European solidarity: a semantic history

Abstract

ABSTRACT'European solidarity' is one of the most frequently used words in contemporary public discourse, but what does it mean? This article investigates the historical and semantic background of the term in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish since the French Revolution, when 'solidarity' became a political keyword for the first time in European history. With the founding of the Holy Alliance in 1815 the idea of 'European solidarity' as an instrument for achieving political order on the continent emerged. A historical longitudinal analysis via the Ngram Viewer reveals that the frequency of 'solidarity' follows or depends on certain crisis moments in history, such as revolutions, wars or economic troubles. 'Solidarity' belongs to the history of emotions and propaganda but is not a stable value system that consolidates political culture. It also seems to play a greater role in the national rather than in the European context. As a European political expression, 'solidarity' is not genuinely European but borrowed from the national political vocabulary. Moreover, the article outlines the semantic field of 'European solidarity' by showing linkages between 'solidarity' and other words.

How to Design Consent for Health Data Research? An Analysis of Arguments of Solidarity

“…Solidarity has been discussed in a diversity of fields and contexts. While the term originates in Roman law, its understanding today is deeply tied to its use in the context of the French Revolution as well as the international labour movement ( Laitinen and Pessi, 2015 ; Schmale, 2017 ; Bude, 2019 ). Today it is prevalent in social theory in discussions of group identity, in political activism as a call for action, and has been employed in a number of different functions in medical contexts, not last to describe European systems of health insurance ( Prainsack and Buyx, 2016 ).…”

Umkämpfte Solidaritäten. Einleitung

“…Seine Interessen wurden vertreten und gegebenenfalls auch gegen andere Gruppen von Arbeiter*innen in Stellung gebracht. Als europäische Solidarität zeigt sich der Solidaritätsgedanke spätestens ausgehend von der Heiligen Allianz 1815 (Schmale 2017) und kulminiert in den Ideen einer europäischen (ökonomischen) Solidargemeinschaft, eines ",europäischen Solidaritätsmodells' (Poferl 2006, 312) bzw. eines "Projekt(es) der Integration und Gemeinschaftsbildung" (ebd., 316), von der Europäischen Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft (EWG) über die Europäische Gemeinschaft (EG) bis zur Europäischen Union (EU).…”

“…Obgleich der Bezug auf Solidarität keineswegs den Anfängen der EWG entspricht, besitzt die Heraufbeschwörung von Solidarität "eine hohe symbolische Kraft" für das europäische Projekt (ebd., 317): "Konstruiert wird, zumindest in ‚europafreundlichen' Diskursen, ein Europa des ‚Wir' -des solidarischen ,Wir'" (ebd., 316). Es überrascht von daher nicht, dass es die ‚europäische Frage' ist, die gegenwärtig den Begriff der Solidarität auf die Tagesordnung politischer Diskurse setzt (Schmale 2017;Koos 2019;vgl. auch den Beitrag von Gebhardt in diesem Heft). Diese diversen Formen der Institutionalisierung und die damit verbundenen Ausschlüsse machen deutlich, dass Solidarität eine in mehreren Hinsichten ambivalente "Währung" (Kreisky 1999, 70) ist.…”

Dayanışma Mimarlığı: Mimarlık Mesleki Uygulamasında Gelişen Toplum Odaklı Yaklaşımlar

“…The respective changes had considerable effects on the transformation of the intellectual professions involving artistic production. This is also the time when the term "solidarity" has taken its roots, mainly from the ideology of the French Revolution characterized by the motto of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" and solidarity has become a political keyword in European social and political history since that time as analyzed in depth by Schmale (2017).…”