Formations of European Modernity

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from Delanty’s Formations of European Modernity.

Formations of European Modernity

A historical and political sociology of Europe by Gerard Delanty that analyzes how Europe was formed as a world historical region through long-term processes, global context, and inter-civilizational encounters.

European Inter-Civilizational Constellation

The plural, interacting civilizational currents (Greco-Roman, Judaic, Christian, Byzantine, Islamic) whose encounters helped shape Europe’s heritage and modernity.

World Historical Region

A geographic-cultural space understood through long-run processes, cross-cultural encounters, and transregional linkages, not just physical geography.

Modernity

A condition involving the actualization of regulative ideas (freedom, equality, autonomy) and the balancing of capitalism, the state, and civil society; viewed as variable with multiple forms.

Cultural Model of Modernity

The normative, cognitive, and imaginary dimensions of a society’s understanding of modernity, guiding values like freedom, solidarity, and social justice.

Societal Model of Modernity

The institutional arrangement among capitalism, the state, and civil society that realizes modernity in social structures.

Cosmopolitanism (critical cosmopolitanism)

A normative, reflexive stance toward global openness and learning from the Other, emphasizing dialogue, universalist values, and transformative potential.

Relational Perspective

An approach that emphasizes global connections, dialogue, and cross-cultural mediation as essential to understanding historical and social change.

Hybridity

The mixing and blending of cultures through encounters, leading to hybrid or hyphenated cultural forms.

Multiplicity of Europes

The idea that Europe comprises several Europes rather than a single, monolithic entity, reflecting polycentric and borderland characteristics.

Borderlands

Regions at the edges of core–periphery or civilizational boundaries, characterized by exchange, negotiation, and hybrid identities.

Civilizational Logics

Deep-structure orientations from civilizations (Greco-Roman, Judaeo-Christian, Islamic) that shape but do not deterministically fix modern European life.

Greco-Roman Legacies

Influences from ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, including writing, civic ideals, and rational critique, that helped form European heritage.

Judaic Legacy

The Jewish diaspora and religious-cultural contributions that influenced European civilization, including exile, monotheism, and ethics.

Christian Heritage

The Christian tradition’s role in shaping European civilization, its internal diversity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant), and its secular transformations.

Byzantine Legacy

The Byzantine Empire and Orthodoxy as transmitters of Greco-Roman heritage and as a bridge between East and West, influencing Russia and Southeastern Europe.

Islam in Europe

Islam as part of Europe’s civilizational constellation, contributing to science, culture, and cross-cultural exchange across centuries.

Renaissance

A European-wide cultural rebirth (roughly 14th–16th centuries) emphasizing humanism and a renewed interest in antiquity, shaping modern subjectivity and science.

Enlightenment

A continental, multi-national European movement (not confined to France) that valorized reason, science, rights, and institutional reforms; a core phase of modernity.

Nation-State

A political regime that concentrates sovereignty within a defined territory; central to modern Europe and its linkage with modernity, nationalism, and imperial projects.

Empire and Colonialism

Europe’s global expansion through hard power, trade, and settlement; crucial for understanding Europe’s self-definition and the global order.

Europeanization

The diffusion and embedding of European norms, institutions, identities, and social practices within member states and beyond, not limited to formal integration.

European Public Sphere

Transnational discourse spaces in Europe (media, debates, institutions) that shape and challenge European identity and policy.

European Memory/Heritage

The cultural memory and interpretation of Europe’s past, including ruptures, conflicts, and traumas, informing present identities and norms.

Unity in Diversity

A policy and normative idea that Europe can achieve political unity while preserving regional and cultural differences.

Post-Sovereign Europe

A vision where sovereignty is shared across national and European levels, reflecting governance beyond traditional state borders.

Crisis of Capitalism

A systemic tension between capitalist economies and democratic legitimacy, aggravated by globalization and financial crises of the 21st century.