lOMoARcPSD|2819965

Summary Europe a cultural history, Peter Rietbergen

The Cultural Dimension of Europe (De Haagse Hogeschool)

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

Summary Europe a cultural history

Introduction:
Culture is everything that people have, think and do as members of their society:
have: material objects
think: ideas, values, attitudes
do: patterns of behaviour
members: culture is shared
Cultu e i a oad a d a a o se se:
Narrow: as i Mi ist of Cultu al Affai s , a ultu al e e i g - art, science, the fi er/higher
thi gs i life .
Broad: as i ultu al diffe e es , ulti ultu alis - all collective expressions of a
group/society.

ENLIGHTMENT:
 Rationality ---- science / technology
 Individuality ---- freedom / democracy

Enlightenment Romanticism

reason Emotion

objectivity Subjectivity

the universal the personal

future Past

controle over nature participation in nature

science Art

knowledge Stories
Light of easo , the e lighte > f o da k ess to the light, illumination / liberation /
ele atio . I a uel Ka t: U ü digkeit = inability to use one's reason without guidance
Leitu g from another ode E lighte e t Des a tes, Rousseau, Ka t rooted in
G eek E lighte e t So ates, Plato, A istotle .

Page 35-60

The Greek worldview

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

The Greeks limited idea of the ea th s situatio : the o side ed the Medite a ea to e
literally, the center of all lands. Europe as the Greek sphere of influence was the most
civilized and strongest region, because there was a balance of power (political and cultural).

The identity of Hellas: cultural community (a civilization) sharing same language, Greek, and
same cultural and religious traditions.

As a cultural community of independent states, the Greek cities differed greatly from the
othe o ld , f o Asia, he e the e e e la ge political systems encompassing numerous
communities and luxury-indulging despots who ruled these vast territorial unities with brutal
force. >> Ide tifi atio is al a s diffe e tiatio , as ell us / the .

Bar aria s : those ho did t speak the G eek language > no Greek
G eek f eedo e sus o ie tal despotis > the s all G eek it -states proved in the long
run not to be strong enough to effectively resist the expansionist politics of adjoining
(=aangrenzende) states. The Persians greatly helped to eate a atio al G eek ide tit .
The a e Eu ope a e f o a thi al sto a out a Phoe i ia p i ess Eu opa a d
Zeus, transformed into a bull.

The world of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC):

Alexander the Great was the Macedonian king and educated by Aristotle. He wanted heroic
power of a post-bellum utopia, but this came with a price; the carnage of hundreds of
thousands of soldiers and civilians.
 Large empire, because of conquering the Greece proper and the Greek world of Asia
Minor, the trading cities of the Levant, Egypt and large parts of the Persian Empire.
Hellenistic ultu e: a i t igui g i tu e e e ged of ele e ts f o G eek ultu e
and the pre-e isti g t aditio s of those egio s. Be ause afte Ale a de s death his
generals divided the spoils)
 New world: from polis (local city) to cosmopolis u i e sal it > the itize of the
o ld
 Ale a d ia: i te atio al po t , i te ultu al i te fa e
 Museion (museum, library, university came to existance), science (Euclid,
Archimedes)

The Roman Empire

In 22 BC: when the Greeks settled on Peloponnese, (now called) the Latins entered Italy in
the centre of the peninsula.
1000 years later: a new invasion from the Etruscans; organised themselves in independent
city-states (in which warrior aristocracy ruled the older, indigenous population). Their power
was a result of their wealth > was based on trade in mental work and pottery.

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

They conquered Rome in the 7th Century, where they ruled Rome for more than a century
with their Kings, in an often tense partnership with a local aristocracy which was united in an
advisory board, the Senate. The aristocrats, known as patricians, based their power on
property ownership.
 509 BC: the patricians forcibly expelled their Etruscan overlords and Rome became an
oligarchic republic, a republic ruled by small elite (two magistrates, or consuls).
Rome mainly guaranteed the rights and the property of the aristocracy. Rome also began to
establish colonies in strategic positions in conquered areas, to relieve the pressure of a
growing population in the city itself.
 5th,4th,3rd century BC: begin Process of Romanization; imposed cultural elements on
the entire region, in 2nd e tu AD o pleted
 How did the Roman Empire hold together?
They had an intricate legal-administrative apparatus, a good infrastructure (the
famous roman roads, bridges) and a strong institutional structure > ith a e pe o
ult Ale a de .

 From 1st century AD onwards important changes in the empire: August + successors
increasingly controlled the entire system of government > direct control over a large
number of the most prosperous provinces in the empire> increase their power.
The emperors provided soldiers with pension promises of farms after they retired
from the army to win their support.
 Basic principles codified in a legal system
 Juridical-institutional pyramid: in the administration of justice, the emperor was the
final court appeal. > The Senate + consuls had to yield most of their power

 Important for the cohesion of the Roman Empire: a a ee as possi le fo all

citizens, but not all inhabitants of the empire were citizens...
 Marriage contracts gave women the right to retain their own property and the
management of it > Marrying around 12, supposed to bear children and educate
them to be become a proper Roman citizen.
 Citizenship linked to the paideia ideal: ei g edu ated, ei g i ilized , based on
Greek texts
 Ro e as hei to the ultu e of the easte Medite a ea , ut also lai ed to ha e
created a new civilization.
 Lingua Franca + the open cultural ideal created educated elite who still have been the
single largest group of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The Roman Empire and the worlds beyond

To Rome, the world was an extension of linear itineraries (=reisroutes), stretching out from
the capital, the Urbs, the centre of the world.

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

 The Celts e e i ita le, a itious a d ellige e t ha a te s, as the Ro a s had

discovered ad first hand.
 Ge a s i ha ited the e o ous pa t of Eu ope hi h had ot fallen into Roman
hands. > The tribes consisted of a number of clans > Political power was in the hands
of a warrior aristocracy > economy and society seem to have been based both on
agriculture and pastoralism (=herderseconomie)
Page 87-107 TOWARDS ONE RELIGION FOR ALL

From Antiquity to Christianity

 Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus ca 280 – , o Co sta ti e the G eat ,
Roman emperor who professed Christianity
 AD 313 – Edi t of Mila : eligious tole atio , e d of pe se utio s; Ch istia s no
longer a cornered sect
 Christianity became the official imperial religion
 Chu h Fathe s : ost i po ta t theologia s of the ea l Ch istia hu h, fou di g
fathers of the Christian world-view, Jerome of Stridonium, Augustine of Hippo,
Ambrose of Milan, Gregory the Great
 Aurelius Augustinus (Augustine of Hippo / Saint Augustine) Thagaste 354 – Hippo 430
(North Africa), and in between: Rome and Milan

Austi e s o fessio s
 Autobiography, but not as a self-glo ifi atio …
 Account of becoming and being a Christian
 Co fessio o igi all ea t o fessio , late also : confession of sin and guilt,
profession of faith praise of God
 Th ee pa ts of the ook: A s histo o e sio
his present condition (mission)
his reading of the Word (explanation)

Saint Augustine
• I po ta e of ou i e self
• Creator stands outside and above the cosmos
• Influence of Plato (via Plotinus): two worlds> the world of the imperfect body in
which people operate with their impressions and senses, and which they can
therefore know, and the orld of ideas, the higher principles which, although man is
partly unaware of them, exist in every human being.
• Life on earth only a preparation for the afterlife

Fo A ti uit to Middle Ages

• ca. 500 – 1500: i et ee A ti uit a d Mode it
• Mode it sta ts ith the Re aissa e : the e i th of A ti uit

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

• the Middle Ages as a sort of nasty interruption

• the e e te ed The da k Middle Ages
• darkness versus the light of reason
• e e e le tu e : Ka t s defi itio of E lightenment:
Man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity

Who was the Christ of Christianity?

• The bible: Old and New Testament
• Jesus as innovator of Jewish religion
• His death by crucifixion (Roman practice) as a sacrifice for mankind
• Christian doctrine of sin and redemption via Christ
• Important in Catholic religion: the mother, Maria
• Du i g the Re aissa e: split of the hu h, P otesta tis

Toward one religion for all

• Ch istia hu h fo a lo g ti e shied a a f o the State: se e o l o e aste
• But: they copied the organizational structure of the Roman State
• New world-view: physically and spiritually
• From ca. 547: earth as a flat world
• Tension between new religious view and knowledge & world- ie of the A ie ts
This te sio e a e a st u tu al ele e t i Eu opea ultu e

 Bishops of Rome versus patriarchs of Constantinople

 Later: Roman Catholic Church versus Eastern Orthodox Church
 Schism in 1054
 Who is the true heir of Christianity?
 Bishops of Rome claimed that Peter (disciple of Jesus) was the first Vicar on Earth and
the first bishop of Rome
 Co st u tio : i e tio of the Do atio of Co sta ti e , legiti izi g the este
domination of the popes
 Continuous (re)construction: story of Shem, Ham and Japheth, to legitimize European
supremacy (p.93)

Christianity and Europe

• Christian Church presented itself as heir of the Roman Empire
• Prudentius, ca. 403 AD: borders of the Roman Empire coincide with those of the
Christian world > there, faith and reason would now merge.
• Identity construction: identification/differentiation
• Us/the : e agai st the a a ia s , e.g. the Lo go a ds > t i es a d peoples f o
northern and eastern Europe were often viewed with disdain by those who had
already been Romanized at an earlier stage.

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

• Christian expansionism: as the Roman Empire had ever been

• Ne ultu al spa e : Ch istia it a d Eu ope slo l e a e o e

The Frankisch world

• Cha les the G eat , -814
• Increase in power by dynastic alliances, conquest, and close ties with the church
• Continued an economic policy adopted by his predecessors > a strong economy could
not rely on agriculture only > stimulating and revived trade > wealth and power in
the Frankisch kingdom grew (during his reign)
• 800 - Charles received the imperial crown from the Pope in Rome
• Fi st, i a lo g li e of, Hol Ro a E pe o > e ded i he Napoleo I of
France decided to dismantle the Holy Roman Empire
• European identity construction: see quote on p.99
• Resurrectio of the glo ious Ro a E pi e: The hu hes, e odied i the Pope,
and the State, embodied in the emperor, were now locked in a holy alliance > Church
now controlled the imperial court.

The first Renaissance

• Defi i g the Ca oli gia e pi e as Eu ope
• Charles: Christianization as well as preservation of the Graeco-Roman civilization
• Advance of the cause of education over the empire
• Culture of the church elite became that of the secular upper class as well
• Spread of Roman Christianity via missionaries
• A t ul t a s o ti e tal Chu h as o eated. > Ro e as the o e a d o l
centre
• Common Christian ideology, presented as universal: Europe as the center of the
universe > consisted of a history as well as a vision of the future

Mind set
• Idelogy and education: specific curriculum, taught in Latin
• Based on traditional forms and content
• Roman Christianity more and more a religion and culture of ordinary people
• But, also criticism, dissent and heterodoxy manifested itself
• Crucial for the spread of Christian ideology was the monastery
• Praying, working, contemplating, studying, scholarship as the fundamentals of
Benedictine life
• Monasteries became centres of learning, with important libraries, and centres of
education > producing scholars who have been influential in almost all fields in
Europe.
• Many monasteries became grand agricultural enterprises , often worked by
u e ous te a t fa e s ho fu the i eased the a e s ealth ith thei e ts

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

• He oes : setti g a e a ple to a o ld that ould ot o ould not live a life of

o ti uous piet p.

Page 188-204 A NEW SOCIETY

From Middle Ages to Modernity

• Mode it sta ts ith a tu i g a k, a e i al o e i th
• A d et ee A ti uit a d Mode it : the da k Middle Ages
• New society, new world, new world view(s)
» Renaissance
» Humanism (Erasmus)
» (15th century :) Protestantism (Luther):
» Exploration/colonization (Columbus): voyages of discovery, because of the
invention of the compass > newly discovered lands. Europe began
commercially and territorially to conquer large parts of the world > beginning
colonization.
» Movable type printing (Gutenberg): introduction of the rotating press
Gutenberg, experimented with individual, raised letters of uniform height
and width cast in medal > developed a press which printed letters > later
besieged by spies developed his technique, shrouding his experiments in
secrecy > presented the first printed book, the Bible. (China had also printing
methods, xylographical. China and Europe where compatible, but this
changed in the 19th century: European printing, rotation press > labour in
China became far more expensive > the west begin to successfully introduce
its own system.
» Musical inventions (Monteverdi): Mo te erdi s work marked the transition
from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He
developed two individual styles of composition – the heritage of
Renaissance polyphony and the new basso continuo technique of the
Baroque. Monteverdi wrote one of the earliest operas, L'Orfeo, an innovative
work that is still regularly performed. He was recognized as an innovative
composer and enjoyed considerable fame in his lifetime.
» Scientific discoveries (Galilei): developments in mathematics, physics,
astronomy, biology, medicine, and chemistry transformed views of society
and nature. For example: The replacement of the Earth as center of the
universe by heliocentrism.
Galilei improved the telescope, military compass and astronomical
observations.

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

» But: al ead a Re aissa e du i g the eig of Cha le ag e

And: from the 12th century onwards another resurgence.

Mi a dola s De hominis dignitate

• Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian philosopher
• 1486: Oration on the Dignity of Man
• Seen as the manifesto of the Renaissance
• Key text of Renaissance humanism
• Focus on human capacity and human perspective
Re aissa e ideal of the ho o u i e salis

Human perspective
» > more individualistic view, no longer as an anonymous member of the mass
of God s o edie t eatu es, ut as a u i ue ei g, sup e e i his atio al
and creative capacities > marked as an individual. Mathematical science
athe tha a t .
Art in the 14 and 15th century (in the first phases): reality rather than represent
th

preconceived ideas of what was morally or religious acceptable. > Woman as an individual
pe so , i hose od the pe fe tio of God s eatio as ade as isi le as i the ale ,
no longer ad an untouchable whore.
16th century: Because of Renaissance and Humanism, Spain and German states became
wealthy > material conditions for a new flowering of culture were abundantly present here >
the ideas about the world and God changed dramatically.

• Linear perspective in art

• Filippo Brunelleschi , ca. 1420
• Pai t it as ou see it
• Contrary to medieval art
• Hu a is : the hu a ei g i the e te
• Ital as Eu ope s ealthiest egio du i g the th, 14th and 15th centuries > Secular
attitude of the wealthy elite (Pope, bankers, counts etc) : more centred on man and
the here and now than on God and the here and after.
• Individualized view of man
• Man as a unique being, supreme in his rational and creative capacities
• Optimal development of the individual as a main goal in life
• Crucial role of education, in particular studium humanitatis: traditional academic
subjects, the latte ei g o side ed a athe ati al s ie e athe tha a a t >
deemed to help a man to realize his innate human, creative potential (virtù). He
would realize the richness of creation as God had intended it.
• Concept of virtù : human potential
• Classical texts as guide

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

Europeen identity under construction

• Troubled times: urge for a central idea, a new ideology: (p.189/190)

• Inside and outside threats
• Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453
• Pope Pius II: Eu ope as a ge e al ultu al atego , i hi h Ch istia eligio
played a central role in everyday life
• Scholars like Ficino: new synthesis of Platonism and Christianity > brought their
Christian tradition, coloured, to a far greater extent than in the west, by influence of
classical Greek tradition. From the 15th century onwards Europeans tried to
intellectually reconquer the Mediterranean world, as one of the most important
elements in its cultural formation. > A reconquest which certainly contributed to
Eu opea Sup e a i S ie e a d e e a h of lea i g .
• Mode ideas of Ch istia thi ke s like Ni holas Cusa us: he e t o spe ulate
about the cos os a d the eato . ..the geo e t i odel as u te a le, ut also
the universe, far from being the Ptolemaic globe encapsulated in a fixed heaven,
actually knew no bounds and was filled with many planets probably not unlike the
earth. It had been willed by God, who was the absolute and infinitive, the centre and
the circumference, the beginning and the end, the synthesis of all opposites, the
oi ide tia oppositoru ”. (p.192)
• Scientific doubts about absolute value of the Holy Scipture: they wondered whether
much of what was actually considered incomprehensible (=onbegrijpelijk) or
unreasonable in the ideas of the Church was just the result of texts that had been
copied incorrectly.
• E as us atta k o the Catholi Chu h as a i stitutio > he began to disapprove of
institutions like the Catholic Church that asked people to unquestioningly accept the
Bible and other fundamental texts as literally and eternally true. Later he also
accused them of hypocrisy and ignorance because of their refusal to base education
on a sound study of the secular literature of the ancients, the bonae litterae.

From humanism to renaissance

 Visio of the e a : so e eig i the o ld, a le to sol e e e ste ith his

rational and creative powers
 Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) as model of Renaissance man
 Homo universalis
 Re aissa e a ide idea tha Hu a is p.
 Secular, individualist and realist perspective
 Other important artists: Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian

Renaissance in Europe

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

» > the e a as o side ed so e eig i the o ld, a d ith his easo

and creative powers, was able to penetrate any secret, make anything he
invented. Leonardo Davinci: Before claiming something true, it should be
tested, proven. This they felt could only be done by observing, describing,
analyzing.
A new physical image of man: in search of material
remains of classical culture (ancient texts) > 15th and
16th centuries the birth of archaeology.
Art: Multitude of pai ti gs a d s ulptu es pe fe tl
proportioned men and women.

• New Italian culture admired and imitated all over Europe

• At first an elite affair
• Attempt to bring European, Christian civilization to a new flowering
• Via a o f o tatio ith its adle
• Economic center of Europe: shift from Mediterranean to Atlantic
Ocean
• Clash of the French kings and the Habsburgs
• Italy still important: St Peter, music, literature

Protestantism
The break-up of the religious unity > Reformation (a religious and political movement that
affected the practice of Christianity across most of Europe during this period).The kings in
Europe (like the kings of Fran e a d Spai edu ed Ro e s i flue e i thei states he
they went over to the Reformation > increase their own power. Luther: broke with the
traditions of the Catholic Church, because they were no longer founded on the oldest
Christian texts as scientifi all esta lished. > The o e of God s e elatio is o l fou d i the
Holy Scripture. (He observed that Christians had whatsoever no notion of the norms and
alues p ese ted i the i le, si pl a epti g, u iti all a d e e supe stitiousl , the
priests pe fo ed agi a tio s Free will: man himself does not determine whether he will
be blessed with salvation. God has already predetermined this.

• 1517: Martin Luther nails his theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg
• P otest agai st the out a d p a ti es of the Catholi hu h
• Need for a turn inward: back to the basics of Christian religion
• Luther disputed the concept of the free will
• Debate with Erasmus about this (1520)
• John Calvin, teaching in Geneva, presented similar ideas as Luther
• Spread of these critical ideas stimulated by printing and the support of European
royalty

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

Page 314 - 335 A NEW SOCIETY

From Humanism to the Enlightment

Key ideas Enlightenment
 Rationality ---- science / technology
 Individuality ---- freedom / democracy
Dual revolution around 1800
 Industrial revolution
 French revolution

Immanuel Kant (1783) in Was ist Aufklärung?: Enlightenment is man's emergence from his
self-imposed immaturity
U ü digkeit is the inability to use one's reason without guidance from another. But also:
He argued for an acceptance of religion on ethical grounds (p. 327)

Enlightenment Romanticism

Reason emotion

Objectivity subjectivity

the universal the personal

Future past

controle over nature participation in nature

Science art

Knowledge stories

Scientific spirit
• Critical, investigative, explorative attitude
• Growing gap between the visible and the invisible world (the microscope opened up
the i isi le o ld
• Rational understanding versus accepted belief
• Cases of Copernicus a d Galilei, ad o ated the stud of the ook of atu e , a gui g
that it as atu e hi h e ealed = ope aa de God s g eat ess, the e s ie e
a d the e easo ed a d easo a le la guage of u e s a d figu es e da ge ed
(=bedreigde) the Christian tradition. > Many felt that if nature were a power in itself
and man could by his own capacity understand it, God and his saving grace would
lost their power and significance.
• 1543 - On the revolution of the heavenly spheres

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

• Heliocentric world-view (sun as the centre of the Solar System, not the earth as the
Church claimed)
• 1623 - the big book of the universe is written in the language of mathematics

Unbelievers?
• Cope i us uestio s the Bi le s autho it o l as a ook f o hi h s ie tifi
knowledge can be deduced
• For Galilei the Bible was a sacred book, but an allegory only, meant for those who
could not read the book of nature
• Scientific spirit: chemistry, mineralogy, alchemy
• Natu e as a o ple a hi e
• Man only a cog(=tandwiel) in the machine
• Collision of two world-views: the world of matter, a natural world that could be
known, and meta-physics, a world that one could speculate about but not known in
the same way as the physical world.
• p. 316: Galilei s ideas o the atu e of atte e sus atholic doctrine of
transsubstantiation = the doctrine that the substance of the bread and the wine
used in the sacrament of the Eucharist is changed, not merely as by a sign or a figure,
but also in reality, into the substance of the Body and the Blood of Jesus

The self
• Protestantism and Catholicism: self-investigation and spiritual exercises
• Co ept of the i e self
• Descartes: cogito ergo sum = I think, therefore I am
• Discours on Method (1637): learn how to use your reason
• Everybody has rational capacities
• We need to learn how to use them
• I thi k, the efo e I a : it should e e ho is thi ki g a d is d a i g p ope
conclusions

Isaac Newton
• Physicist, 1642 - 1727
• Co i es spi it of dou t a d t ust i alue of e pi i al esea h
• 1687 - Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
• The world as a dynamic mechanism
• Functions according to law(s) of nature
• Wants to build a sound system based on quantitative, physical arguments

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

Page 339 – 3 EUROPE’S REVOLUTIONS

Conspicuous consumption
• Consumerism as elite phenomenon
 Two types of elite: the old nobility, its wealth largely based on landed income
A small number of top bureaucrats grown rich in the service of the State as well as
the plutocrats who had had amassed their fortunes in trade and banking.

• Spending money to underline the privileged position of the possessors

• Leisure also a luxury that needed to be shown (by the cultural, political and social
elite) > show their power and wealth
• The court aristocracies were the leaders of society, now there were other people,
wanting to climb the ladder of social and political success > the rich members of the
bourgeoisie began to imitate the court nobility (they had already reached positions of
considerable economic power by virtue of their own work).
• su ptua la s : la s, ade the i h go e e ts, fo iddi g those of the
middle and lower class who were so inclined to indulge in various forms of luxury.
 They wanted to preserve class boundaries and thus the traditional order of society.
• Extreme case: French court at Versailles
• Changing ideas: 1714 – Fable of the Bees Be a d Ma de ille: P i ate i es, pu li
e efits > a de ate o the o alit of apitalis a d o su e is i the Eu opea
economy and society. 1776 – The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith: Free market, led
a di i e i isi le ha d P i ate i te ests, pu li p ospe it

Production and reproduction

• Conjugal family ell esta lished i Weste Eu ope i stead of the la o extended
fa ily : living together under the authority of a patriarch or matriarch)
• People a ied late > a iage depe ded hea il o a futu e ouple s pote tial to
support themselves financially. For Europe as largely agricultural society, this meant
that both had to work before they could acquire a farm of their own. In trade and
industry the same.
• Church and State tried to control marriage (as the tie that secured the position of
fa il s as so iet s asi o al a d legal u it . The t ied to p e e t poo people
from marrying at all > produce more children who were then abandoned, to die or to
be brought up in an orphanage
• Most boys went out to work, most common job for girls was to serve in another
household
• Abuse was common, which often led to prostitution
• Sexual freedom (restricted by the church by the end of the 18th century) ; marriage
as the only venue for sex, and procreation its sole justification.
• Mid-18th century changes:

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

 Ru al e olutio : fa e s sta ted o ki g thei e ti e p ope t , e pa di g

the yield (=opbrengst) though new systems of crop rotation and the use of
new fertilizers (=meststoffen).
 Cottage industry, industrialization > offered increasingly opportunities and
people began using these opportunities: the economy altered (=veranderde).
 Romantic culture, marriages concluded earlier: they were no longer dictated
only by economic motives.
 Rise in number of illegitimate children, especially in the urban areas: this
indicates a sexual and a cultural transformation > greater mobility in life,
declining social control
 less control by community, Improved hygiene conditions, reduced death rate

Convergence of elites
• 16th century: establishment of a well-to-do middle class urban elite
 Two elites groups: the intellectual scholarly elite, increasingly from the middle class
and the elite made up both of land-owning nobility and the non- o le ou geois
• 16th &17th century: old aristoc a lost its ole as the p i iple a ie of the e
centralized states.
• Increased emphasis on education and knowledge by the prosperous bourgeoisie >
people ealized that k o ledge ea t po e
• Members of the old aristocracy realized that service to the state ith this ode ,
bureaucratic-technical government was the means to maintain their economic,
political and social position. Education, specialization became necessary for them
too.
• th & th e tu : i po ta t ole of the salo s i Pa is > one of the places where
the sociocultural progress outlined above became visible: artists and scientists from
the middle-class mixing with the lords from the court nobility of Versailles.

• Middle- lassizatio of o s a d alues: os opolita attitude

• Popularization of knowledge and information: new type of periodical Boekzaal van
Europa / The Spectator / Biedermann.
• Instead of using the language of scholars and the court elite (Latin and Franch) they
were now published in the vernacular: German, English and Dutch.
• The concept of responsible citizenship was central to this new culture.
• So ia ilit : sha i g of k o ledge a d i fo atio as i tuous , ot o l e es
of the affluent middle class but also of the aristocracy.
• The rise of voluntary associations organized by burghers for all kinds of civic-social
and sociocultural purposes > by the end of the 18th century thousands of clubs
dominated the life in towns of Western Europe. Soon developed in miniature civil
societies, characterized by self-government through their constitutions, elections and
representatives
Dual revolution

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

 Political revolution
 Growing revulsion at princely claims to absolute power
 New ideas on politics: people - balance of power, between government and
the rights of subjects on the other. Montesquieu – separation of powers
Rousseau – social contract of equal citizens
 I F a e the le g a d the o ilit e e p i ileged . F o the th century
onwards they had been allowed to pay little or no taxes.
 The French kings retrained almost absolute authority they had won during the
16th and 17th century in their continuous struggles with the nobility, the Church
and the towns > undoing of the ancien régime.
 1776 – Declaration of Independence
 1789 – Start French Revolution
 Start of a reconstruction of society in European states >the power of the old
elites was broken; they lost their legally privileged position. In most countries
every citizen (educated, taxpaying, male citizen) was given the vote and legal
barriers between social classes were demolished. Not for women!
 Industrial revolution
 Very slow process
 Starts in England
 Restructuring of production in the factory system
 Urbanisation: larges cities, new cities
 Often horrible working and living conditions: growing number of working
hours per day, work instead of leisure, working children and women, self –
exploitation as a marked rise in output per worker increased the household
income and altered the demand pattern in the direction of manufacturing.
 Growing income was spent on consumption, on a market supplying both good
and services
 Women obtained a strategic position in the household economy: taking on the
role of consumers and spending money on consumer goods
 Production of ever more consumer goods >mass production > lu u fo all
 No longer sufficient jobs in the agriculture, but enough work opportunities in
the closely related industries >people became more mobile, moving to the
industries for work

Human rights
• American Revolution and French Revolution
• Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen (1789)
Me a e o a d e ai f ee a d e ual i ights…
…these ights a e li e t , p ope t , se u it , a d esista e to opp essio
• Contemporary versions of the UN and the European Council
• Still a p oje t…

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

Time management
• Industrialization, urbanization: people moving from the countryside to the towns
• Change of life-rhythm
• Fo atu al h th to lo k-rhythm: clocks were introduced everywhere to
remind people that time was money.
• Clock as regulator: regulating work both in factories and offices, dictating the long
hours now put by men and women and children alike, under conditions that were
often horrific.
• Women especially now constituted a huge, flexible workforce: underpaid, liable to be
fired without any warning, they often had to leave their children and other relatives
unattended to go out for to work.
• E e thi g e a e outi e, o ditio ed the otio s a d the speed de a ded
by the clock- at hi g a hi es .
• The division between rich and poor neighborhoods became more visible then ever:
the outskirts of towns as the areas of poverty, immorality and the police often did
ot da e to e te he iots oke out > da ge ous lasses .
• New sense of time

Consumption for all..

• Consumerism as mass phenomenon
• Toda s e pe ie e e o o o e po o
• Book written by B.J. Pine II and J.H. Gilmore (1999)
• Three economic sectors: agriculture, industry, service sector
• Service sector most important one today
• But… offe i g just goods o se i es is o lo ge e ough
• People a t to u o plete e pe ie es
• Shift to a ds a e pe ie e e o o
Types of economy:
• agrarian economy
• i dust ial e o o → I dust ial Re olutio ±
• se i e e o o → afte ±
• e pe ie e e o o → afte ?

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

Page 441 – 477 TOWARDS A NEW EUROPE?

New devide
• Es ape f o the o oditizatio t ap : e o o i offe i gs that a e e e
o odities, othi g spe ial
• E pe ie e e o o : goods/se i es e o e pa t of staged e pe ie es

 The gap between the rural and the urban world is replaced by the divide between
ordinary and scientific understanding (p. 442)
 E a ple: the e e t No el p ize fo the o k o the Higgs oso

- The WHAT? -
 Second World War as a cataclyst of science
 Nuclear fusion, computer technology, DNA, biotechnology, brain research, etc.
 There is a downside... But are we able we understand it?

Post-war and deconstruntions an reconstructions

 Moral reconstruction: What happened? How could it happen?
 Another divide: East and West, or the f ee o ld e sus the u ited people
 Process of decolonization
 U ifi atio of Eu ope: the Eu opea Co u it identity construction - p.450
 Euro-scepticism: EU threat to the nation-state? also identity construction...
Will the economic crisis demolish the European dream? p. 451

Time and money

 European Values Research: Europe and USA p.454

 The big promise of an endless quantity of goods

 Full employment and unlimited consumption
 The A e i a odel p.
 Television: a powerful medium...
 The ultu e i dust
 A disappea i g di ide: high e sus lo ultu e p. ff
 elfa e state e sus eo-liberalism
 A othe di ide: the ha es e sus the ha e- ots
 Paradox: rising affluence, but less time
 And, have a look at the mental health statistics...
 Uncertain times: people are looking for security
 Another paradox: need for security and loss of public commitment,
espe iall a o g the ou g p.

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

Fo fa il a to sala a
 F o g oup ide tit to i di idual ide tit ?
 Individualism, key idea of European modernity
 I di idual f eedo , e a ipatio , Wo e s Li
 New forms of relationships
 Rise of single-person households
 From class struggle to consumption for all?
 Rietbergen: to a la ge e te t, Eu opea so iet has become o e ig iddle lass
p.464

Individualism or mass-culture?
 Another divide: growing discrepancy between the European cultural ideal of the free,
autonomous person and a culture of the asses o su e is p.
 And a othe , that of the ulti ultu al so iet : et ee ati es a d alie s ?
 Rietbergen: No. Despite the problems, tolerence is growing p. 466
 And: the most important dimension of individual identity is not the nation, but
athe a pe so s o it or region p. 466
 Our culture is dominated by youth p. 469

Globalization
What is globalization?
• Blurring/transgression of borders
• Sh i ki g of ti e a d spa e
• The glo al illage M Luha
• The et o k so iet Castells
• Growing mobility, of goods, people, information

The network society

• ICT-revolution
• Neo-liberalism
• End Cold War
• India and China
• Decentralized organizational mode
• Digital e olutio
• Connectivity, accessibility, availability
• Web 2.0: two- a t affi , i te a ti it
• Active role of the consumer: p osu e , use -generated o te t UGC
• Social media: facilitating conversations
• Global village?

Social media

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|2819965

 Facilitating, stimulating conversations

 Conversation or babble?
 Pessimistic and optimistic positions
 Hyperindividualism or fraternization?
 Destruction of privacy or growing openness?

Verspreiden niet toegestaan | Gedownload door Youandi Kromotaroeno (youandi.kr98@gmail.com)