Economic, Political and Social Identity in the European Union
                                       Professor John Wilton
                                             Lecture 3
                            Social Constructivism and an E.U. identity

                                             Lecture 3

Two perspectives about the way in which identity is produced are:



•                         ESSENTIALIST



•                         CONSTRUCTIVIST



                                             Lecture 3

  1. ESSENTIALISM



    - an approach that looks for the        ‘essence’ or ‘true core’ of           objects, values,
identities            and cultures

                                             Lecture 3

2. CONSTRUCTIVISM

     - identities not ‘fixed’ or static, but instead should be understood as a process of
‘becoming’ within which they are continually mediated and influenced by other factors, built up –
for example, socially – or constructed

                                             Lecture 3

-          citizen identity is ‘constructed’ every day by the social determinants of our actions



-          Constructivism is based upon the concept of

    IDEATIONAL SOCIALISATION

                                             Lecture 3

Constructivists hold the view that the ‘building blocks’ of international reality are IDEATIONAL,
as well as material

 - in other words, ideas, as much as experience and actuality, shape international reality

(- the ideas, beliefs, norms and values of elites, as much as the actuality and experiences of
individual citizens, shape and form the reality of everyday life)



                                             Lecture 3

Constructivists argue that:

- ideas (ideology) shape institutions

- those (structural) institutions, based on those ideas, in turn promote rules, values, beliefs,
norms and practices which produce a ‘collective’ identity that citizens identify with

- so, ‘ideas’ about identity matter – they have structural characteristics through State and
societal institutions – and those ‘ideas’ interact with the individual citizen’s social and
cultural experiences = Ideational Socialisation

                                             Lecture 3

         E.U social and cultural policies

                 PLUS

         economic growth and stability

             (material interests)

                                     produce

             ‘citizen interest’

                   +

 E.U. cultural and social images and institutions

    = socially constructed E.U. identity