Post-Nationalism: the European Union

Instructor: Jim von Geldern

Class: MWF 10:50-11:50
Room: Carnegie 404
E-mail: vongeldern@macalester.edu
Office: Humanities 207
Phone: x6568
Office hours: Monday, 1:00-2:45, Wednesday, 9:30-10:30, or by appointment

Course Description:

Six countries of Western Europe launched a great experiment in 1958 when they formed the European Economic Community (EEC). Currently known as the European Union (EU), this body dominates the social landscape of a Europe that was once a patchwork of nation-states. The horrors of war that wracked the continent for centuries have given way to the hesitant search for federation. The Union has swelled and changed its character as new members have joined from the former socialist bloc. Its members have "pooled their sovereignty" in a fashion unknown in modern history, and together have assumed an identity that exceeds the sum of its parts.

This interdisciplinary course will study the difficulties and anxieties that Europe has overcome and still faces as it seeks to establish a common identity. Evolution from the EEC into the European Union has entailed a painful surrender of national particularity for each of the proud members. Centuries of conflict and competition engendered national identities defined in opposition to other Europeans. Europe's determination to find unity has been slowed and tempered by assertive cultural traditions rooted in its states and regions that have made diversity a permanent feature of the union. Still the union grows stronger. There is an identifiable European way of life and a European culture; and a variety of formal and informal practices allow Europeans to bridge their linguistic barriers. The Europeans share a proud common heritage of defense of their human rights.

Tensions still exist, and social discontent has swelled rather than receded as local, national and transnational elements of civil society fight back against the "democratic deficit" of the European bureaucracy. Enlargement of the Union towards the south and east has tested Europeans' determination to achieve unity, and has tested the limits of what "European" can mean. Immigration from former colonial possessions has changed the face and religious diversity of Europe, provoking widespread resistance to open-border policies. Many of these long submerged anxieties emerged recently to block realization of the grail of the half-century EU adventure, a common Constitution. Overshadowing the controversies is the clear fact that the "nation-states" of Europe are becoming the "member-states" of a European Union.

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