Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration ... - europeanization

14 Anna Triandafyllidou and Willfried Spohn
nation-state in Europe. The first three contributions in this part offer three different
theoretical perspectives from which to approach the emergence of a common
European identity within the EU and the related transformation of national
identities. Bernhard Giesen in his study of The collective identity of Europe: constitutional
practice or community of memory? dismisses the idea of constitutional patriotism as the
bond that will bring together a European demos and highlights instead the role of
collective memory and past experiences. He analyses the forms of constitutional
regimes that have characterised European history as possible answers to the question
of the political organisation of a united Europe. While Giesen identifies important
cultural or political elements that could resonate well with contemporary European
reality and experience, he eventually finds no single model that would provide
the answer to the question. He therefore turns to the role of history and most
importantly of collective memory. Giesen argues that the discursive repertoire of
collective guilt and redemption exemplified in the German post-war experience
in relation to the Nazi regime and the Holocaust resonates with a more general
European-Christian tradition of sin, repenting and forgiveness. This common
discursive repertoire may provide, according to Giesen, for a basis on which a
common sense of Europeanness can develop in the EU.
Richard Münch in his chapter on Democracy without demos: European integration as a
process of the change of institutions and cultures, studies the European integration process
and its transformative impact on nation-states and national identities, focusing on
the emerging form of a European society. Quite interestingly, Münch dismisses
the idea of a cohesive European demos. He argues that European integration is
leading towards a pluralistic multi-level democracy that is not based on a uniform
demos but rather on a society of individuals interlinked by a complex web of
networks. This emerging European society is, according to Münch, characterised
by a pluralism of interests, life concepts and cultural traditions, in which politics
and social justice are guaranteed by procedural rules rather than a common culture
or identity.
In contrast to Giesen and Münch, John Hutchinson in his contribution on
Enduring nations and the illusions of European integration defends the resilient weight
of nation-states and national identities. He is highly sceptical of the process of
European integration which he sees as lacking the necessary appeal to community
and belonging that is necessary for a European society and polity to prove viable.
Hutchinson argues that nations, as communities of fate, and nation-states, as
political entities are both enduring and flexible. Their appeal to belonging and
solidarity is difficult to resist and/or is unlikely to be substituted by a Europe with
an ‘empty heart’ even though the political form and areas of competence of the
nation-state may vary, as his historical analysis shows.
Thus, regarding the emergence of a European identity and the related reorganisation
of national identities and boundary constructions, Hutchinson defends
the enduring nature of the latter, Münch points to the overall fading away of
collective identities and their replacement by multiple and dense connecting
networks, whereas Giesen argues for the emergence of a common sense of
Europeanness through collective memory repertoires.