Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

SAGE Handbook of European Studies

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
European Journal of Social Theory
This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ossewaarde, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Dialectic between Romanticism and Classicism in Europe

Marinus Ossewaarde

UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE, THE NETHERLANDS, m.r.r.ossewaarde{at}utwente.nl

This article provides an application of Alvin Gouldner's dialectic between Romanticism and Classicism to the constitutional process of European identity formation. Gouldner introduced his dialectical sociology in a critical attempt to destroy compulsive identification with any fixed idea of order. In an attempt to destroy compulsive identification with any Romantic or classical idea of Europe, this article shows how Europe's identity, as it has been represented in the Constitutional Treaty (CT), as well as in sociological works, is being shaped by predominant Romantic and classic thought structures and social movements. The central argument is that the dialectic between Romanticism and Classicism in Europe is most clearly observed in the debates about democracy, human rights and rule of law — the classical values that constitute the EU's entry criteria.

Key Words: dialectic • Europe • European Constitution • Alvin Gouldner • sociology

References

  • Ackerman, Bruce (1994) `Rooted Cosmopolitanism', Ethics 104(3): 516—35.[CrossRef]
  • Amin, Ash (2004) `Multi-Ethnicity and the Idea of Europe', Theory, Culture & Society 21(2): 1—24.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • Aron, Raymond (1968) Progress and Disillusion: The Dialectics of Modern Society. London: Pall Mall Press.
  • —— (1988) Power, Modernity and Sociology: Selected Sociological Writings. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
  • Ash, Timothy Garton (2005) The Free World: America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West. London: Allen Lane.
  • Bauman, Zygmunt (2004) Europe: An Unfinished Adventure. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Bawer, Bruce (2006) While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying Europe from Within. London: Doubleday.
  • Beck, Ulrich (2003) `Understanding the Real Europe', Dissent 50 (summer): 32—8.
  • Beck, Ulrich and Giddens, Anthony (2003) `Discovering Real Europe: A Cosmopolitan Vision', Policy Network. Accessed: www.policy-network.neton6June2006.
  • Beck, Ulrich and Sznaider, Natan (2006) `Unpacking Cosmopolitanism for the Social Sciences: A Research Agenda', The British Journal of Sociology 57(1): 1—23.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Benhabib, Seyla (2004) The Rights of Others: Aliens, Residents and Citizens. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Bosserman, Phillip (1995) `The Twentieth Century's Saint-Simon: Georges Gurvitch's Dialectical Sociology and the New Physics', Sociological Theory 13(1): 48—57.[CrossRef]
  • Boucher, David (2005) `The Rule of Law in the Modern European State: Oakeshott and the Enlargement of Europe', European Journal of Political Theory 4 (1): 89—107.[CrossRef]
  • Burawoy, Michael (2005) `The Critical Turn to Public Sociology', Critical Sociology 31 (3): 313—26.[CrossRef]
  • Burleigh, Michael (2006) Earthly Powers: The Conflict between Religion and Politics from the French Revolution to the Great War. London: HarperCollins.
  • Camic, Charles and Gross, Neil (2002) `Alvin Gouldner and the Sociology of Ideas: Lessons from Enter Plato', The Sociological Quarterly 43 (1): 97—110.[CrossRef]
  • Canfora, Luciano (2006) Democracy in Europe: A History. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Chriss, James J. (2002) `Gouldner's Tragic Vision', The Sociological Quarterly 43 (1): 81—96.[CrossRef]
  • Cranston, Maurice (1994) The Romantic Movement. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • D'Appollonia, Ariane Chebel (2002) `European Nationalism and European Union', in Anthony Pagden (ed.) The Idea of Europe. pp. 171—90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Deflem, Mathieu (1996) Habermas, Modernity and Law. London: Sage Publications.
  • Delanty, Gerard (2000) Citizenship in a Global Age: Society, Culture, Politics. Bucking-ham: Open University Press.
  • Delanty, Gerard and Rumford, Chris (2005) Rethinking Europe: Social Theory and the Implications of Europeanization. London: Routledge.
  • Durkheim, Emile (1992) Professional Ethics and Civic Morals. London: Routledge.
  • Eder, Klaus (2006) `Europe's Borders: The Narrative Construction of the Boundaries of Europe', European Journal of Social Theory 9 (2): 255—71.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • Eder, Klaus and Giesen, Bernhard, eds (2001) European Citizenship between National Legacies and Postnational Projects. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Eurlings, Camiel (2006) Draft Report on Turkey's Progress towards Accession, Committee on Foreign Affairs. Accessed at: www.euractiv.com on 20 June 2006.
  • European Convention (2003) Draft Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe.
  • Evans, J.D.G. (1977) Aristotle's Concept of Dialectic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Follesdal, Andreas (1998) `Subsidiarity', Journal of Political Philosophy, 6 (2): 190—218.[CrossRef]
  • Friedrichs, Robert W. (1972) `Dialectical Sociology: Toward a Resolution of the Current "Crisis" in Western Sociology', The British Journal of Sociology 23(3): 263—74.[CrossRef]
  • Gauchet, Marcel (1999) The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • Giddens, Anthony (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
  • Göle, Nilüfer (2006) `Europe's Encounter with Islam: What Future?', Constellations 13(2): 248—62.[CrossRef]
  • Gouldner, Alvin W. (1973) For Sociology: Renewal and Critique in Sociology Today. London: Allen Lane.
  • —— (1976) The Dialectic of Ideology and Technology: The Origins, Grammar and Future of Ideology. London: Macmillan.
  • Habermas, Jürgen (2001) The Postnational Constellation: Political Essays. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
  • —— (2002) The Inclusion of the Other: Studies in Political Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • —— (2003) `Toward a Cosmopolitan Europe: Making Sense of the EU', Journal of Democracy, 14(4): 86—100.[CrossRef]
  • Held, David (2003) `Cosmopolitanism: Globalisation Tamed?', Review of International Studies 29(4): 465—80.[CrossRef]
  • Honneth, Axel (1995) The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts. Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Horkheimer, Max and Adorno, Theodor W. (1972) Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Herder and Herder.
  • Huntington, Samuel P. (1993) `The Clash of Civilizations', Foreign A fairs 73(3): 22—49.
  • Isaac, Joel (2005) `Republicanism: A European Inheritance?', European Journal of Social Theory 8(1): 73—86.[CrossRef]
  • Jorgensen, Estelle R. (2001) `A Dialectical View of Theory and Practice', Journal of Research in Music Education 49(4): 343—59.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • Kelly, George Armstrong (1992) The Humane Comedy: Constant, Tocqueville and French Liberalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Kinneging, Andreas (2004) `Europese Constitutie en Constitutionele Theorie ', in Paul B. Cliteur (ed.) Naar een Europese Grondwet. Den Haag: Boom Juridische Uitgevers.
  • Le Goff, Jacques (2005) The Birth of Europe. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Lemert, Charles and Piccone, Paul (1982) `Gouldner's Theoretical Method and Reflexive Sociology ', Theory and Society 11(6): 733—57.
  • Maritain, Jacques (1944) The Rights of Man and Natural Law. London: The Centenary Press.
  • Menéndez, Agustin José (2005) `A Pious Europe: Why Europe Should not Define itself as Christian', European Law Review 30 (1): 133—48.
  • Mills, C. Wright (1963) Power, Politics and the People: Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills. Ed. Irving Louis Horowitz. New York: Ballantine Books.
  • Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat (1951) OEuvres Complètes, Vol. II. Ed. Roger Caillois. Paris: Gallimard.
  • Nisbet, Robert (1966) The Sociological Tradition. New York: Basic Books.
  • Paolucci, Paul (2001) `Assumptions of the Dialectical Method', Critical Sociology 27(3): 116—46.[CrossRef]
  • Patterson, Orlando (1982) Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Pedraza, Silvia (2002) `A Sociology for Our Times: Alvin Gouldner's Message ', The Sociological Quarterly 43(1): 73—9.[CrossRef]
  • Piris, Jean-Claude (2006) The Constitution for Europe: A Legal Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rossi, Ino (1983) From the Sociology of Symbols to the Sociology of Signs: Toward a Dialectical Sociology. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Scharpf, Fritz (1999) Governing in Europe: E fective and Democratic? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Schlesinger, Philip and Foret, François (2006) `Political Roof and Sacred Canopy?: Religion and the EU Constitution', European Journal of Social Theory 9(1): 59—81.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • Siedentop, Larry (2000) Democracy in Europe. London: Allen Lane.
  • Tully, James (2002) `The Kantian Idea of Europe: Critical and Cosmopolitan Perspectives', in Anthony Pagden (ed.) The Idea of Europe. pp. 331—58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Turner, Bryan S. (2006) `Classical Sociology and Cosmopolitanism: A Critical Defence of the Social', The British Journal of Sociology 57(1): 133—51.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Weber, Max (1958) From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. Ed. H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Weiler, Joseph H.H. (2004) Een Christelijk Europa: Een Verkennend Essay. Deventer: Kluwer.
  • Woodiwiss, Anthony (2002) `Human Rights and the Challenge of Cosmopolitanism ', Theory, Culture & Society 19(1—2): 139—55.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  • Zielonka, Jan (2006) Europe as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

European Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 10, No. 4, 523-542 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1368431007084369
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?



This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ossewaarde, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?