Garbine Jaurrieta Bariain

14-09-2014
Week 3

Take home exam

The theft

The following assessesment will first review the core methodology
framework laid out by Gerard Delanty in his book Formations of European
Modernity: A Historical and Political Sociology of Europe. Within the outline of his
macro-sociological approach to the formation of current Europe I will secondly
introduce my proposal: the prevalence of the Western Progress Grand Narrative in
Delantys book under the meeting ground of cosmopolitanism.
Hence, in broad terms, this sociologist approaches the formation of Europe
and its modernity as the result of the interactions between a constellation of
civilizations of Greco-Roman, Christian Judaic, Islamic and Bizantine roots. In this
sense, Delanty overcomes the classical periodization of linear historical categories as
well as it embraces the Islamic legacy that, in his work The Theft of History, Jack
Goody claimed to had been displaced (Goody 2006: 24). Nevertheless, these inter-
civilizational exchanges would eventually drive to the Reinainssence and the
blossoming of the Enlightment. Specially the latter constitutes the advent of
European modernitys basis.
From this point on, the theoretical framework focuses on the dialectical
encounter between the cultural and social models that gave birth and at the same time
shaped this modernity. This second model mentioned is also understood as a result of
the correlation between state, its civil society and the economical system (Delanty
2013: 164). A three fold interplay that throughout modern history has suffered
developments -such as the evolution from liberal democracy to the post-wars
democratic capitalism (Delanty 2013: 224)- and threats -like fascism and hence
some ideological currents of nationalism, among others-.
Delany presents a progressive interralation of these social factors together
with the nation-states cultural models based on cosmopolitanism (understanding it
as a pluralizating and integrative tool for the diversity of identitities). This is moving
towards a new post-sovereign political order meaning the europeanazation of all
diverse communities based on popular sovereignity and not the single one of nation-
states (Delanty 2013: 250). This apparent post-Western Europe discourse losses
credibility when portraying that idea of individuals supposed empowerment to
current facts in reality.
Hereinafter, although Delanty claims to follow a multidirectional and
multidimensional field of orientation that detaches itself from typical unilinear Grand
Narrative of improvement (Delanty 2013: 166), he is appealing to the idea of
political community and solidarity united in a cosmopolitan direction, which
according to the reading will be achieved with a plural and integrative
Europeanization ofidentities and nationalities, in order to achieve the viability of a
political community (Delanty 2013: 306).
One of the basic assumptions of much western historiography is that the
arrow of time overlaps with an equivalent increase in value and desirability in the
organization of human societies, that is, progress (Goody: 17).
Superstructure that is also ruled by law (European Court of Justice)
Organize experience assuming experiencer centrality (Goody: 4)

Time was laid down by the northern west. They have set the times since its
formation. They took all initiative
Meeting ground (Delanty 185)