La dimensione narrativa della cittadinanza: un buon plot per immaginare l’identità collettiva degli europei?

Abstract

The presentation will address the question of whether the idea of citizenship is a feasible narrative for constructing a collective identity in Europe. Citizenship beyond the nation state is seen as an experiment which has a long history in Europe. This history of relating citizenship with a sense of being part of Europe is looked into more closely. It starts out with the recent debate of a «banal» Europeanism as the basis for elite-produced and elite-driven images of Europe. It then goes into the question of whether European integration fosters citizenship as a founding myth for a European collective identity. The final problem raised is the old problem of a democratic conception of a collective identity that has a particular importance in the European context.