¿el discurso del poder normativo europeo como una proyección endogrupal?la construcción europea del Mediterráneo

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand the cognitive dimension of the discourse of European Normative Power using ingroup projection as a cognitive/discursive practice of differentiation. In this sense, it disagrees with most poststructuralist studies that conduct analyses of Europe's Normative Power based on the reliance of identity on difference through the discursive tendency to construct reality by opposites. Ingroup projection is based both on the need for differentiation to obtain a positive distinction, and on the natural tendency to categorization processes whereby groups share a higher-order category. Thus, groups tend to project (ingroup projection) their distinctive traits and values onto this higher order category to legitimize status differences between groups. The EU response to the Arab Spring serves as evidence for the above argumentation. The Arab Spring implied a cognitive change of the EU's Mediterranean "Other" in the construction of the Mediterranean region. Through ingroup projection as a cognitive/discursive practice, the EU differentiates itself from this new Arab Mediterranean Other and projects the idealized EU identity onto the Mediterranean region to legitimize its new policies after the revolt.