnational level
• increasingly important with fragmentation of
  social realities
• gender, ethnic, regional, sexual etc.
  identification compete with NI

48
Recent European identity politics

• importance of the Berlin declaration of 25 March
  2007 in reviving European constitution, analysis
• Draft Treaty amending the Treaty on European
  Union and the Treaty establishing the European
  Community agreed upon 19 October 2007
• to be signed on 13 December 2007
• major effects more majority decisions,
  circulating commissionary portfolios, empowering
  commissioners versus member-states, more power to
  the European Parliament
• although regarded as abandonment of the
  constitutional approach, similirities to the
  earlier constitution draft significant, value
  basis in Berlin declaration

49
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• Kolbe works as the professor of European history
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• has published extensively on Finnish and European
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  expert on Europe and history

50
Equality/difference-tension in the EU four ways
too see Europe
From Jon Erik Fossum Identity-politics in the
European Union
51
Europe of co-operating nation-states

• intergovernmental principles central
• key position member state level
• no need for common European identity
• civil, political, social and economic rights
  anchored in national legislation
• indirect legitimacy through the cooperative
  willingness of member stae

• EU as subsidiary organ dealing with issues
  remaining after national decision-making
• main focus in enonomic integration
• few incentives to create a genuine Euro-polity
• national identities as relevant as ever
• not particularly relevant in post-Maastrict
  treaty European reality

52
Return of Nationalism?

• EU as intergovernmental organization of
  protectionist nation-states
• sanctity of national cultures and identities
• explicit rejection of European identity
• strictly restricted scope for supranational
  integration
• typical among eurocritics

• search for exemptions and opt-outs (Denmark, UK,
  Sweden, France, Ireland)
• national opposition has slowed integration but
  not stopped it
• current trend more majority decisions, new
  policy areas, deeper integration
• group-based vs. national politics of difference

53
Europe of deep cultural diversity

• supranationalism that allows a wide range of
  difference
• competing national, regional and group-based
  claims for recognition
• sanctity of diversity
• legitimacy of EU based on flexible inclusiveness
• existence of many simultaneous attachments
  tolerated and fostered

• common citizenship based on thin European
  identity
• plurality of ways of belonging
• symbiosis of EU, social movements and regions
• reducing stateness of European polity
• entrenchment of national identities as a tool to
  foster European identity (convergence over time)

54
Rights-based democratic EU

• supranational EU fostering equal dignity of
  Europeans
• constrains national identities and fosters new
  postnational ones
• federalism and constitutional patriotism
• democracy, basic rights and institutions forge
  new European political culture

• cultural difference allowed insofar it doesn't
  undermine allegiance to common values
• powers of member states limited for this purpose
• direct legitimacy of EU
• historical roots of "legitimation through
  integration"
• need for European identity

55
Current trends in identity-formation

• the decreasing relevance of collective identities
• questioning of the feasibility of collective
  identities as potentially dangerous (history)
• fragmentation of the self, the spread of
  individualism
• individual identity-formation as a voluntary,
  almost shopping-like process

• increasing importance of subnational and
  -cultural identifications
• the effects of globalization and supranationalism
  
• the alleged crisis of national identification
• emergence of new non-territorial mechanisms of
  identity-construction
• virtual identities
• is 'European identity' old-fashioned?

56
Backlash against globalization

• 1995 book Jihad vs. McWorld by Benjamin Barber
• McWorld unregulated economic globalization
• Jihad any form of reactionary traditionalism
• struggle between globalized corporate interests
  and traditional values

• the excesses of the first produce extremism
  (nationalism, religious) from the other
• neoliberal market forces encounter and instensify
  tribalism
• central explanation given to the rise of
  religious fundamentalism
• topical for Europe for several reasons

57
Deterritorialization of identity?

• diminishing importance of geographical location
• compression of distance, space and time by the
  new ICT innovations
• destruction of cultural identities by global
  hegemonizing consumer culture?
• loss of cultural diversity, destablized
  localities and displaced people

• globalization as Western-capitalist cultural
  imperialism
• abandoning traditional territory-based identities
  for new non-territorial ones
• mushrooming of various global communities
• popularity of virtual communities and identies
  (Facebook, YouTube, blogging)

58
Internetionalism?

• internet undermines traditional identities,
  especially national
• internet as a new 'placeless but real' form of
  sensory reality
• netizens, global village, digital neighborhoods
• will it become imporssible to uphold collective
  sense of national identity?
• can internet replace old identities with new ones?

• both weakening and strengthening trends
• internet as a vehicle of nationalism
• deterritorialized and flexible communities
• transformation of sense and ways of belonging
• will internet become to postnational identity
  what print technology was for nationalism?

59
What is left for history?

• familiar problems Europe means both tolerance
  and Auschwitz
• nurturing European legacy or proto-fascist
  Eurocentrism and cultural colonialism?
• is the European past usable at all for
  identity-formation purposes?
• forgetting the past as a way forward?

• constructing Europe as a distinctively
  future-oriented community
• active forgetfulness istead of absolute
  historical memory and historical truths
• collective amnesia instead of collective memory
• identity-construction is always about both
  remembering and forgetting

60
The role of national histories

• nationalist origins of scholarly history,
  history-writing as nation-building
• tight link between history and legitimation of
  nation
• history as one of the most important sources of
  "national knowledge" and collective
  self-understanding
• power of national stories and myths

• controversy about origins of nations constructed
  or historical?
• conflicting trends academic vs. popular history,
  (Western) Europe vs. rest of the world
• European re-emergence of national histories as
  political tools 1990s-
• language issues

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Europe in national histories

• national historiographies didn't develop in
  isolation
• implicit/explicit influences, cross-border
  dialogue
• national histories implied a concept of Europe
• from adaption and assimilation to European
  history to producing national versions of it
• European project intrinsic to various nationalisms

• "European history" prioritized certain parts of
  national history and marginalized others
• implicit canon of European history, accepted,
  constested and modified by national histories
• national urge accomodate with European history

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Common past in European historiography?

• shared European history
• tensions between national, European and world
  histories
• national history as a strategy of writing a
  nation into European / global history
• negotiation between national and European norms
  and values

• simultaneous recognition of distinctiveness and
  likeness
• despite similarities particularity of historical
  backgrounds has prevented the rise of common
  European perception of the past
• national histories are not mutually exclusive ?
  common platform exists

63
Prospects of European history

• three simultaneous trends
• discourse of European integration and
  co-operataion embedded in European institutions
• 'creeping' European unification and interdepence
  on deeper cultural and economical level
• resurgence of intolerant and inward-looking
  nationalisms

• European history as an alternative framework, not
  as a sum of national cases
• dangers second term of Europeanization of
  history / legitimating European exceptionalism
• feasibility of reproduction of national identity
  on continental scale?
• does history have to be a legitimator?

64
Requirements of European history

• withdrawal from the competition between different
  national heroes and achievements
• is it possible to reach non-nationalistic
  perspectives without losing the national past?
• promising efforts in European community of
  scholars (programme Writing National Histories In
  Europe)

• detachment from nationalism would help us to see
  both the universal and particular traits of
  national histories
• recognizing the value of national experience
  without letting it dominate
• cosmopolitan perspective with ability to see also
  the particularities
• avoidance of political and /or academic elitism

65
Institutionalization?

• lacking willingness of historians to engage with
  "European" issues
• "European Studies" largely dominated by social
  scientists, not historians
• need for transnational critical effort
• finding a way to address national histories

• importance of not surrending to political
  pressures from the EU
• striking a balance between local, national,
  regional, continental and global histories
• future of nationalism and nation-state?
• role of scholarly history?
• from 'truth' to multitude of experience

66
Results of the questionnaire - most influential
Europeans

• Adolf Hitler (39)
• Napoleon (28)
• Josif Stalin (26)
• Winston Churchill (21)
• Karl Marx (20)
• Charles De Gaulle (15)
• Martin Luther (11)
• Otto von Bismarck (10)

8. Benito Mussolini (10) 8. Platon (10) 8.
Michail Gorbachev (10) 12. Jean Monnet (9) 12.
Robert Schuman (9) 14. Konrad Adenauer (8) 14.
V.I. Lenin (8) 16. Julius Caesar (7)
67
Results of the questionnaire - most important
period in European history

• Second World War (33)
• Enlightenment (30)
• End of Cold War (20)
• French Revolution (16)
• Industrialism (14)
• Cold War (13)
• Reformation (9)
• Integration (7)

9. Colonialism (5) 9. Creation of SU (5) 11.
Crusades (4) 12. Renaissance (3) 12. Recovery
WWII (3) 12. Greek-Roman civilization (3)
68
Results of the questionnaire - most important
event in European history

• Maastricht Treaty (23)
• Fall of Berlin wall (20)
• Building of BW (16)
• Founding of EU (9)
• Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (8)
• 5. Treaty of Versailles (8)
• 7. French Revolution (7)

8. Congress of Vienna 1814 (5) 8. Collapse of SU
(5) 10. Paris Peace Conference 1947 (3) 10.
Holocaust (3) 2 votes e.g. Westphalia, Normandy,
Euro, UN, Kyoto, October Revolution, German
reunification
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Results of the questionnaire - adjectives for
Europe

• diverse (14)
• democratic (12)
• multicultural (7)
• 3. historical (7)
• 3. rich (7)
• 3. safe (7)
• 7. liberal/free (6)
• 7. divided (6)

9. cultural (5) 9. educated (5) 9. cooperative
(5) 12. tolerant (4) 12. bureaucratic (4) 12.
complex (4) 3 votes e.g. civilized, philosophic,
powerful, big, undefined, multinational,
controversial
70
Results of the questionnaire - your
identification (1strong, 6weak)

• national 2.02 (20 times first)
• local 2.64 (15 times first)
• European 3.40 (5 times first)
• transnational 3.48 (3 times first)
• subnational 3.74 (1 time first)
• global 4.63 (3 times first)
• In sum very representative of more general
  European patterns of identification as found by
  Eurobarometer polls

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European and national
CONCLUSION 1

• current (elite) patterns of thought seem to
  pursue Europe modeled after the nation-state
• the need to understand the deep transformation of
  the concept and content of "collective identity"
• extremely complicated identity-political playing
  field

• do we even need European identity in the form of
  traditional collective identity?
• European history as a lesson of potential
  dangerousness of thinking in collective terms
• separating the needs of individuals from those of
  European Union

72
Present-day identities
CONCLUSION 2

• growing pressures for national identities
• individual, local, regional, transnational,
  cosmopolitan, diasporic, global, virtual,
  postmodernly creative
• the fragmentation of social world and experience
• lessening grip of nation-state and weakening
  relevance of national experience

• the future of any collective identity
• do we need them?
• is European identity in its current form feasible
  and realistic?
• on individual level mixed evidence in Europe
  strengthening of BOTH postnational and national
  identification

73
Europeanness and history
CONCLUSION 3

• is there a shared European past?
• how to deal with differing interpretations?
• European identity based on history or detached
  from it?
• who has the power to define European history?
• compatibility of collective views of the past and
  the intellectual pluralism?

• collective Europe-project runs the risk of
  repeating the mistakes of primordial-ethnic
  nationalisms
• only ephemeral-civic-postnational European
  identity realistic
• Europeanness can only be a loose and shallow
  identity
• lesson from European history this is not a bad
  thing

74
Final thoughts
THE END

• is the era of collective identities drawing to a
  close?
• if so, what do we need European identity for?
• European history as a shared lesson of dangers of
  collectivism
• Europeanness not as an ideology but as a comment
  for peace, tolerance, human rights and equal
  rights for all individuals
• Europeanness as a moderator of national
  identities and as a protector against their
  excesses