The Forming of the European Identity: between Cultural Essentialism and Social Constructivism

Abstract

This paper analyzes a notion of "European identity" that in academic discourse is represented by two models of conceptualization: essentialist vs discoursive - constructionist. A plea for "building up" of European identity by J. Habermas and J. Derrida is considered as a sample of contradictions in this construction approach due to its reifying, unifying and essentialist connotation. According to the outlined conceptualizations the phenomena of European identity is studied in the context of "cultural shift" in the EU integration policy.