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Post-Nationalism
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July 19, 2026
This was such an unexpected and yet necessary dose of positivity on the topic of "becoming European" and the European Union as a project, I actually teared up a couple of times??
In Part I of the text, Braidotti emphasizes the collective shift in the social imaginary that must take place for us to renew the commitment to the EU. We can, should, and must dream bigger to counter-act the Othering pushed by populism/fascism, and we must demand more from what we want out of the institutional EU! "Becoming European means to practice a multiple identity of 'both - and', that is to say, of being both grounded in national belonging and structured by post-nationalist values." (page 27)
In Part II of Braidotti's essay, I really loved how she shifted the perspective of crisis (e.g. Foucault's "Death of Man") beyond the negative connotation, and instead emphasizes the potentiality for us to renew our own self-understanding and dreams for a post-national Europe; it reminds me a lot of peacebuilding's re-framing of conflict as an opportunity for positive change.
The process of decolonizing the social imaginary is not a small task, and a post-nationalist imaginary is not one that can be created nor accomplished alone. There's a quote I always come back to from the 14th Dalai Lama, which I unfortunately have only ever seen in the Tibet Museum in Dharamsala, India, but I feel it is appropriate to include here since the HHDL anyway has expressed his admiration of the spirit of the EU:
In Part I of the text, Braidotti emphasizes the collective shift in the social imaginary that must take place for us to renew the commitment to the EU. We can, should, and must dream bigger to counter-act the Othering pushed by populism/fascism, and we must demand more from what we want out of the institutional EU! "Becoming European means to practice a multiple identity of 'both - and', that is to say, of being both grounded in national belonging and structured by post-nationalist values." (page 27)
In Part II of Braidotti's essay, I really loved how she shifted the perspective of crisis (e.g. Foucault's "Death of Man") beyond the negative connotation, and instead emphasizes the potentiality for us to renew our own self-understanding and dreams for a post-national Europe; it reminds me a lot of peacebuilding's re-framing of conflict as an opportunity for positive change.
The process of decolonizing the social imaginary is not a small task, and a post-nationalist imaginary is not one that can be created nor accomplished alone. There's a quote I always come back to from the 14th Dalai Lama, which I unfortunately have only ever seen in the Tibet Museum in Dharamsala, India, but I feel it is appropriate to include here since the HHDL anyway has expressed his admiration of the spirit of the EU:
I have a vision, but I only have one pair of hands with which to implement it. I need more pairs of hands to fulfill the goal. I believe that if steps are taken now it will be possible to eventually to make this a more compassionate, peaceful, happier century than the one that went before.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review