Is Europe Still Worth Fighting For? Allegiance, Identity, and Integration Paradigms Revisited

In Fiona Jenkins, Mark Nolan & Kim Rubenstein (eds.), Allegiance and Identity in a Globalised World. Cambridge University Press. pp. 94-114 (2014)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The paper reviews the foundational ideals that gave “Europe”, an integration project with continental ambitions, its initial meaning or identity. “Europe” meant reconciliation and peace, reconstruction and widespread prosperity, and the mitigation of nationalism through the creation of supranational communities. A broad cultural consensus made it easier to trust each other and work together. The enterprise received a tacit approval from Europeans throughout the initial stages. More than 60 years and 20 member states later the project is under strain in the social, economic, political and cultural fields. Today, as Europeans (now continental citizens) experience not only the advantages, but also the sacrifices of belonging to “Europe” (in the form of a Union), their allegiance to, and indeed the identity of the whole project are in question. I will submit that the original identity of “Europe” should be revived, and revisited for it to evolve in response to the present challenges. If its future identity is that of an intercultural, inclusive, flexible, and analogical polity, Europe will be still worth fighting for.

Links

PhilArchive

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Normative Conceptions of European Identity-A Synthetic Approach.Pablo Jiménez Lobeira - 2010 - Australian Journal of Professional and Applied Ethics 12 (1).
The Integration of the European Union and the Changing Cultural Space of Europe: Xenophobia and Webs of Significance. [REVIEW]Laura Story Johnson - 2012 - International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue Internationale de Sémiotique Juridique 25 (2):211-224.
European Identity in the Process of European Integration.Zhi-Cheng Qu & Miao-zi Gong - 2007 - Nankai University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) 1:22-30.
On European Identity.Dragica Vujadinović - 2011 - Synthesis Philosophica 26 (1):117-132.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-09-09

Downloads
312 (#59,182)

6 months
46 (#77,970)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira
Australian National University

References found in this work

Religion in the public sphere.Jürgen Habermas - 2006 - European Journal of Philosophy 14 (1):1–25.
Religion in the Public Sphere.Jürgen Habermas - 2006 - European Journal of Philosophy 14 (1):1-25.
Equal treatment of cultures and the limits of postmodern liberalism.Jürgen Habermas - 2005 - Journal of Political Philosophy 13 (1):1–28.

View all 8 references / Add more references