Imaginer l’Europe. Configurations possibles du territoire européen

Imagine Europe. Possible configurations of European territory

Abstract

Europe is bound with a territorial imaginary, that is a mixture of objective empirical data referring to a geological and historical dimension, and of symbolic and mythical data, inhabited by a mental, cognitive and emotional representation. To the organical representative paradigm, that imagines Europe as an individual with his brain and his body, and to the geometrical paradigm, that imagines Europe as a spherical totality with a center and his outskirts, the Author opposes the reticular paradigm which is the only one that can explain the pluralistic and polyphonic unity of Europe, and generate a new spacial and visual imaginary. The concept of "network" is the best metaphor to seize the past, the present and the future of Europe.