1st Edition

Challenging Identities European Horizons

Edited By Peter Madsen Copyright 2017
    286 Pages
    by Routledge

    286 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Identity is a keyword in a number of academic fields as well as in public debate and in politics. During the last decades, references to identity have proliferated, yet there is no simple definition available that corresponds to the use of the notion in all contexts. The significance of the notion depends on the conceptual or ideological constellation in which it takes part. This volume on one hand demonstrates the role of notions of identity in a variety of European contexts, and on the other hand highlights how there may be reasons to challenge the use of the term and corresponding social, cultural, and political practices. Notions of national identity and national politics are challenged by European integration, as well as by the increasing demographic heterogeneity due to migration, and migrants experience conflicts of identification stemming from clashes between cultural heritage and the cultures of the new habitat. European horizons - frames of mind, historical memories, and expectations at the level of groups or communities, at the national level, and at the general European level - are at odds. Analyzing a series of issues in European countries from Turkey to Spain and from Scandinavia to the Balkans, the contributions demonstrate uses and abuses of the notion of identity.



    Introduction: Discourses of Identity



    [Peter Madsen]





    Part I





    1. Encyclopaedia Europaea: Some Preliminary Observations



    [Gert Sørensen]





    2. The Clash: Legal Culture, National Identity, and European Law



    [Mikael Rask Madsen]





    3. Staging Constitutional Identity: The Danish Play



    [Henning Koch]





    Part II





    4. Jews in Vienna’s Golden Age: A Case Study in the Conceptual Difficulties Surrounding the Concept of Identity



    [Allan Janik]





    5. Spanish National Identity, Islam and Morocco: History and Historiography



    [Manuela Marín]





    6. Europe and Turkish Identity



    [Çağlar Keyder]





    7. Associations, Connections, Representatives: A Swedish Bosnian Muslim Community in a Transforming Urban Landscape



    [Catharina Raudvere]





    8. Intersectionality, Diversity and Gender: National and European Belongings



    [Lise Rolandsen Agustín and Birte Siim]





    Part III





    9. Eastern Europe, Western Europe, New Europe, or Just Europe?: Changes of Identities in Post-Cold War Europe



    [Barbara Törnquist-Plewa]





    10. France and Germany: From Confrontation to Cooperation and Partnership in Europe



    [Karl Christian Lammers]





    11. The Impact of the New Nationalism and Identity Politics on Cultural Policy-Making in Europe and Beyond



    [Peter Duelund]





    12. Identity Politics in "The Global Art World"



    [Anne Ring Petersen]





    Part IV





    13. The Identity Trap: Post-Conventional Identities



    [Richard Wolin]





    14. Human Genetic Identity



    [Peter E. Nielsen]

    Biography

    Peter Madsen is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature in the Department of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Copenhagen.