Avrupalılaşma avrupalı mı?

Bu makalenin amacı 'Avrupalılaşma' sürecinin Avrupalılar tarafından nasıl algılandığını değerlendirmektir. İlk olarak, Avrupalılaşma kavramı, küreselleşme ve yerelleşme kavramları ile karşılaştırılmalı olarak analiz edilecektir. İkinci olarak, 'Berlusconi-Schulz meselesi' olarak literatüre giren tartışma, Avrupa'yı ilgilendiren bir meselenin, farklı Avrupa ülkeleri kamuoylarınca nasıl ve neden farklı olarak algılandığı sorularına yanıt bulmak için kullanılacaktır. Meseleye farklı kamuoylarınca geliştirilen farklı yaklışmların, ulusal tartışma düzeyinden öteye geçememesi, Avrupalılaşma ve Avrupa Kimliği diye adlandırılan kavramların, ulus-devlet paradigmasını aşma konusunda henüz yeterli olmadıkları sonucuna vurgu yapacaktır. Üçüncü olarak, uluslar-üstü hareketlere karşı düzenlenen üç ayrı karşıt-kampanya mercek altına yatırılacak ve Avrupalılaşma kavramının, küreselleşme süreci karşısındaki konumu değerlendirmeye alınacaktır. Avrupa kamuoyunun aktivist kanadının, Avrupalılaşma sürecini, küreselleşmenin neoliberal etkilerinin bir sonucu olarak görmesi, bu sürecin yalnızca ulusal paradigmayı değil, küresel paradigmayı da aşmak, ya da onlara bir alternatif üretmek, konusunda yetersiz olduğunu gösterecektir. Dördüncü olarak, Eurobarometre araştırmalarından yararlanılarak, değerlendirilen bu iki ayrı çalışmanın, Avrupa Kimliği tartışmalarında nereye oturtulabileceği konusunda fikir üretilecektir. Sonuç bölümünde ise, Avrupa kamuoyunun, tartışılan konu bir Avrupa meselesi dahi olsa, bu konuyu Avrupalılaşma kavramı dahilinde almak yerine, yerel ya da küresel boyuta taşıma (indirgeme veya yükseltme) taraftarı olduğu gösterilmeye çalışılacak; kimliksiz bir Avrupalılaşmanın geleceği üzerine tartışmalarda bulunulacaktır.

Avrupalılaşma ,

Avrupa Birliği ,

Küreselleşme ,

Milliyetçilik ,

Sosyal Hareketler ,

The purpose of this paper is to observe how the Europeanization process is perceived by Europeans. First, it is attempted to define the concept of Europeanization with particular references to the concepts of globalization and localization. While the former denotes an inevitable development of 'world-wide interconnectedness' in governmental, economic, security-related and technological issues, hence based on a functional logic; the latter is being fed from essentialist-culturalist ties constructed between people and their territories. The position of Europeanization is represented in-between with the disadvantage of the obvious lack of both functional inevitability and cultural awareness. Second, the so-called 'Berlusconi-Schulz Case' will be analyzed in order to demonstrate how 'European' issues gain dissimilar attention from different national bases in the European Continent. Since the source of the dissimilarity of public reaction to a supposedly European matter is still national – i.e., while Berlusconi is regarded not as the President of the European Council of Ministers, but as an Italian, and Schulz is only a German, not a deputy in the European Parliament –, and their friction is perceived as 'a clash of nations'; it is at ease to claim that Europeanization or the discussions upon the European Identity are still having trouble moving away from the nationalist paradigm, let alone constructing an alternative to it. Third, a study concerning the transnational movements' campaigns will be added into the discussion, yet this time, observing why Europeanization does not constitute an 'alternative' to the globalization process in the eyes of the sensitive side of the European public. The responses obtained from the participants to those protests reveal that Europeanization, from the standpoint of the activists, is regarded as one of the by-products of the neo-liberal globalization, manufactured in a purely capitalistic laissez-faire logic. They also insist that thus far regional unification in Europe has failed to generate the alternative for the malign dimensions of globalization, and only if a more social, more welfare-oriented Europe, sensitive to the rates of unemployment, poverty, and fair-trade, is secured, then it would make sense to mention a unique process of Europeanization. The two consecutive studies indicate in common that when it comes to Europeanization, Europeans tend to devalue the process either from a national or a global viewpoint and prefer discussing European issues as either demoted to the local level or raised into the global level, respectively. Eurobarometer studies will be employed, fourthly, for associating and assessing the findings of these two separate fields of analysis with the concept of European Identity. Since the mid1980s, when the process of European integration have been taking a more political stance in addition to its economic rationale, the unification in Europe have been heralded also on the cultural basis. Accordingly, the peoples of Europe share a cultural, historical, territorial, and traditional common ground such that culturally they are bound as well to have a common identity. The introduction of a European flag, anthem, motto ('unity in diversity'), calendar, passports, driving licenses, the freedom of factors of production, and the concept of European citizenship have been designed specifically for giving the process of Europeanization a sense of a common identity. However, as the Eurobarometer results demonstrate, the efforts to construct (or to remind of) such identity have so far failed. The association with 'Europeanness' is way behind of the Europeans' self-identification with their national or sub-national identities. The inter-national differences are still valued over the continent-wide cultural connectedness. Therefore, Europeanization has been hovering above Europe with no actual identity attached to it. Combining the results of the three studies, it might be concluded that Europeanization has not yet been able to gain a true European identity, and the underlying reason might be found in that the two dominant sources of world politics today, i.e., the national-level identification and global-level interconnectedness of people, economics and politics, have still profound impact on the perception of Europeans, which inevitably undervalue the process of Europeanization and makes it insignificant in the eyes of its addressees.

Europeanization, ,

European Union, ,

Globalization, ,

Nationalism, ,

Social Movements ,