Author: Julio Lopes Revisiting the sociological concepts of nation and reciprocities formulated by Marcel Mauss the hypothesis of the Euro...
Author: Julio Lopes
Revisiting the sociological concepts of nation and reciprocities formulated by Marcel Mauss the hypothesis of the European Union is put forward as a new type of society in which each member is integrated by the multiple differences in and between themselves unlike nations whose homogenizing tendency comes from direct reciprocity between each member and the entire society In this sense supranational unions would result in communities that are both originally and intentionally diverse while such international relations of indirect reciprocities within their scope would make national citizenships permeable to human diversity mainly cultural in general Therefore the current unification of European nations is a case whose study can foresee problems and possibilities of such unions to be undertaken in other planetary quadrants
"As a Portuguese-Brazilian who lives both in Brazil and increasingly also in Portugal, I was often surprised by the social relations caused by European social mobility (within the already unified continental framework), as they do not exist in the Brazilian national situation or in the relations between Latin American and Caribbean populations. In fact, there is not even so much social mobility among members of the common market formed by four countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguai and Uruguay) and recently welcoming Bolivia.
In this sense, inspired by Marcel Mauss's (1872-190) conception of nation, which I adopt and which is characterized by direct reciprocity between the population and each individual member, I realized that European unity, by making its nations interpenetrated on a daily basis, fosters social relations that Mauss characterized as indirect reciprocity whose predominance was not typical of any of the other types of society that he or Durkheim classified.
My work consisted of verifying whether indirect reciprocity, especially the alternative ones (in which recipients of any goods freely assume the responsibility of transmitting them to others), really went beyond the national contexts made transversal by the growing European unification, despite the British Brexit.
My final objective was also to promote a discussion of European transversality, in order to draw lessons for other planetary environments where regional unifications are being or will be undertaken: which I see as a fundamental challenge of the ongoing globalization."
Author Details:
Senior Researcher in Science and Technology at the Casa de Rui Barbosa Foundation
PhD in Political Science from the University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro
Post-Doctorate in Sociology from the Federal University of Pernambuco
Post-Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Lisbon
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