European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

180 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETY1. European culture, which extends to a cluster of numerous nationalgroups, can only be a voluntary construction. A construction thatcannot be so artificial as to solely rest on tradition present inEuropean history.2. European culture will emerge if there is a subjective mutation thatleads individuals to assert their basic adhesion to the “Europe”group. Consequently, a reorganization of their current affiliationsthat will allow culture to gain consistency and generate a dynamiccapable of consolidating the “Europe” group will be necessary.The emerging question which would be useful in the field ofeducation is: How can this subjective mutation be implemented?Camilleri (1997) suggests the following answer: due to the effect ofthis mutation, the differences between the European groups that arenations will suffer a qualitative inversion of their sense. Each of themwill not be understood as separate from the cluster-group (the nationalendogroup of the exogroup) but as “domesticated” differences,because they are relative to the “we” of the new base group, wheretheir main identity would be anchored.If we consider this last concept, it will be necessary to examine indepth what content should be given to European identity and toreorganise the relationships between national and European identities.In order to do so, Camilleri redefines the role of identity as thatwhich is not opposed to diversification nor complexification: “on thecontrary, they contribute that which creates our authentic uniqueness,not through multiple exclusion but as dialectical unity, as continuousintegration of diversity...”. Identity appears, thus, as a structure in whichwhat is mine and what is yours is distributed on top of the elementsthat compose it..., in the same way as belonging is not anchorage toone group excluding of all others but rather the establishment of ahierarchical network of identifications.Camilleri supports his analysis by a new distinction between whathe calls critical identity (a free, floating and more or less reflexiveidentification) and fusional identity, involving an emotional dimensionand which establishes a closed dynamic, as opposed to the opendynamic of the critical identity. The nation, in paroxystical periods, andfor reasons that have to do with its status of belonging, will behavelike inter-group relationships (we) and exo-groups. Camilleri assertsthat Europe will no longer exist when this condensation operates in itsown favour. How will national structures be affected, to the detrimentof pre-national ones? But will this be possible? Is it desirable that the“Europe” group or its representation work in a reactive and defensive