Identity

"All political identities are [...] to a substantial degree historical constructions" (1)

The key-concept with cultural identities related to territorial entities, and the political parties having them at the core of their program, is of course identity. Discussion (political or not) about the concept is for the most part ontological, fluctuating between the extremes of identity as an objective, timeless, transcendent given on the one hand and a historical construction on the other. Here we follow the definition given by French social scientist Natalie Heinich, which states that it is not a 'fact' but an open process of more or less consciously, objectified and (sometimes) institutionalized projections offering a tool giving sense to life; a multidimensional, complex, plural and multilayered whole; not a given but a product, articulated through language, behavior (like rituals), objects (like a flag) and (where possible) regulation (like a passport) and subsequently more or less interiorized; it is also variously qualified (with for instance proper names) allowing for the structuring of identity as a language; allotted (identity only gets its meaning in relation to the self-image transmitted to and reflected by the Other); and, finally, it is an object, i.e. a thing (like a house), a subject (a person) or an abstract entity (like a nation) (1).

Mark that identity is NOT the same as identitarian. The former refers to parties although varying in political stance all along the ideological spectrum from the far right over the centre to the far left, but nevertheless all having a cultural (ethnic / national) collective identity as their framework and subject of their ('identity') politics. The latter points to the pan-European far-right movement and political ideology asserting the the right of European ethnic groups and white peoples to Western culture and territories claimed to belong exclusively to them.

NOTES

1 "Alle politieke identiteiten zijn [] in belangrijke mate historische constructies": S. Heylen, Genese van een provincie, in: S. Heylen, B. de Nil, B. D'Hondt e.a., Geschiedenis van de provincie Antwerpen. Een politieke biografie, Antwerpen, 2005, 19-44 (9). Unauthorized translation by Luc Boeva.

2 N. Heinich, Ce que n'est pas l'identité, Paris, 2018.