Carriers and Symbols of European Culture and Identity


(WP1, 2006–2008)

Summary Results

Unity in Diversity: Too Good to Be True

"Europe: Unity in Diversity" is the EU’s slogan. Officially, cultural and linguistic differences are seen as an advantage and researchers have not found EU policies addressing conflicts, minority questions or problematic history. This idealized picture may contribute to scepticism towards EU.
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Rationale

The European policy of “unity in diversity” implies that its citizens internalize experientially their composite cultural identity as Europeans. Amidst the emergence of Euroscepticism this WP explores whether it is possible to define a European identity. In order to do so it addresses a number of questions: Are the factors that underlie the identification as “European” similar, e.g., in the Baltic countries and in Southern Europe? To what extent are regional or even national features incorporated in “Europeanness”? In what way does language (a lingua franca?) play a role in the “identification” as European? How far has the process of European integration given rise to newly “supranational” identities, e.g. through the emergence of “EU regions”?

Objectives

This WP provides an interdisciplinary overview of European research on identity, identify shortages and gaps in the research within this field and develop an integrated framework of the analysis of identity (based on complementary stances and insights from various disciplines). It also explores how EU politics influence the cultural and linguistic identities of Europeans and non-Europeans alike.

Description of work

Complete analyses of the data collected during the empirical research in Istria and of written and visual material regarding carriers and symbols of European culture and identity; Synthesis of the results of the first 18 months period including a comprehensive critical review of relevant theoretical an methodological approaches to the processes of construction and deconstruction of identities in Europe, the analysis of written and visual material regarding carriers and symbols of European culture and identity and the analysis of the ways in which people respond to EU media discourses on multiculturalism and multilingualism based on the empirical research carried out in Istria.