European Identities

obligatory courses

The content of the course includes both the characteristics and evolution of the concept of identity (individual and collective), strictly European roots of this construction and its subsequent deconstructions, the analysis of the relevant collective identities relating to the similarities: race, class, ethnic, national, religious, sexual, etc. The problem of the formation / construction of European identity, EU actions in this matter (stimulation of territorial identity - eg. the principle of subsidiarity).

During the course we will discuss the following issues: the distinction between subjectivity, own identity and social identity; Personality as a cultural product (identity as a construct, the importance of acculturation); assumptions of this concept; Self-awareness as a modern Western concept that grown up from learnings of the "era of reason" (Norbert Elias); Problems of the similarity and difference developed in different scenes with regard to the issues of identity.

Essentialism and anti-essentialism; Model of mechanical solidarity and ruling therein collective consciousness, is proposed as a theoretical basis for the collective identity endurance; Anty-esenlistic concept of plasticity of identity and its anty-universalism.

Identity as a project (constructing a coherent narrative - A. Giddens); the importance of linguistic articulation; resources which are the matter for the project of an identity and different access to them.

Identity fragmented by Stuart Hall; Enlightenment subject (Cartesian model of the human person, the identity as the "center" – „the inner core unit“); sociological subkect ( "I" socialized, "significant others"); postmodern subject (fragmentary); decentered "I" of the individual.

Five "cracks" in the discourse of modern knowledge, which led to "decentralisation" of identity: Marxist historical subject (Althusser views), psychoanalysis and the subjectivity, feminism and difference, the theory of the central role of language, the theory of Michel Foucault.

"I" articulated and partial return to essentialism (Ernesto Laclan), the importance of interaction sites; modern increase in their number (Anthony Giddens).

Agency and identity politics (Foucault's "agency", Gidens’s "structuration“): kinds of agency, choice and determination, originality, innovation and change, strategic essentialism.

Collective identities: ethnicity, race, nation, endowning of the race ( "racialisation“), various kinds of racism (stereotyping), from racialisation to ethnicsation, ethnicity and power (Frederic Barth).

Religious identity in contemporary Europe. Secularization, religion outside the church (characteristics), the possibility of rising of new identities that are facilitated by the changes followinf from: detraditionalisation, deinstitutionalisation, rising autonomy, shift from great to little transcendence.

Gender and identity: different feminisms and gender studies; from biological reductionism to full gender plasticity of biological sex and gender; sexed subjects; "Betrayed modern man" - problems of male identity.

Territorial identities in the EU: existing research to identify the Basque and Catalan versus declarations of other Europeans; the conditions for the emergence of strong regional identity (culture, a coercive conflict, the interaction of socio-economic, the political institutions).

Models of European identity: the subject lends legitimacy to New Europe - demos; principles of European identity (primordialism versus narrative structure by Giddens); constructionism versus substantialism; Models of European identity (Delanty); European heritage, universalist postnationality, European pragmatism.

A compulsory part of the course is reading assignement in foreign language.

Student workload:

lecture - 30 h

preparation for the lecture - 45 h

exam preparation - 45 h

Total - 120 h

Literature

Baldwin Elaine, Longhurst Brian, McCracken Scott, Ogborn Miles, Smith Greg, Introducing Cultural Studies, Prentice Hall Europe:London, 1999

Balicki Jan (red.), Migracje jako nowa kwestia społeczna, Księgarnia św. Jacka:Katowice 2008.

Baudrillard Jean, Społeczeństwo konsumpcyje, jego mity i struktury, Warszawa, 2006.

Bogunia-Borowska Małgorzata, Śleboda Marta (red.), Globalizacja i konsumpcja. Dwa dylematy współczesności. Universitas:Kraków, 2003.

Bokszański Zbigniew, Tożsamości zbiorowe, PWN:Warszawa, 2005, str. 44-72.

Delanty Gerard, Odkrywanie Europy: idea, tożsamość, rzeczywistość, PWN:Warszawa-Kraków, 1999.

Edensor Tim, Tożsamość narodowa, kultura popularna i życie codzienne, Wyd. UJ:Kraków, 2002, str. 13-32.

Elias Norbert, O procesie cywilizacji, WAB:Warszawa, 2011.

Eller Jack David, Antropologia kulturowa. Globalne siły, lokalne światy, Wyd. UJ:Kraków, 2012, rozdz. 13.

Giddens Anthony, Nowoczesność i tożsamość. „Ja“ i społeczeństwo w epoce późnej nowoczesności, PWN: Warszawa, 2001, str. 248-284.

Giddens Anthony, Socjologia, PWN:Warszawa, 2012.

Hall Stuart, The Questions of Cultural Identity, w: , S. Hall, D. Held (eds), Morernity and its Future, Cambridge:Polity Press, 1996, pp. 274-316.

Joas Hans i Klaus Wiegandt (red.), Kulturowe wartości Europy, IFiS PAN: Warszawa, 2012.

Lewandowski Edmund, Pejzaż etniczny Europy, Muza:Warszawa, 2004.

Miller Daniel, Consumption and its Consequences, Cambridge:Polity Press, 2012.

Paleczny Tadeusz, Socjologia tożsamości, Oficyna Wydawnicza AFM, 2008.

Rietbergen Peter, Europe: a Cultural History, Routledge:London and New York, 2003

Shelley Monic, Winck Margaret (red.), Aspects of European Cultural Diversity, Routledge:London and New York, 1995

Sowa Jan, Fantomowe ciało króla. Peryferyjne zmagania z nowoczesną formą, Universitas:Kraków, 2011.

World Council of Anthropological Associations, Déjà Lu ("Already read") - http://www.wcaanet.org/dejalu/ - hyperlink to antropological periodicals.

Educational outcomes:

Knowledge:

- Knows the evolution of the concept of identity in the social sciences,

- Knows the physical, spiritual, cultural and social attributes for the construction of identity,

- Knows the identity and identities arise, change and disappear, and can be manipulated,

- Knows what is the content of the notion of "European identity" and hows the EU contributes to its construction.

- Knows that the issue of identity is interdisciplinary

Skills:

- Is able to analyze the elements included in the notion of identity,

- Is able to critically evaluate the stereotypical approaches to identity: the individual as well as the collective,

- Can make a choice literature and use it to compose written work,

- Reads the literature in foreign languages,

Competence:

- Is aware of the strength of stereotypes and can counteract them.

- Regards diversity with respect.

Written exam (essay on an agreed subject).