Sociológia 34, 2002, č. 6 Theorising Identity, Nationality and Citizenship: Implications for European Citizenship Identity 1 Lynn Jamieson 2 Department of Sociology, University of Edinburgh Theorising Identity, Nationality and Citizenship: Implications for European Citizenship Identity. This paper reviews theoretical approaches to the key concepts of ‘identity’ and ‘citizenship’ exploring their implications for the possibilities of European citizenship and European identity. In many circumstances and for many people, ‘being European’ is more likely to be an abstract categorising of self and/or others rather than a strongly felt sense of common identity and belonging. In reviewing theoretical discussion of ‘identity’, this paper reasserts the value of a social constructionist position that people have one self but many identities, some more ‘primary’ than others. This approach goes beyond the conclusion that, while neither local nor national identity is necessarily ‘primary’, local identity is more likely to be ‘primary’, to offer clues about the conditions required for supra-national identities such as European or ‘global identity’ to become ‘primary’. Discussions of processes creating identification with others and a sense of ‘belonging’, social categorisation and processes of group membership, ‘othering’ and boundary work, are briefly reviewed before turning to the debate over ‘agency’ and ‘structure’ that runs through discussions of identity. This provides a reminder that different national contexts offer access to different resources with which to build local, national and European identities and that within one nation-state, not all have the same degrees of freedom to create identities. The article concludes with debate concerning whether and in what circumstances being a citizen moves from membership of an abstract category to becoming an important aspect of sense of self. At the moment, it is privileged minorities who have the resources and connections that encourage freely travelling across Europe who are the most likely to be ‘European’. For European citizenship to be a more significant aspect of many people’s personal identities, local circumstances and the everyday social interactions would have to refer to and celebrate the European Union in a way that they do not at the moment. There are very few scenarios for this happening, a some of them negative, associated with the growth of ethnic citizenship and ‘fortress Europe’. The more positive possibilities of young people international movements that concern themselves with political and social rights typically celebrate more abstract principles of fairness and justice, perhaps promoting ‘global’ rather than ‘European’ citizenship. Sociológia 2002 Vol 34 (No. 6: 507-532) Introduction Since the 1970s, the idea of European citizenship and a ‘People’s Europe’ has been promoted by politicians, intellectuals and bureaucrats of the European Community (Shore, C. - Black, A., 1994). The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 specifies one of the objectives of the European Union as ‘to strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the nationals of its Member States through the introduction of a citizenship of the Union’. The specific rights further promoted by European Union citizenship include the right of those who are already citizens of member states to move, reside, vote and stand as candidate in municipal elections and European elections within the territory of the European Union 3 . Chris Shore and Annabel Black (1994) note that an ambition of fostering a ‘People’s Europe’, a supra-state which is recognised and taken to heart by its citizens as their European Union, predates the Maastricht treaty and a range of measures have been designed to promote this long term ambition. Many small steps were intended to encourage ‘free movement’ for citizens of member states across state boundaries within the community, such as mutual recognition of professional qualifications. New symbols of Europeanness have been created in the hope of 1 This is part of the background ‘state of the art’ report of a multi-site European Commission funded project ‘Orientations of Young Men and Women to Citizenship and European Identity’ (http://www.ed.ac.uk/sociol/youth/index.html). Using surveys and qualitative studies, the views and experiences are explored of ‘random samples’ of young men and women aged 18-24 and young men and women on educational paths likely to take them on ‘European careers’ beyond their national boundaries. Research is conducted in paired sites with contrasting cultural and socio-political histories in terms of European affiliations and support for the European Union. The sites are Vienna and Voralberg in Austria, Chemnitz and Bielefeld in (the former East and West) Germany, Madrid and Bilbao in Spain, Prague and Bratislava, the capitals of the relatively new Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Manchester, England and Edinburgh, Scotland in the UK. The partners, researchers and consultants in this investigation are: Professor Claire Wallace and Reingard Spannring, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria; Professor Klaus Boehnke and Daniel Fuss, International University Bremen and Professor Bernhard Nauck, Technische Universitaet Chemnitz, Germany; Professor Ladislav Macháček; Dr. Gabriel Bianchi, Dr. Barbara Lášticová and Pavla Macháčková, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia, and Professor Maria Ros and Miryam Rodriguez Monter, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Dr. Hector Grad and Gema Garcia Albacete, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain; and Dr. Susan Condor, Lancaster University, England and the coordinator Professor Lynn Jamieson, Dr. Sue Grundy and Professor David McCrone, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. 2 Address: Dr. Lynn Jamieson, Department of Sociology, 18 Buccleuch Place, University of Edinburgh, EH8 9LN, United Kingdom. Phone: +44-131-650 4002/1, fax: +44-131-650 3989, e-mail: L.Jamieson@ed.ac.uk 3 Note also that residents of Member States who do not have national citizenship, sometimes referred to in the literature as ‘third nationals’, by definition cannot have European citizenship.