A sustainable Europe?
Society, politics and culture in the Anthropocene
Transversal elements: Gender, cultural practices or attitudes, the extra-European dimension.
Europe has been described as a model that is continuously ‘failing forwards’, by evolving through crisis and moving towards ever-greater institutional integration, supported by increased economic efficiency and prosperity. However, climate change has made it perfectly clear that the current model of economic expansion based on the consumption of finite resources and continuous contamination of the natural environment cannot continue to form the basis of the material underpinning of societal integration in Europe.
At the same time, we are also witnessing how the discussion regarding the finalité or ‘end point’ of European integration is increasingly on the political agenda, with political parties and social movements representing substantial parts of the European population openly questioning the current state of affairs in Europe as well as the spill-over logics of European integration associated with the ‘failing forward’ approach, openly advocating for a spill-back, taking competences and functions back to the state, and reconstructing the nation-state as the most important focus for value orientations and political and social solidarity.
Furthermore, these agendas often include a securitisation of difference and a strong self-other dichotomy with diversity and human mobility being constructed as a threat on economic, cultural, social and religious grounds. In fact, the notion of the Anthropocene stresses precisely the interconnectedness of ecological, social, economic and political problems and struggles, epitomised by wars over natural resources, the challenge of managing a circular economy and climate change giving rise to increased human mobility, challenges to the redistribution of wealth in societies and the aggravation of existing and creation of new social and political cleavages.
The Intensive Programme 2020 seeks to focus on the triple ecological, democratic and social challenge that Europe faces, but instead of focusing on crises and responses, actions and reactions, it suggests to apply a different analytical mind-set to the problem field by putting the concept of sustainability at the centre. Whereas immediate problems may need urgent solutions, the proposition is here that there is an added academic and policy-making value in maintaining a vision of the broader embeddedness of whichever specific problems we may focus on with an awareness of the broader patterns of ecological, political and social change at the beginning of the 21st century, in Europe and beyond.
Sustainability has generally been thought of in terms of creating a balance between current and future human needs and aspirations in the intersection of macroeconomics (GDP growth), the environment (balanced eco-systems) and the social field (education, employment), which has again led to criticisms of the concept as having an inherently conservative analytical and political bias. However, the notion of a sustainable Europe does not need to imply a static, reactionary, self-sufficient and inward-looking Europe. The IP 2020 invites the participants to think about sustainability in terms of a dynamic concept that sees ecological, democratic and societal long-term viability as made possible by continuous reconstruction of European societies
through innovative cultural, social, economic and political practices under the ecological constraints posed by the limits of our planet, as well as the global embeddedness of the multifaceted challenges currently facing Europe.
The IP 2020 is structured around the three inter-related challenges of the ecological, democratic and societal sustainability of Europe, in the following defined as separate sub-themes, but contributions that look at the interrelatedness of the different aspects of sustainability and the global dimension of the challenges are of course also welcome, for instance how diversity and identity dynamics (sub-theme 3) is related to challenges of the reconstitution of democratic governance (sub-theme 2). The sub-themes are not meant to define specific methods or exclude possible transversal analytical foci, such as the role of gender constructions in the different facets of sustainability.
THE ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY OF EUROPE
Within this subtheme, the focus is on the cultural attitudes to nature and the human condition, and on the ecological dimension in the construction of contemporary societies. It seeks on one hand to explore images and conceptions of nature and the human v. non-human divide in the human imaginary as well as related cultural and social practices (for instance how nature is seen as an adversary to be conquered and utilised or as a Mother Earth to be protected). The question is to identify the constructions of nature and the human condition in the arts, literature, movies or other cultural practices and explore the action frames that these constructions give rise to in terms of sustainability. On the other hand, the aim is to identity the origin and scope of cultural and social practices that give rise to an ecologically sustainable Europe, as well as those practices with the opposite effect. Apart from cultural practices, enquires may study a diverse range of empirical manifestations of these issues, for instance implementation of circular economy models, local practices of CO2-neutral cities and urban landscaping, or bottom-up initiatives outside formal frameworks.
Contributions are invited to analyse both the social, political and cultural images and practices related to the ecological sustainability of Europe as well as European efforts to help achieve the UN’s sustainable development goals in recognition of the global embeddedness of the challenges.
SUB-THEME 1
Keywords: climate change, circular economy, cultural attitudes towards nature, images of nature, sustainable development goals
The democratic sustainability of Europe
This second sub-theme focuses on the political dimension of the challenge to make Europe sustainable. Solidarity and trust between peoples and persons are fundamental to overcome the collective action problems associated with environmental protection. The construction of a sustainable Europe is therefore dependent on an effective democratic governance of the European space, in terms of citizens’ participation, fairness and resource allocation. The transition from a state-based democracy towards a demos-less demoi-cractic political system in
Europe that enjoys a widespread legitimacy and support must find a sustainable balance between the local, national and European levels of governance and explore new forms of representative and direct democracy that allow for a meaningful participation of individuals and peoples alike, with their distinct cultural and political values.
The need to move beyond the nation-state framework to achieve rational governance and democratic sustainability is a global phenomenon, and contributions that reflect on the European models of democratic sustainability in a comparative perspective with other world settings are also invited.
SUB-THEME 2
Keywords: political communities, post-sovereign governance, transnational citizenship, inclusion, legitimacy, local communities, cultural values, political values, representative democracy, direct democracy, redistribution, EU political system
THE SOCIETAL SUSTAINABILITY OF EUROPE
Intra- and extra-European mobility of goods, capital and persons challenge the established notion of nationality and state borders as the boundaries of trust, solidarity, identity constructions and openness, in a transformation closely linked to the democratic sustainability of Europe. Contemporary political debate in Europe is rife with arguments about the threatening nature of the other, whether European or non-European, and the need to protect European societies against cultural, religious, economic, political, ideational or ethnic Others. The third sub-theme of the IP 2020 considers the societal sustainability of Europe, with a special emphasis on analysing contemporary unsustainable constructions of diversity, as well as those cultural and social practices that construct diversity in an inclusive and sustainable way, with the aim of understanding the appeal of the discourses that securitise the Other as well as the prospects and viability of those discourses and social practices that de-securitise diversity and construct a societally sustainable Europe through respect for diversity and inclusion. Papers are invited that focus on diversity within and among European societies as well as the engagement with the non-European others in the European borderlands.
Keywords societal sustainability: inclusion, trust, solidarity, minorities, desecuritisation of diversity, borderlands
SUB-THEME 3
Keywords: inclusion, trust, solidarity, minorities, desecuritisation of diversity, borderlands
