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"Acculturaltion and Citizenship: Catalysts for the European Urban Space" by Kostas Theologou

Dr. Kostas Theologou - post-doc N.T.U.A. research, member of the EU RA.net (European Research Associates network)

CV

 

Carin Fisher

I am quite convinced after these three presentations that everyone feels like me full of comments to start a dialogue because you have really something very special to convey to us all.

I am sorry to say times flies and I am very happy to introduce Dr. Kostas Theologou. He is a post doctorate researcher about identity and memory traces in modern cities at the National Technical University of Athens and also teaches History of Civilisation and Philosophy of Science and Technology. He is also a writer, as I have learned. His intervention now, I think, will be very exciting and I would really love to have an explanation on what you express as the need of a new collective, but supra-national identity. I am sure we will have the answer now.

 

Kostas Thealogou

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

Thank you, Spyros, for this opportunity to communicate my ideas on European society with you these days.

I would like to thank Jan for helping me out with this presentation in power point. You can watch it on the screens.

As a political scientist, it is obvious with a Masters in Social Theory at Sorbonne and   Ph.D. in identity formation. I have also translated 15 books from French and English into Greek.

My presentation deals with many notions that are extensively used in it. Please do forgive the abridgement of the full paper due to the limited time. And do understand the competence in dealing with scientific terms because of the political aspect of social phenomena such as acculturation.

I would firstly like to point out that my thinking derives from the philosophical notion of cultural relativism because this would  facilitate my narration, abridging the extended original written version of my paper.

Nowadays we are urgently invited to rethink on the ethical perception of cultural relativism due to the opening of the national borders in Europe, the facilitation of transportation and movement of European citizens either for work or tourism and, of course, due to the immigration of people from outside the EU borders.

My standpoint is that through the basic concept of cultural relativism one could formulate an efficient argument which enhances the societal unification of the multicultural, multi-lingual, multi-national, multi-racial, multi-facial and eventually complicated European urban space.

Cultural relativism enhances tolerances. It claims that different societies have different moral codes. No objective standard can be used to judge one societal code better than another. Customs of other societies are not inferior to our own, they are only different. Our feelings towards the other are not necessarily perceptions of the truth.

Acculturation and citizenship are two notions.

Acculturation comprehends those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first hand contact with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups. Under this definition acculturation is to be distinguished firstly from cultural change, of which it is but one aspect and secondly, from assimilation which is a time and phase of acculturation.

The social fabric and the future of a federal Europe cannot be founded on nationalist ideas. The model of citizenship based on national identity is gradually fading in terms of potential and becomes indistinct. A new collective identity can be created by sharing experiences, myths and memories.

Citizenship merges as a need for a supranational institution that embraces all Europeans. Social chemistry and culture, of course, produce such a useful framework.

The European stake is the unification. A nascent non-ethnic identity in a Pan-demos Europe is formed by considering the world under a wider, mainly cultural perspective.

Coming together with the common language under the universality of the arts and emphasizing the role of museums. All these points have been stressed before.

Of course, we should take into account of vital significance such as the global environmental crisis.

Unification deals with denationalization of Europe and the need for the deconstruction of the homogenous national spaces. We are formulating the birth of a strong concept. The European citizenship and the demos, the Greek word for people.

We are simultaneously in search of a new consciousness and of a new ideology

We consider Europe to be an archipelago, a large Republic of Island states being in permanent interaction.

The formation of a European Union signals an ongoing osmosis and the deconstruction of the homogenous national space.

We propose, therefore, a Republican citizenship. This is the notion of a supranational instead of a national identity.

Technical means to promote the creation of the Pan-demotic consciousness are available. Two proofs are proposed in an extended version and in my book.

The first group is the traditional and the institutional bunch. Unification of the educational system which specifically emphasizes on the role of teachers in European issues and the mechanisms of political socialization for the new generations of citizens. Prof. Sidjanski pointed out sensitively and clarified it during his speech.

We suggest theatres and cinemas as anthropological and ethnographic tools.

We should enhance facilitation in obtaining property in foreign countries.

And, of course, we should broaden the workers’ mobility.

We should also project paradigms, examples of the common Citizenship in the EU like citizens having different attitudes than their governments as in the case of the war against Iraq. The citizens’ confrontation with significant issues like health, like in the Sars epidemic, the environmental crisis, the pollution, Ozone layer, all these activities can make citizens work together, cooperate.

Of course, we have the biennale, this bi-annual event happening every two years in Europe and, of course, the European Capitals of Culture which some of you here represent.

The second group is rather innovative. It includes improved access to public discussions, by providing platforms for a vital public sphere and discussing issues such as the European constitution. These technical means should improve access to public information and should improve access to knowledge because the well educated citizen is the best foundation for a democratic society.

We all should realise that there is no ‘we’ without the ‘other’. Volkmar Hassemer stressed this so well. Conflicts derive from ignorance about the other culture.

We should familiarize children with the idea of the continuity of cultures by exposing them to common myths and should cultivate the values of equity, respect of different codes and solidarity.

Within the philosophical framework of cultural relativism one should consider acculturation as a modic social process. The European citizenship is the institutional framework towards the creation of a pan-European consciousness.

This is my argument and I would be glad to discuss it with you.

Thank you.

 

Contents of the power point presentation:

European citizenship: Supra-national

Acculturation: osmosis through integration

Local Tradition+ Values: contributors to the European Culture

Supranational Identity towards Europeanization

My standpoint on citizenship:

The European Stake: the unification

A nascent non-ethnic identity in a Pan-demos Europe: conceiving the world under a wider perspective

Nation-state, supranational   European identity and religion

In creation of a “pan-demotic” consciousness

Two groups of proposed actions

A. traditional-institutional

B. Innovative

Acculturation in the Age of Europeanization

Acculturation comprehends those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups…under this definition, acculturation is to be distinguished form culture change, of which it is but one aspect, and assimilation, which is at times a phase of acculturation… (Redfield, Linton, & Herskovits, 1936).

Towards Europeanization

Technology, information, tradition and cultural inheritance

Creative interactions

Scheme towards the common trans-cultural space

The cultural globalization assimilates the local partialities

Tradition Type  Α (CI)

There is no We without the Other

 


Kostas Theologou, PhD

cstheol@central.ntua.gr

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