Esplorando l'identità europea, tra approcci teorici e ricerca empirica. Riflessioni sul dibattito in corso

Abstract

Since the start of the European integration, many theoretical and empirical approaches have focused on the intricate relationship between the European political project and the social and cultural changes within European borders. I begin recalling the academic debate on European identity and analyzing how the main theoretical perspectives deal with the study of the social dimension of Europe and the European identity construction process: Neofuntionalism, Institutionalism and Constructivism. I then delve into the sociological definition of identity explaining the concepts found in the scientific literature and the sociological contribution to the debate. In the final part I present some findings from empirical researches on this topic and the distinctive features of identity in a transnational context.