UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference

Inclusion Exclusion

16-18th February 2006

Saturday 18 February 12:00 – 1:30: Panel J1: Changing Identities

Robert Sata (Central European University): ‘Cultural Borrowing and European Identities in the Global and IT Age’

The new enlarged Europe faces greater than ever risks inherent in geopolitical changes, economic globalization, the rapid spread of new information technologies, and the rising rate of social exclusion coupled with the resurgence of ethnonationalism, xenophobia, and religious fanatism – substantiating an urgent need to develop new ways to look at the world. This exploratory and tentative paper aims to argue that we need to move beyond the fanciful metaphors of ‘European village’ or ‘information society’ in order to understand the underlying characteristics of this systematic change leading to a post-modern concept of society that we are all witnesses of in Europe.

Europeans West and East feel threatened as their traditional ways to see the world are taken into oblivion as the expansion of the European Union, globalization, and IT technologies make us willingly or not part of a very diverse world. (K. N. Waltz 1999, S. Hoffman 1998) Once coherent identities, norms and values, cultures are challenged on a day-to-day basis but this does not necessarily mean a breakdown of human society (N. Postman 1993, G. S. Smith 1999, D. Pargman 1998, C. Ess and F. Sudweeks 1998, A. Calabrese 1999). Just as culture is all-encompassing, pluralist cultural policy incorporates a broad range of measures and the cultural effects – sometimes unforeseen – of social action. Important questions to answer here are: how European identities are conceptualized, what are the main interaction channels for identity-based politics, and how the international sphere is becoming more and more important on the domestic scene all over Europe.

The paper argues that identities are central to the future of Europe since the enlarged European Union, information society, and post-modernization are all intrinsically linked to the concepts of ‘Us vs. Others,’ the notions of exclusion and inclusion, and are especially relevant for mass-mediated culture. Identities are grounded in culture, and cultures are involved in socio-economic and political choice (A. D. Smith 2000, K. D. Bush and F. E. Keyman 1997). Celebrating the importance of identity, however, uniqueness cannot be cheered at the expense of universality. A balance must be found between ‘us’ and ‘others’, i.e. inclusion and exclusion and the concept of ‘cultural borrowing’ – the ability to make something foreign one’s own is introduced to eliminate conflict based on different socio-cultural affiliation. I argue that a ‘hybridization’ of different identities and cultures of majority-minority relations could be a viable model for development in European postmodern society (S. N. Eisenstadt 1996, J. S. Nye, Jr. 2000, R. Robertson 1992, S. Sato 1997).

Although the rhetoric on European regionalization and information technology might suggest otherwise, Europe is not ‘one’ yet but great inequalities exist and resolving these will be crucial not only for the future of post-communist regions but Europe as a whole. I argue that if European diversity is appreciated in the context of a positive tension that will result in the particularization of the universal and universalization of the particular that are necessary for the redefinition and reassertion of European identity be that East or West. Reviewing earlier theoretical attempts such as institutionalism (G. Peters 2000, M Pollack 1996) and ‘new medievalism’ (J. Friedrichs 2001, V Haufler 2003, A. M. Slaughter 1997), the paper argues they are inapt to provide solutions, while transgovernmental networking (R. Keohane and J. Nye) is suggested as most appropriate to pursue such an endeavor aimed at bringing cultural pluralism. The greatest promise of European integration is that it makes prospects of such an endeavor more thriving than ever before.