European Culture and Politics

In the first week, you will examine Europe as a cultural project. You will learn how European culture is imagined and constructed by European institutions via the EU’s language policy or the Capital of Culture programme, but also how these top-down interventions into the meaning of Europe are challenged by local/grass-root cultural practices and interventions.

In the second week, you will look at the role religion plays in European politics and societies. You will revisit the role of religion in European public spheres and you will critically examine secularisation and the idea of a secular Europe.You will see if Europe can be identified through a particular religion (or absence of religion). And you will see how religion has been used to identify what is Europe and what is not Europe

The third week considers Europe’s relationship with modernity. Europe is often held as a standard: it is where modern science developed, where modern political systems came into being and where modern literary genres were invented. You will look at the assumptions behind and implications of this idea of modernity.

In the fourth week, we turn to the nation-state. Although the EU is often said to be the anti-thesis of the nation-state, some have argued that it has actually saved it. You will examine the EU as an unique experiment in the creation of a post-national political entity. You will also be asked to rethink the existing forms of political organisation in Europe and propose sustainable solutions for problems linked to integration beyond the nation state.

The fifth week examines how Europe is constructed as a democratic space. You will see how European political integration has been furthered and legitimised through a particular reading of democracy. Focus is placed on challenges and possible solutions to the construction of democracy in a post-national society.

In the sixth week you will examine how European identity is constructed via practices of othering; claims of what Europe is not. By addressing the question of Europe’s other we will not only gain a better perspective on how Europe is imagined but also whose voices remain silent/marginalised in this process. If we want to build a more inclusive Europe – and we do – critical questions of who is Europe’s other and how is Europe imagined by this other – need to be addressed.