Abstract

The main goal of this chapter is to show the relevance of postmodern theory for the creation of a theoretical framework for digital European citizenship and the digital European public sphere. The European Commission initiated Europe’s digital transformation and moved Europe towards creating an “imagined digital political community.” The digital transformation requires a rethinking of current conceptions of European citizenship and the European public sphere and the construction of a new theoretical framework for the development of digital European citizenship and the digital European public sphere. European citizenship and identity are dynamic and polyphonic categories. The same can be argued about digital citizenship, which is also a postnational and multilayered form of citizenship. However, both European citizenship and digital citizenship contain different binary oppositions, such as: self/other, urban/rural, European/non-European, and so forth. Postmodernism offers a framework for the development of the digital European public sphere and the concept of digital European citizenship that will overcome binary oppositions and the digital divide. Postmodernism rethinks the basic concepts in the history of philosophy and questions the entire ontological and epistemological regime, which exists as the subtext of the legal system. Postmodernism does not only encompass critical, discursive practices directed towards rethinking existing binary hierarchies and authorities, but also a critical relationship between the very representatives of postmodernism who are differently positioned in these disputes, as postmodernism eludes any coherence and homogeneity.