There is a tendency when discussing ‘things European’ to speak almost exclusively in vertical terms, as if the question of Europe was all about the formal institutions – the parliament, the Commission etc. – the agreements amongst member states, or even the relationship between the citizens and the institutions.
This tendency is particularly strong in the United Kingdom, where ‘the European question’ is indeed being boiled down to a simple ‘in or out?’ dimension. But the trend is present in all European countries and is in part the inevitable consequence of the European Union being very young and continuously under construction. We could also say that it is the consequence, in some ways, of the idea of Europe itself being captured by the European Union and its institutions in their present form.
As essential as the ‘vertical’ questions about Europe are, there are also a set of arguably more important questions which could be called ‘horizontal’ : how do Europeans relate to one another, as individuals and as groups? How do they treat each other? How do they express solidarity or conflict? How do they do things together? Refocusing on these questions seems to me an important part of constructing a Europe from below.
Without speaking of civil disobedience, there are alternative forms of social organisation which can be promoted and effectively resist the logic of both the market and current institutions. Many recent examples are well known, from people’s supermarkets to Bitcoin to occupied theatres. In the context of the present crisis, many of the most discussed of these initiatives are understandably focused on economic alternatives.
There are not many examples of such initiatives on a European scale, or with Europe as a focus, even if they have been emerging, notably with regard to solidarity with migrant populations. Such initiatives would have a tough task: they would challenge not only dominant opinion, but also institutional logics as profound as the ordering of our societies according to the model of the nation state. But they would also have to take into account the increasingly ‘transnational’ dimension of our lives, social relations and outlooks, which now largely go beyond anything that could be circumscribed by one national polity. Such initiatives would not necessarily be making political demands directed towards formal institutions of democracy, but rather enact new ways of being European. The creation of such initiatives seems to me essential for the development of an alternative Europe.
Europe has tried to make itself too rigid and closed as a cloak for its perceived weakness as an institutional system, thereby ignoring its real strengths (which are in its people, their intellectual, emotional, social and cultural skills). ‘Re-foundation’ might be too strong a word for the Europe-after-Europe if it is meant to be too decisive or final, and it also risks suggesting that an alternative Europe is not already with us: maybe it would be better to talk of the need to provoke an ongoing European awakening.
Read more: Europe after Europe: the other Europe in waiting | openDemocracy
This tendency is particularly strong in the United Kingdom, where ‘the European question’ is indeed being boiled down to a simple ‘in or out?’ dimension. But the trend is present in all European countries and is in part the inevitable consequence of the European Union being very young and continuously under construction. We could also say that it is the consequence, in some ways, of the idea of Europe itself being captured by the European Union and its institutions in their present form.
As essential as the ‘vertical’ questions about Europe are, there are also a set of arguably more important questions which could be called ‘horizontal’ : how do Europeans relate to one another, as individuals and as groups? How do they treat each other? How do they express solidarity or conflict? How do they do things together? Refocusing on these questions seems to me an important part of constructing a Europe from below.
Without speaking of civil disobedience, there are alternative forms of social organisation which can be promoted and effectively resist the logic of both the market and current institutions. Many recent examples are well known, from people’s supermarkets to Bitcoin to occupied theatres. In the context of the present crisis, many of the most discussed of these initiatives are understandably focused on economic alternatives.
There are not many examples of such initiatives on a European scale, or with Europe as a focus, even if they have been emerging, notably with regard to solidarity with migrant populations. Such initiatives would have a tough task: they would challenge not only dominant opinion, but also institutional logics as profound as the ordering of our societies according to the model of the nation state. But they would also have to take into account the increasingly ‘transnational’ dimension of our lives, social relations and outlooks, which now largely go beyond anything that could be circumscribed by one national polity. Such initiatives would not necessarily be making political demands directed towards formal institutions of democracy, but rather enact new ways of being European. The creation of such initiatives seems to me essential for the development of an alternative Europe.
Europe has tried to make itself too rigid and closed as a cloak for its perceived weakness as an institutional system, thereby ignoring its real strengths (which are in its people, their intellectual, emotional, social and cultural skills). ‘Re-foundation’ might be too strong a word for the Europe-after-Europe if it is meant to be too decisive or final, and it also risks suggesting that an alternative Europe is not already with us: maybe it would be better to talk of the need to provoke an ongoing European awakening.
Read more: Europe after Europe: the other Europe in waiting | openDemocracy
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