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Is Europe still worth fighting for? Allegiance, identity and integration paradigms revisited
Allegiance and Identity in a Globalised World (2014)
  • Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira, PhD, The University of Notre Dame Australia
Abstract
The paper reviews the foundational ideals that gave “Europe”, an integration project with continental ambitions, its initial meaning or identity. “Europe” meant reconciliation and peace, reconstruction and widespread prosperity, and the mitigation of nationalism through the creation of supranational communities. A broad cultural consensus made it easier to trust each other and work together. The enterprise received a tacit approval from Europeans throughout the initial stages. More than 60 years and 20 member states later the project is under strain in the social, economic, political and cultural fields. Today, as Europeans (now continental citizens) experience not only the advantages, but also the sacrifices of belonging to “Europe” (in the form of a Union), their allegiance to, and indeed the identity of the whole project are in question. I will submit that the original identity of “Europe” should be revived, and revisited for it to evolve in response to the present challenges. If its future identity is that of an intercultural, inclusive, flexible, and analogical polity, Europe will be still worth fighting for.

Keywords
  • allegiance,
  • analogical unity,
  • European citizens,
  • European foundational ideals,
  • flexible integration,
  • inclusive public sphere,
  • interculturalism,
  • political identity
Disciplines
Publication Date
Spring November 5, 2014
Editor
Fiona Jenkins, Mark Nolan, Kim Rubenstein
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
DOI
doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139696654.008
Citation Information
Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira. "Is Europe still worth fighting for? Allegiance, identity and integration paradigms revisited" Allegiance and Identity in a Globalised World Vol. 2 (2014) p. 94 - 114
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/pablo-jimnezlobeira/4/
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC International License.