Klappentext

Constructivist as well essentialist concepts of identity, and especially of cultural identity, have failed. Based on a new sociological concept of a relational cultural identity, this book poses the question of European identity as a contradictory process of identity formation. Written in clear and non-technical language, this book is addressed to sociologists, social theorists and philosophers, cultural and political scientists, social psychologists and anthropologists as well as to politicians, and it is also suitable for a general audience, and for students of sociology, cultural studies, political sciences, philosophy, anthropology and European studies.

Inhalt

Part I: Reframing European Identity 1. The Vicissitudes of European Identity, (Gerard Delanty) 2. The Quest for European Identity or the Coming Europe, (Gallina Tasheva) 3. European Identity-European Irony, (Johannes Weiß) 4. Can Philosophy help? Patöka's Appraisal of European "Supra-Civilization", (Ilja Srubar) 5. Identity from Below, (Frank Welz) 6. European Identity Politics, (Csaba Szaló) Part II: European Identities between Biographies and Social Imaginaries 7. Similitude, Difference and Social Imaginary-Europe and Asia, (Scott Lash) 8. European Identity and Paradoxes of Eurocentrism, (Anne Sophie Krossa) 9. Biographical Operations of European Mental Space between Potentials of Individual Leeway and Collective Obligations, (Fritz Schütze, Anja Wildhagen) 10. Imagined Relations in (Trans-)national Europe: The Case of Town Twinning, (Andreas Langenohl) 11. Religious Identity, Churchliness and Religiosity in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe, (Detlef Pollack, Olaf Müller) Part III: Renegotiating Europe-Demarcations and Conflicts 12. Three Versions of Myth-Renegotiating Europe, (William Melaney) 13. Europe as Demarcation and Conflict. Assessing Identity, its Parasites and Struggles, (Yannick Kalff) 14. Difficulties of the EU as a Common Object for Identification, (Berhouz Alikhani) 15. Youth Unemployment in Europe-Issues and Aspects of Comparative Long-term Studies, (Stefanie Ernst) 16. Social Theory with Social Impact. Rethinking the European Research Area, (Marta Soler)