European World(s) – Projections, Reflections, Transformations

Europe projects its own self-images into the world, along with the patterns of thought, phenomena and practices that stem from them. This occurs in the fields of philosophy (e.g. the Enlightenment), religion (missionary activity), culture (languages, historical interpretation, concepts of music, art and literature), legal and constitutional ideas (regional, national and continental [supranational integration through law]), technology (e.g. the steam engine, weapons, the wheeled plough, mills) and values (ethical, aesthetic, legal and others). Europe exerts political and economic influence (e.g. colonialism, the marginalization of the Third World through the global economic order, the influence of multinational corporations headquartered in Europe, development policy, democratization). It is the point of origin for cultural, linguistic and social transfers (e.g. modern sport, the welfare state, the education system).

At the same time, the world/worlds in turn shape Europe and its self-perception through their own self-images and through the most diverse forms of reverse projection. This increasingly concerns power relations, the political and economic influence of the world on Europe (e.g. that of the USA and China [One Belt One Road Initiative]), as well as societal (e.g. consumer products, migration processes) and cultural (e.g. Americanization, littérature-monde or cinéma beur, world music) effects that shape the many forms of European life. Such projections and interactions have continually changed over time, continue to change, and are subject to selective appropriation in the receiving spaces. They have never been, nor are they now, one-way streets or balanced exchanges between the spaces of interaction. Rather, they have always involved and continue to involve asymmetric interdependencies and complex circulations, which have differed and continue to differ in terms of duration and rhythms, quantity and intensity.

Europe has its own history of self-reflection, which is expressed in a variety of sources and media (iconography, writing). This self-examination and examination of the Other (also in the sense of mirroring) is found in texts of all kinds about Europe – from legislative texts to advertising copy, from historiographical and political theory to philosophical conception. It is also expressed in institutions such as the Council of Europe or the European Union, in associations such as UEFA or European environmental NGOs, in events such as world exhibitions, or in literature, memorial culture, theatre, music and the visual arts. These processes give rise to engagement with what has been projected – its adoption or rejection – from both European and non-European perspectives. Here, the concept of (self-)critique plays a major role for Europe.

Reflection enables coming to terms with these positive and negative consequences of the processes of projection. Positive consequences include the idea of world society, a rules-based and institutionalized international order, and the idea of sustainable development. Negative consequences, by contrast, include the presumed responsibility, e.g. for climate change (shared but differentiated responsibility) or for the curbing of multinational corporations; the reparation of war damage and the restitution of looted cultural property; and international terrorism (as a violent defensive reaction).

As the value judgements already intimated indicate, the goal of reflection in these areas should not be confined to a retrospective-reconstructive analysis and thorough examination of previously occurring processes of appropriation and rejection. Rather, it is necessary to arrive at concepts, theses and value judgements with which validity claims can be associated on the basis of the best possible argumentative grounding and with due consideration of all relevant perspectives: Validity claims that also have the potential, within the framework of meaningful discourse and institutional procedures, to establish legitimacy and validity at the level of world society (such as those of international treaties or human rights).

Europe, as a social, historical, political, cultural and geographical self-conception, is in a state of constant change. With specific regard to the EU, periods of stronger integration alternate with processes of disintegration and at times overlap. On the one hand, analysing these empirical phenomena – their causes and the differences between European societies, regions and nation-states, for example –requires attention to political dynamics and processes, which are bound up with social changes and shifts in both individual attitudes and public discourses. On the other hand, transformation brings to the fore the fundamental capacity for change, the need for change and the inherently dynamic character of our engagement with Europe across all temporal dimensions. The concept of transformation allows us to grasp how Europe has become what we currently understand by it – and to demonstrate that 'Europe' is an open project worthy of debate.

Reflection is needed on a future Europe that has yet to be conceived, but which will and indeed must transform relative to its current state; in accordance with insights that, ideally, gain relevance – including political relevance – by being generalizable beyond Europe to the scale of global society, on the basis of systematic, self-critical reflection committed to the standards of scholarly rationality.