Politicisation, Power and Differentiated Integration

Abstract

Differentiated integration (DI) is the latest kid in town in European integration theory. Not least driven by the recent increase in politicisation, DI is often portrayed as leaving political disagreements to one side and thereby allowing the integration process to proceed. In contrast, the contributions to this panel will elaborate and reflect upon how DI involves highly political choices about who and what (which ideas) should be represented in policy processes, how and based on which conditions. In other words, DI reflects power asymmetries, amplifies these asymmetries and (potentially) creates new divisions.