Middlesex University: Childhood & Society SIGN Seminar Series 25th April 2018

Middlesex University: Childhood & Society SIGN Seminar Series 25th April 2018 Narratives of political identities: young Europeans Alistair Ross Jean Monnet Professor of Citizenship Education; Emeritus Professor London Metropolitan University

The nature of (political) ‘identities’ today: their kaleidoscopic nature, what identity narratives are constructed, the sources they draw on, and how these accounts are assembled and integrated with each other. The problems and strengths of ‘deliberative discussions’ as a way of generating qualitative data, comparing this to focus groups and interviews as well as more quantitative surveys, particularly in the area of analysing identities. Issues in the recruitment of samples for study, in international and national studies, and whether ‘representativeness’ is possible or useful. Particular results of the study around diversity, racism and intergenerational difference.

Those who share a space share an identity. Prima facie this is a fair statement, whether ‘the place’ is taken to be ‘space-ship earth’; or a beloved land; or a desolate slum or a public housing scheme. Indeed, it is (like the concept of ‘shared interest’) rhetorically powerful because it appeals to solid sense, and it should not be allowed to melt away under analysis. (Mackenzie 1978:130)

‘Anywheres’ – a powerful minority of footloose, urban, social liberals who do not identify with any particular place - about 20 per cent of the population) have become a deracinated and dominant elite, out of touch ‘Somewheres’ – rooted in a specific place, lacking agency and less educated – about 60% of the population ‘socially conservative and communitarian by instinct … uncomfortable about many aspects of social and economic change such as mass immigration [and] an achievement society in which they struggle to achieve’ ‘Inbetweeners’ – 20% (Goodhart 2017:5). ‘if you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what the very word ‘citizenship’ means’ (May 2016).

Odense

Agnethe I’m Agnethe, I’m a Danish girl …. Lilli My name is Lilli , I’m 17 years old, I’m a Danish girl … Cæcilie My name is Cæcilie …. . . I feel –very Danish [laughs] – even though my grandfather immigrated from Scotland – so - Julius My name’s Julius, and I find it very interesting that the first three people have stated that they’re Danish, and not European, so if it’s about Europe we are nationalists, and all this [some amusement from others] Evald I’m Evald, and I’m sixteen years old, so I’m a little younger – I also feel Danish, and I also feel like the others, quite free in my life. But my father. And my grandfathers, my grandmother, they emigrated from Germany, so I also feel some connection with Germany – but I feel mostly Danish, so – Hussein I’m Hussein, and my parents are originally from Palestine, but I’m born and raised in Denmark - I don’t feel as quite as Danish as the others, I feel more a bit of both – I feel more European than Danish – it’s like the same culture as Arabic … AR Thank you – some very interesting answers. There was quite a lot in common, some things different. You’ve all chosen to talk about how in some way you are attached to a particular country or particular countries – Denmark, Germany, Scotland, Palestine – and I wonder what it actually means to you, when you say you feel Danish or you feel mostly Danish? Lilli I feel that it’s mostly about the culture of the country. When I say I feel Danish it’s not like I feel that I belong in this country, I could easily move to another country, but it’s more about the culture in this country, like what we eat, what we say to each other, how we feel about life in general, I guess – it’s more the culture than it is the country Cæcilie I think most of it has to do with the way I was raised – for example, my mum feels more Scottish than me, so she sort of raised me to be proud to be Scottish – the culture that it has, just like when there are tourists here we talk about our culture – like she [Lilli ] said, what we eat and what we do, and we celebrate with our flag – I think we do that more than most countries do

Hussein When we talk about different identities, people often mistakenly say that there is a clash of cultures, that the youngster doesn’t know where to put himself. Is he German or Danish or Palestinian or something? But I see different cultures as being an advantage- you take the best of both cultures, the best of both identities and make your own – that’s an advantage, from my point of view … I don’t fancy the Danish culture as much, but I’m born and raised in Denmark, so a lot of what I do can be interpreted as being Danish – but I consider myself as being more Arabic than Danish – that’s not because I’m not integrated into society, just because I feel more Arabic than Danish. Julius I feel Danish too – and that makes it much easier, because you have a lot of people that you feel connected to in that way … when you’re abroad you can find Danish people and then you feel at home. I’m aware that it’s a social construction, and that until the eighteenth century you wouldn’t have had nationalities in the sense that you have it now – and I try to look away from nationalities more or less, because I want to be able to travel and feel at home everywhere I go with different cultures. I agree with Hussein that you can learn a lot from different cultures – every time I go abroad my identity changes a bit, because I pick up from different cultures what I find interesting – and what I find is an improvement to my Danish culture – and then I think the Danish culture will change a bit if everybody goes abroad and we’ll get stuff in from different places in the world – but you will also try to stick with certain ideas and certain norms, the Danish values – because it’s such a big part of your life that you’ll never give them up. Cæcilie I think our nationality is a way of expressing ourselves when we’re abroad, but also at home, using it to feel secure … you can tell people that I do this because I was raised in Denmark, because I feel Danish …For example, I feel European as well, because we have some fair rules and stuff that unites us – even though we have very different cultures in the different countries of Europe. AR I haven’t used the word ‘nationality’ or ‘nation’ – but you’ve both brought the word in – is that the same as feeling part of the country? Is feeling Danish the same as having Danish nationality? Hussein No it’s not, because if you feel Danish you feel integrated into the culture … you so like this culture that you feel you are Danish. But loving the country, that’s nationalism. And nationalism didn’t really exist before the first world war – this concept is new, and it’s being eradicated, because we are a global society and even more a European society … the world is being more globalised – you can see we are just six people here, and half of us have different roots than just Danish, though we are in a Danish town. Julius Yes, you can have Danish passport without feeling Danish, and you can also feel Danish without being able to get a Danish passport – so it’s very hard to say ‘now you are Danish’ or ‘now you are something else – Palestinian’ - I think it all comes down to what you feel – and even then though you may feel Danish you may not get a Danish passport – and it’s all some kind of construction, and it’s very hard to put borders on it. Evald I also think it’s also very hard to define what is Danishness, or what it means to be a Dane – it’s something we do ourselves – we create what we think is Danish in ourselves, and then if some other person is asked ‘What does it mean to be Danish’ they might answer something completely different from me …

One needs [freedom] to be oneself; yet being oneself solely on the strength of one’s free choice means a life full of doubts and fears of error. There are many ways in which one can respond to the task of constructing self-identity… Self-construction of the self is, so to speak, a necessity. Self confirmation of the self is an impossibility. (Bauman 1988:62)

… a palimpsest identity … the kind of identity in which forgetting, rather than learning or memorising, is the condition of continuous fitness; in which every new thing and new person enter and exit without rhyme or reason. Only such a palimpsest identity may help Europe generously accommodate its many cultures and multifarious senses of “us” (Balescu 2009:37)

… a kaleidoscopic identity … each individual avails themselves of a palette of materials configured in reflected patterns that change as one looks through a lens ….at different moments in time, the individual’s pattern of identity will change, but it is constructed from the same basic range, with some materials being more prominent in some patters, obscured in others. What is seen – the momentary, situational, observer-dependent pattern of identities – is context contingent, it depends on the lens of circumstance … (Ross 2016:183-4)

Group conversations: gruppendiskussionsverfahren ‘an open interview, intended to let respondents develop a topic in their own language, in their symbolic system and their relevant framework,’ so that analysis ‘can avoid projecting into single utterances meanings that are not appropriate … [we] learn more if this statement is put into a narrative context by the respondent … in his/her own language’ (Bohnsack, 2000:21 ‘a very open and flexible method of data generation … [I]n comparison to the more structured focus group method (Gugglberger et al. 2015; 127). ‘in which respondents can set the structures and contents of the conversation by themselves,’ thus exploring ‘knowledge stocks that are not located on the surface of conscious and clear explicable attitudes and values, but which are beneath the surface’ (Scheunpflug et al. 2016 10). ‘conjunctive knowledge … implicit, action-guiding knowledge … based and acquired in fundamental experiences … that groups of individuals share with each other.’ (Wagener 2018 in press).

not to introduce leading terms, such as nation or state, but to use words such as ‘country’ (in Cyprus, I said ‘on the island’, rather than ‘in this country’); • to only use terms such as nation, state, Balkan, or Nordic when they had introduced them; • questions to be transparently open (if someone said they were French, I might respond ‘What makes you French?’); • to accept all responses as valid (nodding, saying how interesting the response was); • to maintain direct eye contact with each speaker (showing I was following them); • to often construct questions as responses to what they had said (so it appeared that the group was determining the agenda; • to asking as few questions as possible (giving space for disagreement, supplementary comments); • not directly asking an individual to respond (not everyone replied to each question: this was a discussion, not a sequential interview); • to ask for elaborations, explanations and examples; and • to loop the conversation back to earlier comments, when appropriate.

Opening: ask person each to describe themselves, to talk a little about their identity • what else do you have in common • Why were they Romanian? What did it mean, to be Romanian? • Were there things about Romania of which they felt particularly proud, or pleased? • What aspects of Romanian society do you perhaps felt less proud/ would like to change? • Does everyone in Romania feel the same about this? (parents/grandparents/other parts)? • In addition to feeling Romanian, did they sometimes also feel European, in some way? • Revisit the lenses used about the country with a focus on Europe. • Romania is a member of the European Union. What would you feel if another country – say (a pause) - Russia asked if it could join. Would you think that would be a good thing, a bad thing, or would it not matter? • A similar question about Turkey, or Belarus, or Serbia … • Do you discuss things like these with your friends? families? teachers in school?

Where I gathered data 2016 2011 2014 2015 2010 2012

“in academia, a priori claims of universality sell better than diversity, which complicates rather than simplifies matters. Universality claims get more attention because they are cleaner and sharper, encompassing control and predictive power … [with] greater impact and appeal. This tends to relegate diversity to noise rather than as a primary object of study.” (Rochat 2010 107) 80% of the non-USA studies are drawn from psychology undergraduates in the capital city of a country (Arnett 2008) These are generally extrapolated to be representative of the country’s inhabitants in general (Rozin 2001). A sample of social science research articles consisted of 85 per cent undergraduate samples, 71 per cent of the participants were female; and over 80 per cent were white.(Gosling et al. 2004)

All aged 11 - 20 Approx 54% female, 46% male Approximate social class

Rank order size of settlements where interviews took place Using Doxiadis (1968) hierarchy) Megalopolis (Istanbul) Conurbation (Berlin, Madrid) Metropolis (Paris, Brussels) Large City (Amsterdam, Timisoara) Small City (Ljubljana, Luxembourg)) Large Town (Roubaix, Frascati) Small Town (Akureyri, Tielt) Village (Puunsi, Lunja) All populations in thousands

Linz Helsinki Diversity and Change: three kinds of minorities 1: of recent/relatively recent migrant origin Kaia O (♀16) (Helsinki born, of Somali parents) Some people see me as different 2: Roma 3: in a ‘new’ country because of border changes Vilhelm T (♂18)well, I want to challenge racist behaviour, but I never see examples of it. Aune K (♀16)Vilhelm, if you are part of a minority you will see it better Elgin A (♀15) racism is anti-Muslim [my mother is often abused] I think it’s so fucking rude – and I kind of get really mad. She doesn’t even seem to notice it - but I see it, and I hate it. [Kaia Othen gives an example of everyday racism on the bus] Vilhelm T [visibly shocked] Fatima, what kind of people say these things?

Same country Another EU country European, not EU Outside Europe

Forst Beilefelde Values and Issues blurring boundaries Hannelore A (♀14) we need to integrate those excluded from society, such as disabled persons, or currently, refugees Forst Roland F (♂17) I know refugees through his girlfriends’ sister, she goes out with a refugee, a really nice guy

Torhout København Values and Issues: sharpening boundaries Aart L (♂16)We should close of all the borders in Europe because they are coming with the mindset that Belgium has to change - and it’s not the way it goes Connie E (♀15) immigrants to Denmark do a lot of stupid things like breaking into houses. In schools they don’t listen, they are very loud and disturbing - but there’s no racism [What do they want to change? Pim V (♂16)They want to build their mosque on our grounds [How does this change your culture?] [Gökhan G ♂15 (of Turkish origin) maybe some young people feel they have no chance in this country because they are immigrants Pim VWe have a normal church’ [But the Belgians built churches in their colonies? ] Aart LWe had the right to do what we want – but now they come to our country, but we are still above them

Hannover Forst Berlin Values and Issues: remembering, forgetting Gerold K (♂15) my grandmother fled from Breslau in 1946 , and my father was then a refugee from the former DDR to the FDR. My father and I have arguments with other members of our family who support the AFD – we think we should welcome all of the refugees - because when you think sixty years back – millions running away and looking for where they could live. Baldur E (♂16) (part Turkish] Germany is haunted by its past Christiane M (♂14) (Belarus origin) after the war, we got better, and we have only a little racism in our country. Ivonne O (♀15) we were the bad ones in history.

Brussels København Stockholm Values and Issues generational change Alvilda A ♀(18) My parents keep making racist jokes - I don’t think they realise that they are being racist … it’s just the way that she was brought up Frida H (♀16) older people like my grandparents vote right wing so Sweden stays the same way it has been, and to end the changes Maartje M (♀16) (Moroccan father) every time I go to visit my Flemish family I have to adapt to them, because they don’t like stuff that’s outside of their box. My family is mostly NV-A it’s like ‘Yes, Flemish! We don’t need the French people!’ It’s not very easy – it’s not because I think they’re racist that I don’t like

Haslev Lisboa Wein Values and Issues generational change Godofredo (♂15) in school we get together with people from other races, we learn they are people too, the same – white, black. This didn’t happen with out grandparents – though my family is not racist Troels (♂18) I grew up in the countryside, where we didn’t have any immigrants – I’ve never been really prejudiced against immigrants, I’d just never experienced it in the place I grew up - and then I came to the Gymnasium, and suddenly there are lots of them. And at the start – I had some prejudices against some of them – because of the way they looked, they matched the way I had seen them look on the news, like the ‘immigrant criminal’ tends to be shown. I started thinking about them as what I’d seen through the media, but then, experiencing being with them as normal human beings, just ordinary people like me and you, that gave a lot to me. s Anton (♂15) because I go with them [migrants] to school, I know them

comment, as when Godofredo (♂15) in Lisboa said ‘in school we get together with people from other races, we learn they are people too, the same – white, black. This didn’t happen with out grandparents – though my family is not racist,’ and Anton (♂15) in Wien: ‘because I go with them [migrants] to school, I know them.’ But sometimes it was more specific and personal: in Haslev, Troels (♂18) had arrived in his upper school two years earlier: I grew up in the countryside, where we didn’t have any immigrants – I’ve never been really prejudiced against immigrants, I’d just never experienced it in the place I grew up - and then I came to the Gymnasium, and suddenly there are lots of them. And at the start – I had some prejudices against some of them – because of the way they looked, they matched the way I had seen them look on the news, like the ‘immigrant criminal’ tends to be shown. I started thinking about them as what I’d seen through the media, but then, experiencing being with them as normal human beings, just ordinary people like me and you, that gave a lot to me. Such views were widespread in western Europe. In Vevey, Béatrice (♀15) said ‘we young people are more used to foreigners - we were born and grew up among the foreigners who were already here – whereas our grandparents, the older generation, they weren’t used to it. When they were young, they lived mostly among Swiss people.’ In the village of Saint-Clément-de-Rivière in France, Caro (♀15) said ‘we’re used to living with them – I am used to living with them, and it was not like this twenty years ago.’

Blagoevgrad

AR What does being Bulgarian mean to you? Borislav A hard question. [pause] To be proud of our country - Bulgarians are proud people … There isn’t so much we can be proud of – we aren’t the best in sports, our people who run the country aren’t very good, and we aren’t in the first place in the European Union – in most things we are last. So, we love the country – but we don’t like the people that run it … Simäčon We have to be proud of our history – there are many heroes – we are not bad people, but people in other European countries don’t like us. Have you heard about the website in Holland, which says ‘do not trust Bulgarian and Romanian people’? It’s wrong – we’re not such bad people – but this is our reputation … Borislav We have been five hundred years under Turkey, but we had the power to rise and take our country again, which I think is pretty good thing to do, to keep your nationality alive. Our culture is unique – for example, Kukeri [a New Year dance festival] … Simäčon My parents and my grandparent say that life before 1989 was better than now – life was cheaper, everybody had enough food to live – now life is much more difficult – Borislav – everybody had a job, now it’s a big problem. Elisaveta They did not have the freedom which we have now. They couldn’t listen to the Beatles, they couldn’t go to church, and that’s more important …

AR … We’ve talked a bit about Europe. Do you think that you are Europeans, as well as being Bulgarians? Borislav I don’t feel so European. Although we are in the European Union, the difference between us and the leading countries is pretty big – when we get up with them, I will feel like a European. Pavel I don’t feel European, not at all. It is the same - it’s just that we are in the European Union. There are new things in the country but I don’t feel European, just Bulgarian. Elisaveta For me, it’s not about how we feel, it’s about our thinking. If you see how a little child throws rubbish in the street, you feel Bulgarian, not European – behaving like that is not European – that’s Bulgarian. Analie I don’t feel like a European person – everyone thinks only for themselves, out of self-interest. Borislav It’s just a document that says that we are in the European Union – we should ask ourselves ‘what does it mean, to be a European?’ It’s not to leave rubbish in the street, these kinds of things. Elisaveta Elisaveta They keep with the rules: in Bulgaria we are always saying ‘why should I do it, because the person next to me isn’t doing it?’ Pavel They’re like us, but more advanced.

AR [at this point I asked if Turkey might be able to join the European Union] Pavel No one wants that [laughter]. Simäčon … they are bad people [more laughter] … Borislav The way they treat women – it’s not right – like people who just cook, and then sit in the other room when you eat, and you can live with two or three women – they shouldn’t be European - no one else in the Union does things like that. AR So in that way, Bulgaria is part of Europe? [hesitates] Yes, in this particular thing we are better than them, about women’s rights. To get in the European Union, you should have something in common with the other countries. There are rules, to get in, you must do things that the Union asks. Maybe they can tell Turkey about changing women’s rights – and if they change them, then be accepted. Borislav AR And you would be happy if they changed and were accepted? I just think things aren’t right – and maybe the other Europeans think the same. So maybe … in this particular thing … we are European. Borislav

October 2018

Middlesex University: Childhood & Society SIGN Seminar Series 25th April 2018