This thesis maintains that the study and practice of European integration is hindered by an unquestioned and all-embracing conceptual foundation, derived from 17th/18th century political thought. By virtue of identity-related assumptions including 'nation-state', 'nationalism', and 'sovereignty', which rest on an exclusive binary distinction between "self" and "other", this foundation is inadequate and anachronistic as a theoretical lens through which to understand the dynamics of contemporary Europe. / Chapter 1 reveals the inadequacy of existing theories of European integration, and Chapter 2 traces this inadequacy to the issue of identity, tying it in with a modern identity crisis. It is argued that the theory and practice of European integration in the 1990's depends on a fundamental reconceptualisation of identity, to eliminate the conceptual rigidity of exclusive self/other binary distinction, and so to provide the basis for a new kind of European identity. In Chapter 3, the framework of a new "non-fixed", "non-essential" and pragmatic identity (and therefore European identity), beyond the self/other boundaries of contemporary thought, is elaborated through the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, and its effect on the study and practice of European integration is assessed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26128 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Tyrrell, Nicola |
| Contributors | Tully, James (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Political Science.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001403962, proquestno: MM94398, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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