Identity and values in the European Union

Towards a new form of obscurantism in European societies

Bibliographic Data

ID21377258
AuthorsMaria Cristina Marchetti (0000-0002-6106-0563, Sapienza University of Rome, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume96 - LXVIII
Pages33-48
Publication date2024-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQuaderni di Sociologia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-4952 • E-ISSN: 2421-5848
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/14ubp
OpenAlexW4414750974
LanguageEN
References cited30

The process of rationalisation that has characterised the modern West for centuries culminated in the Enlightenment. The universalist values it proposed were the reference point for the development of Western civilisation and a series of achievements in civil, political and social rights that still form the basis of modern democracies today.At the same time, the universalist nature of these values has come into conflict with other models of society, leading to the emergence of a widening gap between the West and the rest of the world. Recently, this gap has widened even within the cradle of the Enlightenment: Europe.Indeed, if from a global perspective, «Western values are steadily diverging from the rest of the world’s» («The Economist», 2023), as highlighted by the latest World Values Survey, the Western world and Europe in particular are witnessing a “cultural backlash” (Norris, Inglehart, 2018) that underlies the rise of various forms of populism, sovereignism, and nationalism. In the European context, the gap with Western values has become an internal opposition between the European Union and Europe as a whole

Civilization · Eurocentrism · European union · Opposition (politics) · Politics · Rationalisation · Western culture · Western europe · Eastern European Communism and Reforms

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