Constructions of Europe: Territoriality, Sovereignty, Identity1: Disaggregations of Cultural and Political Space

One of the ideal presumptions underpinning the nation-state in Europe is the convergence of culture, politics, and space. It is predicated on spatial politics in its national meanings. This paper addresses the question of the impact of European political integration on the linkages between territoriality and national identity in the contemporary European landscape. These processes tend to detach the space of politics from the politics of space. In an ongoing reformulation of the territorial state in Europe, mental geographies are challenged and changed and nationalism and patriotism reforged. This reinvention of territoriality does not undermine national identity, nor eliminates political interest in the national citizenry even though it reshuffles some of its basic components. At best we can expect a maturing of a European nationalism no longer solely based on exclusivist images of the national-spatial Other