European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

DIFFERENCE AS DESTABILISING FACTOR 151The feeling of belonging entails integrating multiculturalism and theidentity conflict: avoiding the association between the feeling ofbelonging and a specific cultural identity. In order to build an interculturalidentity, the following ought to be taken into consideration:—The recognition and acknowledgement of the different culturalforms.—Development of a an inclusive feeling of solidarity.—Discovery of the artificiality of frontiers.—Search for common identification elements.The process of citizenship construction may follow various models:—Citizenship transmission: It is the eldest tradition. It aims at instillinga nation´s life style to successive generations.—Knowledge of Politics: Constitution and public policies. Requirementfor political participation.—Reflexive search: Decision-making skills. Ethical dilemmas andcritical thinking development.—Personal self-development and human interaction: Autonomy tolead one´s future. Increase of social responsibility. Critical judgementto face social challenges and work co-operatively.The right to citizenship has evolved and now it is considered a realuniversal right. This is so at least in theory, since not everyone canactually exercise it with equal dignity. We are presently undergoing atransitory period in which we ought to move from a primarily representationalexercise of citizenship to an exercise of citizenship based onparticipation 8 . NGOs have managed to play a very important role in thisprocess, although at their early stages the protagonists of political andsocial dialogue regarded them as a foreign body in the democraticgame.ParityDemocracy will not be characterised by participation if theeffectiveness of the political rights of women are not guaranteed and ifparity is not systematically required in the spaces consecrated to theexercise and assertion of citizenship. Parity not only as a tool for the8Coucello, Ana. “Democracia participativa: la paridad en primer lugar” in Ciudadano,Género y Participación. Forum de Política Feminista, Madrid 2002.