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H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-German@h-net.msu.edu (March 2005)
Richard K. Herrmann, Thomas Risse, and Marilynn B. Brewer, eds.
_Transnational Identities: Becoming European in the EU_. Governance in
Europe Series. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. v + 305 pp.
Bibliography,
index. $75.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-7425-3006-X; $29.95 (paper), ISBN
0-7425-3007-8.
Reviewed for H-German by Andrew D. Devenney, Department of History, Central
Michigan University
The Emergence of a Common European Identity
With the relatively successful creation, consolidation, and expansion of the
then European Economic Community (EEC) and the later European Union (EU),
the last several decades have seen a veritable explosion of social science
scholarship dealing with a fundamental issue that frames the European
integration project: the construction of a European-wide identity. This
development is not necessarily surprising. The "founders" of the project,
men like Jean Monnet and Paul-Henri Spaak, had many underlying motivations
behind their postwar efforts to foster closer integration. These ranged
from economically binding the nations of Western Europe together in order to
reduce the likelihood of war to creating a political and economic
counterpoint to the superpower struggle between the United States and the
Soviet Union during the Cold War. One important component of this effort
focused on constructing the various new institutions of a united
Europe,which could serve as the agents of both structural integration and,
more importantly, identity formation. This neofunctionalist strategy, as it
is described, hoped to use cross-state cooperation in such areas as
transportation, communication, economic management, and law to detach
Europeans' national allegiances from the nation-state and inculcate a
cross-state European identity.[1] Without this European identity, so the
argument goes, low levels of citizen attachment to the European Union
potentially weaken its strength on the international stage, affect its
legitimacy to govern and legislate among its citizens, and could lead to the
entire project's failure. The success, or lack thereof, of this process of
identity formation is therefore integral to the European integration project
as a whole as it struggles with contemporary issues like monetary
integration (the Euro), enlargement, the new European Constitution, defense
and foreign policy coordination, and the prickly question of Turkey's
eventual membership (with its nearly seventy million Muslim citizens).
Understanding whether or not Europeans have cultivated a transnational
identity centered on the European Union, how it is constructed, what it
exactly means to the individual European, and what its relationship is to
other local, regional, and national identities are, therefore, vital
questions, and Herrmann, Risse, and Brewer's _Transnational Identities_
tackles them head on. Using as its main reference point the interaction and
engagement between communal identity development and EEC/EU institutions
that exercise some level of political sovereignty over Europe, the volume
adopts a multidisciplinary approach to the question. It brings together
political scientists, social psychologists, sociologists, and linguists, who
utilize diverse methodological tools and considerable empirical evidence, to
flesh out a fairly engaging and cautiously optimistic picture of what Risse
describes at one point as an "emerging European demos"(p. 270).
Besides a concise and clear introduction by Herrmann and Brewer and a
conclusion by Thomas Risse, the volume includes three excellent essays (by
Brigid Laffan, Ruth Wodak, and Eugenia Siapera respectively) that examine
notions of identity among elites in the various EU institutions and the
press corps based in Brussels, a group of three essays (by Jack Citrin and
John Sides, Michael Bruter, and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof respectively) that
attempt to investigate the salience of a European identity to the non-elite
mass public throughout Europe; and three essays that attempt to test several
theoretical models of identity change in Europe from a social psychological
perspective. These three contributions from social psychology are
particularly interesting for the varied and engaging frames of reference
they bring, as well as the differing conclusions they arrive at. The first
by Glynis Breakwell uses Identity Process Theory to argue that the notion of
Europe has poor and unclear definitions as a supraordinate category for
identity construction, thereby leaving open the question of whether the
community exists as a measurable category at all; the second essay by
Emanuele Castano uses the concept of entitativity to argue that the European
Union needs to be perceived as a real entity (to have psychological
existence in the minds of EU citizens) for a common identity to emerge;
while the third by Amélie Mummendey and Sven Waldzus uses another
theoretical model--the in-group projection model--to argue that increasing
the entitativity of the EU as an identity construct could lead to increased
national conflict because each group within a supraordinate identity
category projects its own in-group characteristics on it and the other
constitutive groups.
It is the diversity in scope and methodology that is the strongest feature
of this volume. This diversity allows the contributors to tease out
different lines of thought regarding identity formation in Europe by mixing
discourse analysis, application of social psychological theories,
quantitative survey data, laboratory experiments, long-form elite
interviewing, and the construction of theoretical models on political
identities. Naturally, it also produces differing conclusions. However,
instead of highlighting a problem with the volume's scope or the particulars
of a given methodology, it emphasizes the fact that the very notion of a
European identity is not a static category, but rather a contested social
grouping among many that retains different meanings in different contexts.
Though the contributors' conclusions at times differ, there is a remarkable
degree of agreement in their findings. Most useful to note, from a public
policy point of view, is the conclusion, specifically noted by Risse, that
citizen attachment to the European Union and Europe as a civic polity is
increasing among both the political, economic, and social elites that have
driven the integration project over the years and the general public as well
(p. 271). Breakwell's essay and, to a greater extent, Meinhof's
contribution, somewhat question this conclusion, particularly when it comes
to the mass public. For instance, Meinhof notes somewhat in surprise that
her German and Polish interview subjects only commented on Europe when
specifically prompted by direct questions, rather than during the free-form
narrative component of her interview experiments (p. 216). However, the
empirical evidence discussed and analyzed by the other contributors,
specifically Citrin and Sides's work, exhibits strong evidence that,
regardless of what meanings individuals attach to the concepts of Europe and
the European Union or the specific cultural, socio-economic, or geographical
background of said individuals, positive attachments to Europe are generally
rising among many segments of the European public.
From a historical point of view, what makes this volume even more intriguing
is not so much its intricate theoretical probing of identity formation as it
is the considerable empirical evidence gathered and analyzed to support it.
At times, one frustration of historical research is the paucity of evidence
in a specific area one wishes to investigate, particularly when it comes to
exploring intellectual notions held by those below the elite levels of
society. Works like _Transnational Identities_ go a long way toward
developing a pool of evidence which social scientists can examine and
consider now while future historians of late-twentieth century Europe will
be able to explore for many years to come. This is an important and useful
work for any scholars in the social sciences studying identity formation.
Note
[1]. For more information on this long-standing neofunctionalist argument
from the scholar who first argued it, see Ernst B. Haas, _The Uniting of
Europe: Political, Social, and Economic Forces, 1950-1957_ (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1958). For a more recent comment, see John
Gillingham, _European Integration, 1950-2003: Superstate or New Market
Economy?_ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp.27-28.
Copyright (c) 2005 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits
the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit,
educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the
author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and
H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses
contact the Reviews editorial staff: hbooks@mail.h-net.msu.edu.
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