Elements of a sociology of European integration

How can sociology contribute to the understanding of the social and political transformations that are affecting contemporary Europe? The article proposes that sociological accounts of European integration should focus around the basic problem of internal differentiation and external adaptation of an emerging European society. In revising the sociological tradition of theorizing modern society as a “unity in diversity”, the contours and the macro-, meso-, and micro-structural consolidation of a European society can be made visible. Sociological insights are them needed to understand a) the “meaning” of European integration beyond rational design and purposeful action, b) the constraining and/or enabling factors of integration as a teleological project that stretches from market building to polity building and society building, c) the dynamics and mechanisms of integration and disintegration, of binding and un-binding, of internal differentiation and external adaptation that demarcate the conflictive field of the emerging European society.

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