Kobe University Brussels European Centre
Opening Symposium“Roles of Culture on the Foundation of European Integration”
th5 March, 2011

Concluding remarks
Associate Prof. Kazunari Sakai(Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University)
Which role does culture play in the process of European integration?
While you can suppose it plays a positive part as the pivot of unification, you canthink also it plays negative one that it produces a barrier between the inside andthe outside and prompts friction and opposition. Today, we tried to investigate
these kinds of functions of culture in the development of the European Union.
Professor Ferragu, specialist on International relations history and rolesof Christianity, revealed, at first, a historical fact that the European society banded
together just as Christendom through battles against Muslims since the Middle
Ages. And he indicated that Christianity has been not the only one, but exactly oneof core factors, which have unified the European society.
Quating Turkish case Professor Ferragu distinguished two categories onEurope concerning roles of Christianity played on the foundation of European
integration: 1) Europe as “identity”, and 2) Europe as “project”. The Europe as
identity is consciousness of a community, in which Christianity took a big role. TheEurope as project is based on a political will that they establish a permanent peace
and prosperity overcoming a war and conflict, where they consider Europe should
be in charge of promoter of European common and fundamental values, i.e. humanrights, democracy and rule of law, to areas outside Europe as well as the inside.
Here Christianity doesn’t take a major role directly but Europe (especially referringto the EU) functions as a propagator or mediator of such values in order toovercome or prevent wars and conflicts just as particularly the Pope Benedict XVI
wishes when we observe acts of the Holy See which has had to do with the processof development of the European Union. It might be possible to find potentials of theEU towards construction of peaceful coexistence with Muslim world close to the EUand incorporated in the EU.
From the point of views about transfer of thoughts, way of communication,diffusion of ideas, possibilities of “literary journalism” presented by professor
Meuret are very stimulating and interesting. She defined it and deepened that:“Literary journalists are writing history: not mainstream history; rather, they
address the question of the representation of reality from a different perspective.

Reportage [which is a typical example of literary journalism] is journalism inaction; it implies that writers travel, discover new cultures, observe different mores,
and transfer that information to potential readers.”
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Kobe University Brussels European Centre
Opening Symposium“Roles of Culture on the Foundation of European Integration”
th5 March, 2011

We can recognize that, at the heyday of literary journalism, 1) different
traditional ways of journalism converged gradually and many models of “reportage”
were produced, which describe important changes of culture which had made up“Europe”. 2) literary journalism contributed to send individuals’ voices asalternatives to tell history.
It is difficult to say that literary journalism itself grew the European
integration but indicated that intercultural contacts are very productive in Europe
where different cultures coexist. Picking up voices in the margin in Europe andsharing values with them, it has attracted considerable attention to public,
showing the entire and real figure of Europe.
Professor Terao developed the discussion, from the point of view ofsocio-linguistics and history, that in the situation that “liquifaction” ofinternational society, i.e. remarkable increase of migration is evident in aglobalized era, how the European Union protects minority languages.
He focuses on “territoriality”, which is a political and social principle
Europe innovated and diffused to all over the world in the process of formation of
the modern sovereign state system. But its deconstruction (free movement of people
beyond borders) has been developed just in Europe through the formation of theEuropean Union, nevertheless in the context of reinforcement of borders between
the inside and the outside, territoriality has been strengthened. He pointed out
critically that the distinction between “protected minority languages” and“non-protected ones” has been made according to the origins of the languages frominside Europe or outside Europe. Indicating the contradiction between “principle ofterritoriality” and “principle of personality” is caused through language rights andhuman rights, Prof. Terao analyzed to which degree the territoriality should berelativized in the European integration, with comparison to the situation of theregional integration in the East Asia.
Professor Eberhart focused on “pilgrimage” and presented a view toanalyze the European integration from the perspective of cultural anthropology.
Taking an example of a church of pilgrimage Mariazell, he analyzed the meaningsof Christian pilgrimage in Europe and also pilgrimage phenomena around theworld.
It is showed clearly that a sacred place visiting activity has been practiced
gradually in the secular context rather than traditional religious one, i.e. theactivity has become worldly and popularized. Many secular elements as well as
religious ones have been incorporated into the pilgrimage activity. Here, what is
important for the analysis on the foundation of European integration is especiallyintercultural dialogues beyond difference of religions and new identity formation in2

Kobe University Brussels European Centre
Opening Symposium“Roles of Culture on the Foundation of European Integration”
th5 March, 2011

Europe through contemporary pilgrimage. It should be focused particularly themovement of people in the Eastern Europe in the process of joining to the EU of theEast European nations. “Practicing the pilgrimage through the routes of the Middle
Ages, they have become new citizens of the European Union.”
For these 4 lectures, some significant comments and questions wereposted to presenters by two discussants, Dr. Matsui and Mr. Somma. Throughthose questions, to which were added many questions and comments from the floor,
discussion was deepened about the session’s theme: the roles of culture in thefoundation of European integration, its past, present and future.
If I can raise one example of the results for this session, it is that we sharethe vision that Europe has had at any time mainstream culture and minorities, andhas suffered from difficulties to harmonize this cleavage but managed to overcome
it. In this context, it has produced several philosophical and/or subjective
attachments among them, which must have been cultural (but there could havebeen negative aspects of culture which made the situation worse). So it is necessary
to investigate how they found solutions to these problems, in which the research ofboth of social sciences (institutional aspects, for example economy and politicalregime) and humanities (philosophical and contents aspects) has been necessary, as
well as the collaboration among them.
Now, this is only the kick-off of the research cooperation about thecultural aspects of the foundational level of the EU between scholars fromEuropean universities (who are the parties concerned) and from Kobe University(who can be objective observers from the outside), It is advisable to continue thecooperation and furthermore develop today’s discussion from more focused views.
Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup. Danke schön. Mille grazie. Dank u.
Arigatou Gozaimashita.

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