ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes to use Gerard Delanty’s “critical cosmopolitanism” as a socio-theoretical and methodological framework to assess the European Universities Initiative’s (EUI’s) potential to foster shared European values and a stronger European identity. It does so by applying Delanty’s concept to the EUI’s programmatic texts. Delanty’s critical cosmopolitanism focuses on the normative culture that emerges from exchange and cross-fertilisation in public spaces of debate and dialogue, such as those expected to arise from the university alliances. Delanty’s theory is based on four dynamics: the capacity for the relativisation of one’s own culture or identity, the capacity for the positive recognition of the Other, the capacity for the mutual evaluation of cultures or identities and the capacity to create a shared normative culture. The analysis reveals that although the EUI documents aim to achieve a shared normative culture, they fail at establishing mechanisms for reflective encounters, thus hindering the emergence of a shared supranational identity.
