Europeanisation of States and Societies in Europe

The concept of Europeanization regardless of its shortcomings has stimulated research on the transformation of states and societies for over two decades – in increasingly complex systems of multilevel governance and a “composite polity” i. e. with multiple loci of power. It has shed light on processes of national and local administrations, interest groups, and business as they adapted to the EU acquis in both member states and candidate countries either through vertical mechanisms (compliance/non-compliance) or through horizontal dynamics of competition or socialization inducing mimetism (convergence/divergence) in areas such as defence where there was no binding EU laws. In this respect, EU studies have contributed to the larger literature on international diffusion. Sociologists expanded the research agenda by studying the Europeanization of markets, identities, and life choices such as migration. Current public discussions often take the effects of the EU for granted by evoking for example “the winners and losers of European integration”. Yet, scholarship has shown that the effects of integration are incomplete, non-linear and far from the expectations of functionalist integration theories, such as neofunctionalism. They are also hard to grasp empirically in relation to other forces of change including more global processes and “local orders”. There is therefore a need to continue to reflect on the research design of studies on Europeanization and test or replicate earlier comparative projects on EU compliance. One can think for instance on the many Europeanization studies on Central and East European countries before and after accession, in the light of current democratic backsliding and resistance to EU rules. The development of Europeanization research in the 1990s was clearly connected to the expansion of EU competences following the Maastricht and Amsterdam treaties and the opportunities that the EU political arena provided for a range of policy stakeholders. We benefit from hindsight to consider the effects of these changes. Yet, current debates on European “disintegration,” “re-nationalization” of certain policy domains, resistance to “Brussels”, or “de-Europeanization” may stimulate new venues for research, notably on the public perceptions or lack thereof of the impact of EU-led processes. There is in any case a need to measure the differentiated impact of the EU on socioeconomic groups and territories. This Section invites Paper, and especially, Panel proposals that explore how and the extent to which individual biographies and networks, organizational structures and strategies in the political, economic, and social domains, and political mobilization are transcending national boundaries and becoming more European, or not. We seek proposals from a variety of disciplines. We especially welcome innovative and rigorous contributions that explore causal connections between sociocultural, political or economic transformations and European Union institutions, laws, and policies, vis à vis other types of European-wide or global processes. We are also interested in research that compares the EU with other regional integration projects.