Transnational Affinities in the European Context: the Case of Contemporary French Youth Cultures

Abstract

The possible existence of a European cultural identity has come increasingly to the forefront of political and academic debate in recent times. The very term itself is evidently open to question, and is used in different contexts to mean rather different things. Indeed, if we only look at the official pronouncements of the European Union since the early 1970s, it is possible to track an evolving notion of ‘European identity’. Bram Boxhoorn (1996) discerns two principal strands in this evolution: first, the concept of an ‘external European identity’, that occurs in the context of statements on a common European foreign or defence policy; the second, more fluid, notion of ‘internal identity’, first began to appear in the 1970s, in response to perceived deficiencies in the integration process, and was accompanied by talk of bringing Europe ‘closer to its citizens’. In the 1980s, this policy of developing a positive image of European identity continued with the introduction of the symbols of national identity (flag, anthem, ceremonial). However, in the post-Cold War era, and the difficulties post-Maastricht of establishing a clear consensus on the exact degree of integration desirable within the union, references to European identity have taken on a much more modest form. More apparent are ideas of a ‘European family of cultures’, or that citizens of the European Union should be free to evolve feelings of a ‘double belonging’ at both national and European level.