For a 'Europe of cultural regions'

Abstract

The paper intends to explore the bedrock of Europe, on the basis of which all the developing problems of the 21st century - presuming a bit of good fortune - can be mastered: growing migration, growing conflicts with respect to scarcer resources and growing population, with respect to growing interdependency, etc. These considerations are the basis for the strategic choice to be made. As a methodological approach, the philosophical discourse is the final base to reflect and reason about past and future. History and social research help in the opportunity to understand part of the challenge and the 'zeitgeist'; the latter more and more saturated with technology and global connectivity. Sociological surveys show that everywhere in the 28 (27) countries of the present EU (still including the UK and especially England with respect to the attitude of the young) the generation of the children of the so-called 1968 generation do not even want to think of a future narrowed down only to smaller or larger nations. Nevertheless, the specific form of constitution (in principle: union vs. federation) is especially now (after Brexit) again open for discussion.