Europe is a space of many nations, and the feelings of belonging of Europeans reflect the relationships with his/her own locality or region, nation, supra-national region, Europe and even to the world as a whole. Strong dichotomies such as nationalism-cosmopolitanism are not always supported by the existent data, as for instance ethnic nationalism does not exclude the support for European integration, seen as a vehicle for federalization.
Scientific approaches to identity are also divided in diverse but not entirely independent categories. Perspectives offered by macro-level theories on identity range from the implication, in post-colonialism studies, that citizens from the peripheries are not allowed to have a strong social identity, to the “identity politics” theories' conclusion that identity of any group varies freely, according only to the group interests.
The implications on trends are also unclear: while the theories of postmodernization predict that the intergenerational change will bring an increase in support for supra-national entities, the identity politics theories imply that nationalism can be perpetuated by means of socialization or by the involvement of political actors from majorities and minorities.
This workshop, organized by University of Oradea, Department of Sociology and Social Work, in the framework of the project ENRI (European, National and Regional Identity – Theory and Practice) and withing the conference Social research and policy, aims at clarifying the implications of these contradictory theoretical positions on the actual state of identity throughout European space. A particular focus will be on the way these theories fit the available data, both qualitative and quantitative. While the workshop is mainly sociological, contributions from anthropology, economics, political sciences, social policy studies and social psychology are also welcomed.

Submission
Abstracts for papers should be 200 words or less and should be uploaded electronically by April 22, 2010. Participants will be notified online no later than April 27, 2010.
The conference fee of 25 EUR (100 RON) covers meals and refreshments at the site. Participants are requested to cover their travel and accommodation expenses. The online submission form can be accessed at the address: https://sites.google.com/site/socioumane2010/inscriere

Publication
Full papers, submitted no later than June 22, 2010, will be published in the conference proceedings. A special issue of the Journal of Social Research & Policy (jrsp.ro) will publish papers selected through an international double blind review by international reviewers.