Culture concepts - and Problems of European Identity

thezaurus — Thu Feb 24, 2005 1:24 am

Author: thezaurus

Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2005 1:24 am

On the concept of culture
http://www.inst.at/ausstellung/kultbeg_e.htm

Cultural Studies and Europe
http://www.inst.at/ausstellung/exieu_e.htm
Does Europe Exist?
History, Potentialities and Problems of European Identity

(or switch to German)

In the case of the European Union the question has repeatedly been raised as to whether such a union as a "state" exists at all, since it possesses no distinguishing characteristics in the sense that a nation state does.However, the nation state - as defined by the information service of the European parliament - has proved to be a cause of oppression and war (1). This thesis has received ample confirmation recently in the war in formerYugoslavia.

Nevertheless, the attempt is constantly made to impose a model on the future of Europe which was in the past viewed as providential for the nation state. In the age of mass communications, this is based on the use of culture as a conditioning force (homogenisation of "ethnicity", language, the fine arts, sciences....) Or, in another variation oriented to power politics - the limitation of policy to the fields of finance, technology, and military affairs, whereby responsible political forces involved are more or less aware of the resultant tensions and polarisations.

In Europe, as in other countries, (eg. India, Australia, Cameroon), there exists, or existed, other forms of communal life. The richest cultures, (as in Ancient Greece or in Spain prior to 1492), came into being through the integration of many cultural processes. In contrast, the "military revolution" and its "victory" primarily brought destruction.

The forms in which nation states chose to express their identity arose very late, under certain specific constellations and were by no means inevitable. Thus it is necessary to examine some aspects more closely so that one may probe, though not impose via deduction, various perspectives on the opportunties for productive communal coexistence in Europe.

Above all, one needs to keep in mind that questions of ethnicity arise first in relation to modernisation, and begin to play a role with the shaping of the nation state (2). Consequently, it is no coincidence that conflict over language and the cultural aspirations of particular nationalities were first linked to one another in Europe after 1848. Similarly, the legitimisation of the nation state is often derived from a (mythic) origin placed as far back as possible in the past - thereby increasing prestige.
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Culture concepts - and Problems of European Identity