This issue 4 of impEct will be published later than planned. But it will appear!
First and foremost, there is a brief tribute to our colleague, Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Jacob, who played a key role in shaping the international profile of the International Business study program at Fachhochschule Dortmund. He retired this year.
impEct No. 4 - Article
The impetus for the symposium, which took place in November 2008 at the Faculty of Business Studies at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts on the topic of "Europe - the invisible continent", was the widespread impression that the European Union had clearly moved away from its original goals with and since the Lisbon Agenda of 2000. Knowledge and innovation were formulated as the central drivers that were to make the EU the most competitive economic area in the world. Just as the USA was seen as the benchmark for the EU's own actions in the Business Studies sector, the view that the EU had to "position itself" in order to be included in the US rankings became widespread in the field of higher education. All this under the motto: "You have to be realistic!"
In contrast, I wanted to show that the internationalization of European universities cannot mean standardization in the sense of adapting to a model, but that differentiation based on one's own environment is the appropriate response. Being realistic then means familiarizing students with their own, but buried cultural reality of Europe in order to give them an individual and social anchor point for internationalization. Reflecting on Europe as an orientation framework is a pointed departure from the EU as a quasi-governmental entity that cannot (or can no longer) perform this orientation function to a sufficient extent.
The contributions to the above-mentioned symposium can be found in this No. 4 of impEct. I would like to thank all my colleagues for their cooperation and the lively discussion. I have grouped the contributions as follows.
1. the state and the market
In his contribution "The success of Market failure", Alan Ward, Plymouth, puts forward the thesis - made topical once again by the financial crisis - that markets have systemic weaknesses that require correction through coordinated action by the world's states. He warns against further ideologizing the debate: Faith in the state on the one hand and market fundamentalism on the other could together once again conjure up a radical critique of capitalism and distract Europe from the task of regulating the financial markets in particular.
2 Market and society
In his essay "Cultural vs. Linguistic Bonds: Diversity - but Which Unity?", Bruno Bizeul, Cergy-Pontoise, takes up Jacques Delors' dictum that the market alone cannot bring Europeans together, but requires the "ciment émotionnel". This term refers to the distinction made by Roman jurisprudence, which distinguished between "jusfraternitatis" and affectio societatis. The "ciment émotionnel" derives its binding effect from the common will to learn from others, to share daily life with them and to build exchanges on trust. This anthropological basis for living together has been buried and is not directly strengthened by the political and economic union of the EU. On the contrary, in times of economic crisis, cultural and linguistic differences prove to be a permanent resistance that defies the official community discourse.
3 Society and communicative competence
Erika Nardon-Schmid, Milan, therefore advocates a European culture of multilingualism: it is the medium in which Europeans of different origins can come closer together. Living together in this way changes both sides in the sense of "ciment émotionnel", because the experience of intercultural interaction does not remain in the intellectual realm of knowledge, but becomes affectively meaningful and thus part of the personality and the attitude it forms.
Similarly, Helga Fouré-Joopen, Clermont-Ferrand, emphasizes in her essay "Can Europe have a <European language>?" the community-building quality of multilingualism, which does not damage regional and national cultures, but gives them a new significance and prevents them from relapsing into particularism and nationalism. But how can plurality and affective commonality be conceptualized together? The following article addresses this question.
4 Europe - society or community?
The contribution by Gerhard Held, Berlin/Dortmund, "Can Europe celebrate its differences?" distinguishes three emotional charges that can characterize the coexistence of Europeans:
- Binding force qua homogeneity
- Binding force qua fateful bond with strong mutual liability
- Binding force through discourse community ("arena")
Held rules out a pan-European finality in the sense of a binding "grand narrative" because this would make the specific European differences disappear. Instead, he argues for a Europe of variable Business Studies and political styles, different paths of modernization, variable geography and variable historical locations, i.e. against a core Europe. Cohesion would be of a procedural nature, based on the acceptance of different but equal cultural forms - equal because sanctioned by a common history.
In contrast,Javier Espina Hellín, Madrid, argues in his thesis paper "Europa ¿estamos preparados para ser una alternativa con capacidad de liderazgo?" that Europe suffers from too much tolerance of differences, the "hecho diferencial". Only a parallel strengthening of national and European institutions and a community ideal could lead Europe to a self-confidence that would enable it to act more effectively despite its differences. The desire for greater legitimacy and proximity to the citizens of the European institutions is placed in a broad historical context in the following article.
5 Europe as a laboratory of the future
In his essay "European identity, or: the gradual construction of a new kind of power", Jean-Louis Georget, Paris, recapitulates the genesis of important historical motifs that are making it difficult for Europe to find itself today. He takes as his starting point the loss of orientation and the resulting sense of powerlessness felt by many Europeans as a result of the upheavals of the 20th century and the globalization of economic and political conditions. However, he emphasizes that this is also happening in other countries. The entangled history of patriotism and nationalism has for generations made individuals the arena for different guiding ideas and political interests, which cannot be shaken off in the blink of an eye. After working through the traditions, three ways of narrating Europe today emerge:
1. from the traditional political and diplomatic perspective,
2. in the style of analyzing centers of power and spheres of influence,
3. in the style of the more or less well-functioning EU institutions: a national sentiment cleansed of the excesses of the 19th and 20th centuries could "take the form of a constitutional patriotism of a cosmopolitan nature", which does not stand in contrast to the European institutions, but rather fires them up, because a European identity "presupposes a political identity that goes beyond simple calculations of interests and utility". However, there is a long way to go to achieve a European public sphere: the fact that Europeans hardly know their own neighboring countries is the biggest obstacle: secondly, there is a lack of a European discourse: European decisions are communicated in a nationally colored language of interests and are often distorted. Finally, the national issue in Central Eastern Europe presents Europeans with a particular challenge because of the complex stratification of settlement areas there. However, Europe's pioneering role as a political consensus-builder and peacemaker should prove its worth here - a title of honor that cannot be valued highly enough. With the appropriate patience and unflagging energy, Europe could find an original form of transnational coexistence.
6 The formation of European cohesion from "common situations" (Schmitz)
In his contribution "Giving Europe a backbone - How is community possible in Europe today?", Werner Müller-Pelzer, Dortmund, attempts to answer the frequently mentioned need to justify the elusive drivers of a European sense of unity. In doing so, he draws on Hermann Schmitz's concept of the situation as a basic ontological concept. Situations dynamically embrace subject and object and cast a spell over them if they are charged with atmospheric feelings. The meaningfulness for us does not have to be put into them first, it comes to us suggestively. It is therefore very promising if situations can be identified from which certain aspects of European life emerge as meaningful impressions and develop formative power. However, this requires a revision of European intellectual culture, which has so far ignored essential areas of human experience or only taken them into account in a distorted form (body, bodily communication, feelings). A resonant intercultural understanding cannot anticipate the type of binding force (see Held's "emotional charge" above) that arises in encounters with other people: moderate inclusion and passionate implantation in new situations are equally possible and should call for a European pedagogy that counters the fashionable "coolness". Students, for example, are in the fortunate position of being able to embark on this adventure during a sufficiently intensive stay abroad, from which Europe can draw new strength. The Europeanization of national identities (see Georget's essay) is not an agenda that can be advanced politically alone, because this is only possible at the level of human experience. Therefore, one can only hope that European politicians will be prevented from falling back into nationalist rhetoric and action by a more articulate public opinion.