European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

86 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYThe Cultural Inheritance ModelFrom the diverse European instances (Parliament and EuropeanCouncil), it is stated that to construct successfully a European identitystudents must be proud of the European civilization, the culturalheritage, and the historical achievements.In 1994, the parliament and the council affirmed that the Europeandimension of education included subjects related to “cultural heritage”,“based in cultural heritage of member states,” which should contributeto reinforce a sense of European identity in girls, boys, and students.To build a European identity successfully, students must be proud ofEuropean civilization, cultural heritage and historical achievements 5 . Thismodel of constructing a European identity has been denounced as amodel of ethno-cultural identity (Hansen, 1998), for insisting on acommon heritage and tradition of each one of the nations whichconstitute Europe, from an essentialist model of identity understood assomething organic, fundamental, historically given, and limited (Shore,1993).Based on the tradition of a common culture to build the Europeanidentity, it is revealed as problematic, since this excludes those culturesand religions perceived as different. As Rea (1998) points out, theEuropean construction has a tendency, from the political, cultural, andinstitutional viewpoints, to homogenise internal differences creating aseparation between Europeans and the rest of the world. This author isvery critical of this approach of constructing a European identity anddenounces it as a racist process. It is a new racism based on theabsolutization of cultural differences.Identity Construction from Cultural PluralismThis approach, according to Martiniello (1995) has its starting pointin educational and cultural politics which have as an objective thecreation of a common cultural space. The European cultural creationhas to follow the same model used in the economic construction,5This opinion is supported by a great majority of people, and it is also manifested indifferent investigations taking place among European teachers. According to theopinion of those interviewed, this similar culture seems to be democracy, justice, andhuman rights. The European Identity is seen as complementary to the national identity,since it is a way to extend citizenship to other peoples that we find similar (Richie,1997).