When Culture Becomes Politics: European Identity in Perspective

by Thomas Pedersen

Overview

Taking the problem of European identity as his point of departure Thomas Pedersen's book offers a new theoretical perspective upon culture, identity and nationality. His main argument is that politics are more culturalized than we assume, and that culture is more personalized than we recognize. Nationality is becoming more personalized and hybrid and is acquiring an aesthetic dimension as a side-effect of the democratization of art. Citizens in the Western world and beyond are becoming symbol producers and culture producers, and far from simply taking their cue from custom, contemporary citizens therefore increasingly take an active part in the creation of national and supranational identities. This insight leads the author to develop a new individual understanding of politics summarized in the concept of integrism and to advocate a politics of liberal culturalism and integrist cosmopolitanism as an alternative to both post-modernism and Samuel Huntington's holistic, religious culturalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9788779342828
Publisher:	Aarhus University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Preface 7

1 Introduction 9

2 Integrism: Culture is Choice 29

3 Do Europeans Regard Themselves as European? 57

4 Culture, Identity and Nation 67

5 The Importance of Historical Experience 83

6 Sources of National Identity 95

7 Sources of Transnational Identity 105

8 A Brief, Comparative Reflection 117

9 Europe as a Cultural Community 123

10 What is Unique About Europe 141

11 "Old" Europe and "New" Europe 165

12 Orientalization? The Challenge From China, Japan and the Islamic World 183

13 Europe's International Identity 199

14 Protecting Europe's Uniqueness 217

15 The Limits of Symbolic Identity 227

16 Value Identity: Variations on the Theme of Democracy 237

17 Citizenship and Constitutional Identity 251

18 Performance Identity: Europe as a Working Community? 263

19 Cosmopolitanism and Inter-Civilizational Dialogue 273

20 Conclusions 287

Bibliography 303