Conclusion

Abstract

We began this volume in the expectation that we could achieve a subtler and more meaningful understanding of what Europe is, and is becoming in the world, by examining the interactions between the identity of Europe and what lies on Europe’s various “margins.” In the course of the first, theoretical part, we presented philosophical grounds and a historical scheme, preceded by a theoretical construction—notably, a “theory of positive marginality”—expounding the grounds for this supposition. I postulated various effects of marginality that might be discovered in the course of further investigations, and proposed the following hypotheses:

• 1. That a number of actors on the margins of Europe pursue tactics we have postulated on the basis of marginality;

• 2. That actors in marginal positions possess more power than is assumed;

• 3. That, in their interactions with center(s) in Europe, the identities of some marginal entities change along the lines postulated;

• 4. That its interrelationships with its margins are significant in the geopolitical identity of Europe as a whole.

Looking back now over our studies, we should first ask whether these suppositions have been borne out.