Where in the World
European Identity as a Manifestation of the EU's Civil Power?: Building a European Identity after 1945 as a Change of Strategic Culture View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Irah Kučerová
The fundamental question is: does a European identity exist? In it a pan-region with many states, nationalities, languages, religious affiliations and diverse historical experiences? Identity is considerd as a consciousness of belonging, a common space and a common history. The building a European identity is based on cooperation and solidarity. Historical memory full of war conflicts changed the character of strategic culture based on the eradication of hard power tools. The European integration found expression in civil power based on economic performance, market size and guaranteeing rights to every subject. But it turns out that Europe's role as a civil power is not enough in times of heightened conflicts, it must be complemented by normative power. Normative power is the ability to define standards and norms as universal, and shared responsibility.. The concept of European identity is a cultural construct based on a value framework corresponding to the parameters of civil power. But this seems to be a one-sided development, Europe needs to be not only a normative power, but also a smart power as an optimal combination of soft and hard power approaches. The interweaving of individual levels of international influence in an ambiguous and uncertain environment leads to a shift in the perception of European identity from a purely civil value-based one towards an identity based on shared responsibility for one's own security. In the current ambiguous and uncertain international political and security situation, the concept of European identity can help defend the value system and contribute to security.
Between Super-Diversity and Super-Homogeneity: Local Diversity and the Need for Different Local Policies
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Roel Jennissen, Godfried Engbersen
The Netherland is a highly diverse and dynamic migration society. However, newcomers are not distributed evenly across the Netherlands. Towns and cities may vary widely in their ethnic make-up. The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam are majority-minority cities; the majority have roots in a wide range of other countries. The same also applies to metropolitan suburbs. Other communities still remain almost exclusively ethnically Dutch. And even when cities have a substantial migrant population in common, no two communities are the same in terms of the population’s composition. Horticultural districts, for instance, are home to a large numbers of migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe. Former industrial towns may have many ‘traditional’ migrants from Turkey or Morocco. Highly skilled newcomers from Asia or the English-speaking world are concentrated in expat enclaves. Border communities are home to many Germans or Belgians. Local diversity confronts local governments with a combination of general and specific policy challenges. Whilst some, for instance, have to deal primarily with one less skilled migrant group, others are concerned primarily with ways to facilitate the harmonious conviviality of many different groups. In this paper we will present an empirically founded typology of local diversity and related policy challenges. We also argue that this typology is relevant for a number of other European Countries (Belgian, France and Germany).
