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Book

French

ID: <

10670/1.16vcp8

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Where these data come from
Territories of Europe, the difference in sharing

Abstract

The continental space is subject to two contradictory trends at the turn of the 21st century : that of the regrouping and integration of territories into wider and more complex entities - of which the ever-spreading European Union is somehow a prototype - , and that of fragmentation into smaller territorial unities, in the name of a specific identity strongly claimed by the inhabitants - as was the case in former Yugoslavia. Hence a dialectical trend meant to overcome differences in the prospect of building a new aggregate identity at a wider level (identity creation), and at the same time a difference-enhancing process whereby once marginal or marginalized differences disintegrate the existing situation in the name of the right to difference. The issue of European identity, through all these territorial questionings, is thus addressed. The end of the division of the European space in two confronting and impervious blocs was an event, with the meaning assigned to this term by philosopher Paul Ricœur, i.e. bringing about the unexpected and the unknown, and some virtually rich innovations. This event greatly contributed to invigorating questions about difference in general, and that of territories more specifically. The encountering of the two Europes, although becoming commonplace, has made clear that differences generated by 50 years of opposed regimes could not be wiped out. It compels a rethinking of the meaning and status of difference throughout the European experience understood in the widest possible sense. Meanwhile, the encountering of the two Europes is, for the central-eastern part of it, a time of anchoring to a common achievement: that of the European Union, itself a distinct and prior event bearing no less innovations nor contradictions. This achievement has its roots in the West, in a political will to live together that differs from the way peoples and states used to interact until the middle of the 20th century. The integration it proposes is somehow an ongoing creation, originally based on an undeniably simple idea that has yet progressively turned into a complex and unfinished formation. All fascinations are drawn from this ongoing creation, which hereto has proven effective in the western part of the continent only. This European integration and its outcomes trigger envy from the outside but also fears everywhere, among which the fear of an integration whose high price is to abandon differences and impoverish diversity. The present work takes ground on the inaugural reach of the event as a remarkable moment of sudden awareness to difference . Far from an unsatisfying rigid approach of differences as once and for all vested upon everyone and somehow territorially graven in marble, this work conjures up the multiple aspects of difference, whose meanings it suggests and whose implications for the future of the continent it tries to explore. A particular attention is drawn to substantiating the dual integration/differentiation process that shapes the European territory in the long run. The purpose of this work therefore consists in re-questioning differences and re-thinking heterogeneous coexistence on European lands. For this reason, the deficit of europeanity and the artificiality of inventing a European identity will not be themes of central interest. Chapters after chapters, it shall be attempted to identify the conspicuous, more or less flexible forms of identification/differentiation that social groups generate. It shall also be examined how these processes are an indication of groups' articulating with other social levels and wider-encompassing spaces. Of particular focus, eventually, will be the differences that prompt interdependence and complementarity-driven linkages capable of overcoming the obstacle of identitarian belonging. The book is structured in five parts. Part 1 questions the concept of difference and proposes cross-analyses thereof. Part 2 tackles links between places and collective memories in Europe, with the aim of showing how memory of places and places of memory, for they convey identity, produce differences. Drawing from the numerous national and European experiences designed to create, amend and reshape territorial sets of connection, Part 3 deals with the role of these sets of connection as regards processes of spatial differentiation and territorialization. Part 4, again drawing from examples, shows how representations and collective experiences of difference translate into state political projects. Part 5 eventually addresses the role of centrality as an integrating principle of territorial diversities in Europe. The cross-dialogue upon which the book is deliberately based should not be surprising to the reader, if only disconcerting at times. Difference, diversity, identity, memory and memory are words of common use. Why then not take advantage of the intellectual tools forged by they who - with a broad range of sensitive and intellectual experiences, in various disciplines and within diverse national contexts - have come to think theses terms through and addressed the scope of the common deed to which European countries have agreed or are on the verge of agreeing?

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