Power and Counter Power in Europe. The Transnational Structuring of Social Spaces and Social Fields

Excerpt

This special issue addresses processes of European integration and disintegration in times of crisis. Since the late 2000s, the European Union (EU) has not only faced several critical challenges, such as the Great Recession or the strong inflow of refugees in 2015/2016, it is also experiencing institutional shocks and governance crises arising from the inability of the EU to generate sustainable solutions to these challenges. Hence, Eurocritical debates, political mobilisations, anti-EU parties and not least the Brexit-referendum in 2016 have raised questions about the European idea. These developments call for a better understanding of the social underpinnings of the European Union, and thus for more sociological analyses. In fact, the processes of European integration and disintegration are not only guided and patterned by political cleavages, conflicts and bargains between EU Member States, key stakeholders and corporate actors. These processes also have a strong societal component, because citizens throughout Europe attribute their living conditions and prospects to the European Union’s merits or failures and its missions, and have increased their readiness to express their discontent with their governments and EU institutions on the streets and at the ballot boxes. Hence, scholars must find reliable evidence on the societal preconditions, impacts and implications of European integration and disintegration processes, and then analyse the social underpinnings of current political conflicts within the EU. …