SOCIOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT OF NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN IDENTITY. EXPLANATORY MODELS AND SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS

Abstract

The matter of national identity has a long tradition in sociological research of almost all European countries. This could be an explanation for a considerable literature which was developed in different socio-political circumstances and why now is very difficult to examine it in a comprehensive way. This subject became more actual in the recent geopolitical context where we can notice contradictory trends between integration/globalisation and fragmentation, or we are challenging by the issues of migration. Despite of a current tendency, (in fact, is a recurrent one), that national identity is imagined and constructed, the author advocates a “civic nationalism” that makes a claim to respecting cultural differences but also to build and secure a specific national identity very useful during dialog with other nations. On the other hand, we are witnessing to increasing diversification of European societies and attempts to create a collective identity at European level in order to enhance a consciousness of being European. The opinion expressed by the author is that there are no contradictions between to be national and to be European. The paper identifies the main methodological issues within sociological research to measure diverse dimensions of national and European identity. In this respect, we are interested to scrutinize the meanings of national and of European identity used by several universities from Europe, or inside of various research programs (Eurobarometer, European Values Study, European Social Survey and International Social Survey Programme). Conclusions in this paper are purely conceptual and are not based on own empirical survey. However, there are many secondary data sets which are available for exploitation and with a great potential to develop deeply and analytical analysis. At the same time, the models examined here could be an argument for future projects research which are preparing to be submitted in the following competition.