Solidarity within Europe / solidarity without Europe

Abstract:

Both in EU policy discourse and in theoretical interventions on Europe, a dilemma was constructed, which has remained implicit. The dilemma in question concerns on the one hand, European solidarity, that is, solidarity within Europe and, on the other hand, solidarity of Europe with 'the rest of the world'. It is posed in the usual either/or form: either Europe creates and strengthens its social solidarity (its society) or it creates and strengthens its human solidarity (or solidarity in the name of humanity or humanity); it cannot do both. The dilemma is the wrong way of putting the issue, since it is not only based on an asymmetry between the specificity of 'social' Europe and the indeterminacy of 'the rest of the world' but it also separates Europe's colonial history from the relevant present. The two solidarities need to be brought back together, both for conceptual and for pragmatic reasons.