Reflecting the European commitment to social citizenship, Network activities address identities, values and civic cultures. The purpose is to elucidate the effect of European and national policies on questions of integration and diversity, to look into the creation of a sense of belonging in an increasingly culturally diverse Europe and to support integration with respect for diversity.

It addresses questions of

• Governance
• Theoretical claims about individual and cultural backgrounds
• The impact of participation in civil society and politics
• The various roles of civil society

Identities, Values and Civic Cultures in Europe – Integration and Diversity

EU member states are becoming more pluralistic and there is every reason to expect that this trend will continue. Asylum and immigration in particular have become major political issues in many Western European countries. Furthermore, the politics of these issues are often confused and usually confrontational.

How is the new Europe to maintain its commitment to social citizenship in the face of ever increasing diversity and pluralism? In many ways, this question echoes the old debate over ‘freedom versus social solidarity’. Can nation states practise openness, respect difference, and also expect people from very different cultures and religions to sign-up to a common set of values? In recognising the contribution that religious groups may make, for example, to education or to social care, will governments succeed in promoting belonging or will they encourage fragmentation and divisiveness? It has to be recognised that the governments of EU member states hold very different views on these issues, for example, the French Republican tradition, which insists on equality in the sense of same treatment, is far from the British attachment to multi-cultural policies.

At the EU level, the hope is that it will be possible to combine integration with respect for diversity. The European Social Model has received much more attention from the European Commission since the Lisbon Summit, and the Open Method of Coordination designed to develop it allows for diversity of policies in different member states, but it is nevertheless premised on a set of common values. The main social and economic challenges to maintaining the European Social Model have already been set out in the reports presented to the Belgian Presidency in 2001. (However, at the level of the nation state, social policies have a long history of being imposed from the top down).

The agenda of civil society that is to be explored in the CINEFOGO Network is concerned with the crucial issue of modes of governance that promote European integration while respecting diversity. Recent EU level policy documents have shown an increased awareness of the importance of ‘civil dialogue’, but the work of CINEFOGO is premised on the idea that closer examination and exploration of the possibilities of civic participation in culturally diverse societies is crucial to a European sense of belonging, which in turn underpins the European Social Model.

In many European countries, parties of the political Left have historically often been suspicious of the particularism, amateurism, and patchiness of voluntary and community groups, while the political Right has tended to treat voluntary and community groups instrumentally, as a source of alternative social provision to the state. The free and spontaneous formation of associations of citizens may have many purposes. Historically, two of the most important ones have been the provision of a service, for members of the association, and for others who are similarly situated, and the exercise of ‘voice’ via campaigning on a particular issue. The role of such associations is thus social, economic, and political. Voluntary and community groups have historically played a huge role in service delivery in the modern welfare state, but only recently, after the events of 1989, has their importance for the functioning of a healthy democratic society been re-confirmed.

However, we are faced with the problem of how best to promote and secure civic action and participation that will enhance social cohesion rather than social divisiveness, and that will build a common citizenship.

How are Work packages related to Themes? See here.