European Ideas Research Articles

Johan Vilhelm Snellman’s–Finnish Philosopher, Writer, Diplomat–Statement “Science Centers for All”

“Go to temples of science and ideas of Europe. Imitate the Tugendbund, ‘the Union of Virtue’, of which thousands of German youth are the members. Always keep the rule of ‘Fit soul is in fit body’ in mind” (Petrov, 2013, p. 72). This study aimed to show the similarities, in terms of expression, emphasis, and implication, in the about/mission/vision/goals/objectives of various science centers from around the world and in the basic themes derived from Snellman’s statement above, namely, Science for all, Science Centers for all, and Human welfare that he made as a challenge to not only his people but to everyone. Document and content analyses were applied in the study. Within the scope of these analyses, this study investigated the about/mission/vision/goals/objectives sections of websites of science centers from around the world (Asia, Europe, Global, Latin America/The Caribbean, North America, Africa). From this investigation, similar basic themes, derived from Snellman’s statement challenging his people/everyone to adopt this devotion to science, were found in the areas of i) expression in ASTC, CIMUSET/CSTM, CASC and SAASTEC; ii) emphasis in ECSITE, ASDC, ASCN and NSCF; and iii) implication in ASPAC, ASTEN, NCSM, ABCMC and Red-POP. These basic themes, as found in the about/mission/vision/goals/objectives of science centers, can, in effect, be narrowed down to the one theme of “cultural institutions will be a big part of human life” (Madsen 2017, p. 68) science centers in the global village (Touraine, 2016, p. 121) of the future.

Administrative reform in Ukraine: from its origins to the future

In general, this article reveals the political meaning of administrative reforms and administrative divisions in some countries of Europe and Asia. A special subject of research is administrative reform and the reform of regionalization in the unitary countries, their path to regionalism and greater democratization at the level of regional governance. Administrative reform and the reform of decentralization of power have ripened in Ukraine for a long time, and even at the present stage, these reforms are inherent in some problems. This work reveals all the functional and historical-ethnographic content of administrative reform in Ukraine. The study offers a pilot map of the administrative division of regions and subregional entities in Ukraine, according to Western trends in administrative division. The historical, national foundations of administrative reform and decentralization reforms in Ukraine are interesting, as well as external factors such as European integration, which may affect the formation of the concept of administrative division in Ukraine, both from a historical retrospective and futurism in this matter, as well as from a functional point of view. In general, the Ukrainian space is inherent in some uncertainty and differences in conceptual issues of reforming the administrative-territorial structure of the state. The study analyzes promising developments in the field of reforming of the administrative-territorial divisions and suggests some new trends in possible areas of reform. First of all, the author is trying to restore order about how European trends and ideas can be expressed in the domestic environment. Some legislative initiatives are analyzed and it is proposed to highlight the historical and functional meaning of the concept of a region in legislation. It also analyzes the possible impact of administrative reform on the reforms of various branches of government. In general, the study proposes a qualitative modernization of the system of administrative-territorial construction in Ukraine. In fact, reforming the administrative-territorial structure on the basis of universally recognized world trends can significantly streamline national, regional, subregional and local governance in Ukraine, and bring it to a new level. Also, these reforms carry some modernization of regional economic policy, which the domestic space needs in the face of modern problems.

Analysis of Modernization Efforts Applied in the First Years of the Republic in Turkey on the Basis of the Concept of Non-Western Modernization

Doğu ve Batı, Avrupa merkez alınarak kurgulanmış, gerçekte var olmayan, bütünüyle Avrupalının düşüncesinde doğmuş ve baskın kültür aracılığıyla dünyaya kabul ettirilmiş adlandırmalardır. Bu iki kutuplu yön anlayışı, yine bir üçüncüsü olmayan iki kültür ve uygarlığı ifade eder. Oryantalizm bu uygarlıklardan birini (Batı/Kuzey) ilerlemenin, sürekli gelişmenin, diğerini (Doğu/Güney) ise durağanlığın, geriliğin sembolü olarak bilimde, sanatta, kültürde, ekonomide vb. sürekli yeniden üretir. Bu yapılanma Batı’nın Aydınlanma felsefesi ışığında kurguladığı modern dünya görüşünü yansıtmaktadır. Modernleşmenin farklı toplumsal geleneklere sahip olan Batılı toplumlarda farklı kaynaklardan doğarak aynı modernlik temeline ulaştığı görülmektedir. Bu gerçekliğin sonucu olarak, modernliğin evrensellik ilkesinin sorgulanabileceği düşüncesinden hareket eden Batı-dışı modernlik düşünürleri, günümüzde halen modernleşme yolunda olan toplumların Batı’nın empoze ettiği kendisini taklit etmeyi öneren yolun, tek doğru yol olmayabileceğini, farklı izler üzerinden giderek de modernliğe ulaşılabileceğini iddia etmektedirler.

The Eurocentric Fallacy. A Digital-Historical Approach to the Concepts of ‘Modernity’, ‘Civilization’ and ‘Europe’ (1840–1990)

According to recent literature, the idea of Europe as it developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries coincided closely with the concepts of ‘civilization’ and ‘modernity’. This article examines this claim by testing the existence of modernity, civilization and Europe as a conceptual ‘trinity’ by using digital history techniques. Word frequencies, collocations and word embeddings are employed to analyze four Dutch newspapers (Algemeen Handelsblad, Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, De Telegraaf, De Leeuwarder Courant) spanning the period 1840–1990. It transpires that semantic relations between the three elements are hardly visible; in so far as they appear, they hardly constitute a close-knit ‘trinity’. Alternating combinations among the three components were more significant than direct connections between all three, while ‘the West’ was more central than Europe. These findings suggest that popular media like newspapers have a different take on culturalpolitical concepts than writings by the intellectual elite.

Mary Shelley’s ‘Romantic Spinozism’

ABSTRACTMary Shelley (1797–1851) developed a ‘Romantic Spinozism’ from 1817 to 1848. This was a deterministic worldview that adopted an ethical attitude of love toward the world as it is, must be, and will be. Resisting the psychological despair and political inertia of fatalism, her ‘Romantic Spinozism’ affirmed the forward-looking responsibility of people to love their neighbors and sustain the world, including future generations, even in the face of seeming apocalypse. This history of Shelley’s reception of Spinoza begins with the fragment of the otherwise lost translation of the Theologico-Political Treatise (1670) on which she collaborated. It extends through her journals, letters, poetry, and her second great work of speculative fiction after Frankenstein (1818): a post-apocalyptic novel set in the year 2100, The Last Man (1826). Through a creative synthesis of Spinoza with Plato, Cicero, Wollstonecraft, and Glasite Christianity, Shelley developed an anti-apocalyptic conception of love as apocatastasis: a cyclical restoration of an ethical attitude of stewardship toward the whole world and its necessity. Through this recovery of a vital chapter in the history of European ideas, Shelley emerges as a central figure in Spinozan philosophy, especially the ethics and political philosophy of love.

The Life of Klim Samgin. Maxim Gorky’s Last Will and Testament

This article attempts to “decipher” Maxim Gorky’s hidden intentions in his novel The Life of Klim Samgin, which he considered his message to future generations. Samgin is a “mannequin,” a parody of a particular kind of Russian intellectual of the early twentieth-century revolutionary era. This social group was characterized by their desire to “transplant” European cultural ideas and values to Russian soil in the shortest possible time frame. One of such ideas was the principle of individual freedom and independence. Realization of this principle would involve a change of that soil, as well as of all the forms of public consciousness and public institutions. Without these transformations, the “personal principle” degenerated into skeptical individualism and could not serve as the ontological foundation of culture. In addition, “Samginism” represents the inevitable result of destroying two myths: one about the intelligentsia (as the social and cultural leader of the nation) and the other about “the people” (as the bearer of spirituality and moral consciousness). Gorky recognized Samgin as the hero of “the era of the individual,” an era characterized by disillusionment with universal cultural values, viewing them as “fictions.” Gorky’s novel is not a reckoning with the past, but a sad prophecy about the future.

Karl Haushofer as a “Pioneer” of National Socialist Cultural Diplomacy in Fascist Italy

AbstractThe relevant historiography has largely overlooked the role of Karl Haushofer as a cultural-political actor in National Socialist-Fascist relations. From 1924 to 1944, the German geopolitician dealt extensively with Italy, with an eye to both its geopolitical role in Europe and to the political system of Benito Mussolini's regime. On behalf of Rudolf Hess, he began visiting Italy during the 1930s, aiming to overcome ideological and political misunderstandings between Rome and Berlin. He established a network of contacts with Italian scholars and politicians, passed information back to the so-called deputy Führer, and attempted to influence official German policy toward Italy. He eventually promoted the development of an Italian geopolitics, and, in so doing, achieved one of the most significant cultural-political transfers from National Socialist Germany to fascist Italy. This article analyzes the contacts between Haushofer and Italy, both his political activities and his geopolitical theories. It is a case study of a history of contradictions: a man committed to Pan-Germanist culture and to the defense of German minorities abroad, Haushofer also attempted to improve relations between Berlin and Rome. Moreover, he considered the Axis from a geopolitical point of view—as a realization of the European imperial idea—and from a trilateral perspective, i.e., he viewed Japan not only as an ally, but also as a cultural and political model. The reconstruction of Haushofer's relations with Italy is, therefore, an opportunity to rethink the antinomies, as well as the global dimension, of the National Socialist-Fascist alliance.

Nazi Propaganda for Europe, 1939-1945

나치의 유럽 프로파간다가 주제인 이 글은 나치정부 유럽구상의 역사적 맥락화 및 그에 대한 평가를 시도할 것이다. 이 글을 통해 나치정부가 어떠한 배경에서 유럽을 도구화했고, 프로파간다로 사용한 유럽구상이 어떠한 내용들을 가졌으며, 유럽구상의 강조점들이 전쟁이 경과하면서 어떻게 변해 갔는가하는 질문들에 대한 답이 제시될 것이다. ‘나치주의 유럽관’이란 제목을 붙인 2장에서는 동시대 유럽통합 운동에 대한 나치주의의 입장 및 나치정부의 인종주의적 유럽관의 내용을 설명할 것이다. ‘나치 전쟁 프로파간다로서의 유럽구상’이란 제목을 가진 3장에서는 전쟁기간 동안 프로파간다로 도구화되었던 나치정부 유럽구상의 다양한 내용들을 분석할 것이다. 마지막으로 결론에서는 유럽통합사의 맥락에서 나치정부의 유럽구상이 가지는 의미를 살펴볼 것이다.The subject of this article is Nazi propaganda for Europe, It will attempt to assess the historical context of the Nazi government s European initiative and its implications. This article will provide answers to questions under which background the Nazi government has used Europe as a instrument, what content the European idea as a propaganda has, and how the emphasis of the European idea of Nazi government has changed as the war has passed. The second chapter will explain Nazi s stance on the contemporary European movement and the Nazi government s racist views on Europe. Chapter 3 will analyze various aspects of the Nazi government s European initiative, which was used as a propaganda during the war. Finally, the conclusion will explain the implications of the Nazi government s European initiative in the context of European integration.

Local Ambivalence in the Arabistan-Basra Frontier, 1881-1925

ABSTRACT The historiography of Ottoman-Qajar frontiers emphasizes the European creation and promulgation of border control and ethnonationalism. This article considers the way that border dwellers in the Iran-Iraq frontier greeted border enforcement, nationalism, and racial politics. Despite the zeal with which local elites accepted these European ideas, the Arabs of southwestern Iran paid little attention to the policies emanating from Tehran. Europeans, in fact, noted their disinterest and argued that the concept of nationalism, borders, and race did not carry potency in Arabistan, Iran’s southwestern frontier. Although historians emphasize the birth of nation-states and the decline of empires in the Middle East at turn of the twentieth century, this article considers the ambivalence with which communities in an oil-rich frontier greeted the new ideological constructions of race and borders.

A Black Epistemology for the Social and Solidarity Economy: The Black Social Economy

A Black epistemology in economics is needed to bring ethics back into business. Contributions of racialized people in the economy are ignored. Black and racialized scholars also find that their work is not cited, even by the most liberal-minded social economists. In the Americas, Black and racialized citizens innovate in the social and solidarity economy; yet their work goes unnoticed in the academic literature, or scholars approach them as the “Other” without invoking theory that reflects the very people they are writing about. Although the ills of neoliberal variants of capitalism are known, the diverse economies in which Black folk engage are less understood. Forcing White and European ideas on a non-White experience is limited in what it can do effect social change. Nor can we sever the Western ideologies in the field because it is this very bias why the Black radical tradition and other Black theories come into being. There is no shortage of Black writings on solidarity economics and they can now be housed in Black social economy. A Black social economy epistemology is politicized for goodness, and it is grounded theory, inclusive of the Black radical tradition, and lived experience because of the explanatory powers of these theoretical approaches to disrupt mainstream business and society.

20220112

The authors of this manuscript are interested mainly in meta-scientific studies, particularly in historical reflection on biology. Species in the Age of Discordance being the main theme of this special issue, and taking inspiration from the idea that “biological lineages move through time, space and each other”, we find it thought-provoking to show that just as biological lineages have histories, diverse conceptual categories have also been historically constituted. Moreover their visual representations have been discordant at different levels, such as the concepts of species and race. This article presents how the struggle to achieve a human taxonomy in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe had a fundamental visual component that reflects the discussions and theories that led to important discordances in the racial classification of Homo sapiens and in other species of hominins. Using as main visual artifacts the representation of evolutionary trees, the painting of castes, as well as the natural classification tree of the Mexican naturalist Manuel Ortega from 1877, the authors will show on the one hand how European ideas about human species and race in the scientific mainstream were deployed in the very distinctive situations of Mexico. On the other hand, it will be shown that visual culture was fundamental and decisive in establishing and disseminating scientific accounts of species and race, and how both concepts have interacted in the visual characterization of human diversity, both to define it and to restrain it.

Converted byun confit de canard: Political Thinking in the NovelSoumissionby Michel Houellebecq

From a certain perspective, literature is always political. Literature in a broad sense has been a source of uprisings and protest at least since Martin Luther nailed his theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg in 1517 – and probably much further back in history than that. Narratives are the most potent way to articulate both political praise and criticism within a given society. In his political satires, British author George Orwell reviled all kinds of totalitarianism and the idea of a socialist utopia. Swedish writer and journalist Stieg Larsson wrote explicitly dystopian crime stories targeting the Swedish welfare state. German novelist Heinrich Böll turned a critical eye on the development of the tabloid press and the use of state monitoring in German society. In the same tradition, Michel Houellebecq has been seen as a very provocative writer in his tone and in his use of political tools. He has articulated a nearly individual anarchist perspective combined with authoritarian and paternalistic views. InSoumission, Houellebecq uses the European idea of multiculturalism to explode our political frames from within. This article explores the perception of religion inSoumission, assesses the critique Houellebecq directs towards French society and European developments, and examines Houellebecq’s perception of democracy and politics. The following questions are addressed: does Houellebecq’s critique come from a classical ideological perspective? Does he describe any elements of an ideal society – even if only as the reverse of a presented dystopia? What kind of democracy does the text ofSoumissionsupport or oppose?

Образование как фактор конструирования наднациональной идентичности (на примере Европейского союза)

Nowadays, there is an increasing emphasis on the concept of identity as it embraces a broad notion of international policies and practices. For the European Union, identity becomes one of the key categories for dealing with its bases and the relationships among its member states. The author tries to reveal what unites Europe and how it works. Education is regarded as a factor in constructing the supranational European identity or the European idea. Despite the difficulties that European institu-tions face, education becomes a successful unifying force because of the umbrella approach that has been actively developing over the past 30 years. The author concludes that the EU’s education policy, Erasmus+ in particular, has a positive influ-ence on the European community and heightens a sense of belonging as it seeks to support coopera-tion in the field of education, vocational training, sports, youth issues. This fact leads to the increase in relevant budget and resources as well as the number of participants in the student exchange programme.

What Red Lines, If Any, Do the Lisbon Judgments of European Constitutional Courts Draw for Future EU Integration?

The paper critically examines the Lisbon decisions of European Constitutional Courts and attempts to tease out what red lines they draw for future European integration. Overall, the Constitutional Courts leave much hope for an enduring legal development of the EU. The only definitive red line is not of a legal, but of a moral nature. As long as the EU continues to exist for the sake of the European People,and the common good is truly best served by it, then deeper integration can be morally justified, politically achieved, and legally implemented. This conception of the European idea, this dream of Europe, can be defended in the face of critics, regardless of the red lines to integration.

Elites Educated for European Integration: Juan Churruca Arrellano and the Instituto de Estudios Europeos at the University of Deusto (1979-1987)

This article focuses on the process of rapprochement between Spain and Europe in the years after Spain’s political transition to democracy and prior to its formal entry into the European Economic Community in 1986. It looks deeply into a concrete case at the regional level, namely the steps taken on the path towards European integration in the Basque Country with the founding of the Instituto de Estudios Europeos at the University of Deusto (Bilbao). The European issues taught at the Institute centered on technical and administrative elements, contributing to the education of a rather functional elite capable of responding to practical needs related to Spain’s European integration. This article will first analyze the perspective of the Institute’s founding-director, Basque-Navarre jurist and politician Juan Churruca Arrellano, looking into his intellectual socialization, as well as his idea of Europe. In this respect, Churruca followed an Ortegian conception of Europe, that is, a historical and cultural understanding of Europe very present in Spain’s intellectual, cultural and political elite during that time. Furthermore, this study delves into the immediate political-historical context surrounding the Institute’s foundation, paying particular attention to the relationship between Churruca and the University of Deusto in terms of national and regional politics. Finally, in the conclusion, this paper outlines an answer to the question of how the Instituto de Estudios Europeos contributed to Spain’s initial European integration.

PUBLIC AND CULTURAL DIPLOMACY AS THE CHANNELS OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION IDEAS PROMOTION: UKRAINIAN EXPERIENCE


 
 
 The article demonstrates the results of the analysis of the existing approaches to the definition of the “public” and “cultural” diplomacy. Considering the controversial nature of the mentioned definitions, the main principles and practices of public diplomacy, which enable the process of informing, engaging and influencing the international audience by Ch. Ross as well as its structuring factors by J. Nye, are outlined. Ukrainian experience of the usage of public and cultural diplomacy means has been studied in view of their effectiveness in the process of promoting the European integration ideas.
 
 

서구 중세와 종교정치적 공간으로서의 '유럽' 개념의 탄생

서구 중세와 종교정치적 공간으로서의 '유럽' 개념의 탄생

Saving Europe in Spain: José Ortega y Gasset’s Meditations on Quixote and the politics of self, nation and Europe

This article examines the Spanish and German contexts of philosopher José Ortega y Gasset’s Europeanizing cultural mission before the First World War, culminating in his first published book Meditations on Quixote (1914). Ortega saw in the genius of Cervantes’ Don Quixote both a source of latent European cultural ideals preserved in Spain’s past and an exemplar of tragicomic heroism fit to defend these ideals in the face of twentieth-century modernity. Using Georg Simmel’s concept of ‘the tragedy of culture’ as a way to give shape to the problem of decadence and the idea of cultural salvation in Spain and Europe in and around 1914, I show how Ortega seized on the German ideal of Bildung as the European cultural ideal to regenerate Spain, after which Spain would save Europe. Here the idea of Europe served as both the vehicle and the aim of cultural salvation. By analysing Ortega’s project of overcoming decadence and saving culture in the decade leading up to the war, I show how the discourse of European identity took shape in relation to the search for the authentic identities of self and nation.

Ordoliberalism: The Next Generation. What Do Prospective Social Science Teachers in Germany Think About the Euro Crisis?

AbstractWe present results from a survey of 785 prospective social science teachers who were asked about their attitudes on the euro crisis during their first year at university in Germany. The students strongly believe that the crisis is mainly due to excessive public debt and lack of competitiveness in the crisis countries but do not consider Germany's persistent trade surplus as a major problem. A regression analysis suggests that students’ views about Germany's trade surplus are unrelated to their political orientation, their general support for the European idea or their perceptions of its efficiency and fairness. The implications for European integration and citizenship education are discussed.

Leaving Home: England, Europe, and Utopia

In the lead-up to the Brexit referendum politicians and journalists invoked the concept of utopia to disparage positions diametrically opposed. On the one hand, the adjective ‘utopian’ was deployed to describe appeals to the possibility of a rediscovered national self-determination and ‘control’. On the other, it was utilized to characterise the conception of a European federation that might subsume or trump the autonomy of separate nation states. I argue here that the deployment of the adjective on both sides of the debate is not a mere accident of language. Rather, it betrays a deeper correspondence between the idea of Europe and the conception of utopia – not just any utopia, but, specifically, that of Thomas More. In More’s text we can read a prolepsis of the profound tensions that underlie the U.K.’s relation to Europe today: Utopia anticipates both a retreat into an illusory, isolationist conviction of the possibility of national integrity, and, at the same time, the dream of a Europe not (yet) achieved, whose most ambitious and thus far unrealised objectives – peace, collaboration, respect for human dignity and succour for the dispossessed – flicker into being in the utopian imaginary of a text written over half a millennia before our own fragile and highly contested historical moment.