What/Where is Europe? Europe in the Twenty-First Century

What/Where is Europe? Europe doesn’t exist! Discuss. –What makes something European (of Europe)? –Can something/someone be or act un-European? –What’s in a name? Well, quite a lot it seems –Europe is a particular place, region, landscape, people, mentalité, identity, culture, politics, history (Europe’s Essence) –Also the “enemy”, competition, foreign, infidel, imperialist, sanctuary, hope (Europe as Other) –It’s both new and old; north, south, east and west; heritage and future? (Europe as diverse and dynamic)

Physical setting: Europe as Region Europe is the Western peninsula of Asia –Iberia, Greece, Italy, Scandinavia, British Isles, Denmark Three main landforms: East-West bands –Lowlands (coastal plain): Rhineland, plains, coastal northern Europe (France, Holland, Germany, Poland, Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine) –Uplands: Western Uplands of W. and N. Britain and Ireland, Iceland, Scandinavia and Central Spain and Portugal –Highlands (Alpine System): South Spain (Sierra Nevada), Northern Spain and S. France (Pyrenees), SE France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy (Alps)

Europe as Discourse Europe is not mere physical landscape—that’s too easy! Europe is a discourse –Okay that’s nice, what’s a discourse? A Discourse is a collection of statements, practices, actions (representations) that cohere to ‘make sense’ of the world Discourses are beliefs, political ideologies,ways of seeing and knowing conveyed through images, words, sayings, fashions, music, landscapes, anything really: we call these ‘representations’ Representation: any single statement that communicates meaning Discourses define ‘truths’, create identities, make history, places and peoples

Defining European Identity

European Discourses Distinguished by fragmentation as well as unity –Unity Roman Empire Christianity EU Membership –Diversity Languages Nation-States Nationalism But, similar experience among individual fragments –Enlightenment –Industrialization –Colonialism –Capitalist Development

European Discourses Unwin identifies “European idea” of dividing human communities and activities into 4 components –The social –The economic –The political –The cultural (religious) Various European discourses have theorized the relation between these components: communism, facism, socialism, capitalism, Marxism

The New Europe: discourse of unity EU itself establishes a discourse of Europeanness –The Union shall set itself the following objectives (Article B): to promote economic and social progress which is balanced and sustainable, in particular through the creation of an area without internal frontiers, through the strengthening of economic and social cohesion and through the establishment of economic and monetary union, ultimately including a single currency in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty; to assert its identity on the international scene, in particular through the implementation of a common foreign and security policy including the eventual framing of a common defence policy, which might in time lead to a common defence; to strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the nationals of its Member States through the introduction of a citizenship of the Union; to develop close cooperation on justice and home affairs New Europe as unified, peaceable, free-market, global