Prague Area Studies | Summer School | Winter School | Faculty | University

European Identity between Unity and Diversity

 

Instead of relaxing at the “End of History” after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, Europe is facing new challenges at the beginning of the 21st century – including the economic and financial crisis, aging population, immigration flows, complicated relations with Russia, Turkey and the U.S., disintegration and separatist tendencies within the EU. These new challenges are raising concerns and leading to significant political radicalization and social unrest.

 

This challenging period raises feelings of uncertainty: How should Europe tackle these challenges? Should Europe seek unity or should individual states follow diverse national interests? Should Europe intensify the project of European integration? Or is it more likely to break down into local identities? And what does the European identity actually stand for today?

 

What will “Europe” mean in the future? How many people from outside can Europe welcome and still be Europe? What are the prospects for future cooperation and negotiations between Europe and its neighbors, and between Europe and other global actors like the USA and China? Are the current populist and separatist sentiments more threatening than those which arose in past decades? Whence come Europe's problems: are they self-inflicted, external, or bubbling up from the member states?

 

This “Age of Uncertainty” is an ideal time to revise common approaches and look for new perspectives. We will, together, analyse and discuss the current development of Europe in an inspiring environment made up of students coming from countries all over the world.

 

The academic programme of each course is adjusted to current topics (as climate change or digitalization) but reflects long-lasting challenges (e.g. migration and populism) as well. This year, the course discusses the search searching for European Identity. In the past, Spring and Summer Universities paid attention to globalization, the position of Central Europe in the post-cold war era, or European integration after the financial crisis.