The Saga of Europeanisation: On the Narrative Construction of a European Society

This paper draws upon the narrative element in academic accounts of Europeanisation as a story of social change and integration, and takes a discursive approach to analyzing Europeanisation. It explores variants of Europeanisation as a form of social imagination of the unity and diversity of a European society, and examines four interrelated processes in the narrative construction of European society.

ARENA Working Paper 7/2014 (pdf)

Hans-Jörg Trenz

Within the European studies community, the notion of Europeanisation is variably applied to investigate long-term historical transformation, a change of political culture and identities, or the impact of European law and policies. Apart from its analytical use, there is a narrative element in academic accounts of Europeanisation as a story of social change and integration. From this latter perspective, Europeanisation research is about ways of imagining a transnational European society. The paper develops a discursive approach to Europeanisation. It explores variants of Europeanisation as a form of social imagination of the unity and diversity of a European society. Europeanisation as social imagination relates to all kinds of processes of interpretation and justification that provide us with explanations of how Europe came into being as a meaningful social entity, how it is sustained over time and contested, and how it should look in the future. More specifically, the paper examines four interrelated processes in the narrative construction of European society: 1) Triumphant Europeanism: affirmation of the extraordinary (sacralisation), 2) Banal Europeanism: affirmations of everyday life (banalisation), 3) Euroscepticism: disruptions of the extraordinary (de-sacralisation), 4) Political crisis: disruptions of everyday life (crisis).

Tags: Europeanisation, EU, Discourse, Integration, Legitimacy
Published July 8, 2014 11:51 AM - Last modified Apr. 25, 2016 10:39 AM