A theory of collective identity

This paper argues for a robust notion of collective identity which is not reduced to a psychological conception of identity. In a first part the debate on the concept of identity raised by several authors is taken up critically with the intention to defend a strong sociological conception of identity which by definition is a collective identity. The basic assumption is that collective identities are narrative constructions which allow controlling the boundaries of a network of actors. This theory is then applied to the case of Europe showing how identity markers are used to control the boundaries of a common space of communication. These markers are bound to stories which those within such a space of communication share. Stories that store in their narrative structures social relations provide projects of control. National identities are based on strong and exclusive stories. Europeanization (among other parallel processes on the global level) opens this space of boundary constructions and offers opportunities for national as well as subnational as well as transnational stories competing with each other for shaping European identity projects. The EU – this is the hypothesis – is providing a case in which different sites offer competing opportunities for continuing old stories, start new stories or import old stories form other sites, thus creating a narrative network on top of the network of social relations that bind the people in Europe together. European identity is therefore to be conceived as a narrative network embedded in an emerging network of social relation among the people living in Europe.