This article argues for the need to think about the politics of regret more critically, within academia and beyond. The politics of regret here refers to the process through which the representation of past events comes to be dominated by apologetic voices in the public discourse. A brief overview of the most prominent previous attempts to make sense of the phenomenon shows why it is vital to strengthen the critical perspective on the issue. I assume that, in practice, the politics of regret almost always makes use of simplified representations of historical events that constitute images of the self and of wider society; as such, it should be properly understood as mythical. For this reason, I argue that the critical (scholarly and social) approach to the politics of regret should be based on a more general ethical framework with regard to myths that simultaneously acknowledges the right to existence of all interpretations of the past (including political regret) and challenges the exclusionary characteristics of mythologies.

Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evidence and impact of the EU integration between 1999 and 2009 on the EU regional economic growth and the socio-economic convergence. A regional convergence analysis is performed in order to examine if the EU overall aim of convergence is reached. The main growth-and convergence theories are used as the theoretical framework and form the study's hypothesis. The results show that an absolute β-convergence exists between the EU member states as well as regions. however, the σ-convergence is not confirmed, meaning that that the disparities between the regions are rather increasing than decreasing. Perhaps a possible reason why the σ-convergence does not occur at the EU level is that it is easier for smaller regions which are more similar to each other to converge than for larger regions which tend to be more dissimilar to each other. This reasoning is in line with the convergence theories which state that smaller regions within a country are more likely to converge towards each other in the absolute sense than countries. on the other hand, the EU countries and regions tend to convergence in the tasks like unemployment rate, showing that they are not successful in resolving this difficult task. one of the main reasons of the high unemployment in all EU member states is their structural problem in the respective economies, consequently reflected in the long-term unemployment. The EU countries tend to convergence in terms of inequality as well, showing that they are egalitarian in character.

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In this article, I outline a possible way to think about the ‘mythscape’, the discursive space within which identity-constitutive mythologies are articulated, in a pluralist and pragmatic philosophical framework. Instead of concentrating on the content of particular narratives, as previous attempts in this vein have done, I explain a way to organise the mythscape which adheres to the principles of a pluralist democracy. I discuss the role of the state and its education system with respect to myths. I argue that a pluralist mythscape should be based on acknowledgement rather than recognition, and it should be aided by critical and sentimental education.