The societal/trans-national dimension of Europeanisation: the case of German football

Abstract

This paper ties in with more recent accounts of Europeanisation, which go beyond analysing unidirectional, top-down processes. Our paper seeks to contribute to this debate by focusing on what we describe as the ‘societal/trans-national’ dimension of Europeanisation: Europeanisation dynamics within a societal context (football) with a considerable degree of transnationalisation. Through analysing five cases of Europeanisation within the realm of German football, we not only want to shed some light on an under-researched field of study for political scientists interested in ‘Europeanising’ mechanisms. We also aim at exploring the applicability of systemising factors of the Europeanisation process derived from the analysis of political contexts to other areas of social interaction in order to capture hitherto neglected processes. Opening up the field in the societal/transnational direction should add to the awareness of the complexity of Europeanisation processes. In addition, studying Europeanisation in a sphere that constitutes an important and conscious part of people’s lives, may also allow us to incorporate the ‘Europeanised’ life worlds of European citizens into the academic debate.