Transnational power elites. The social and global structuration of the EU.

This book argues that European Union institutional mechanics and the EU as a political unit cannot be properly understood without taking into account the elites that make the policy decisions.

The authors argue that one way of exploring these complex interrelations is to study European power elites, their trajectories and positions in a broader context, a European field of power and even a global field of power. The book suggests rethinking European integration from a starting-point of a set of basic sociological questions related to power, class and identity, and makes the rise of a set of powerful social groups – European power elites – the direct object of inquiry.

The authors are interested in these elites with respect to the social consequences of their rise to dominance for the broader space of the EU in terms of a particular social figuration and for the global structuration of the EU – i.e. the structuration of the EU as an interaction of internal and external processes.

The starting-point is that European integration and its product, the European Union, has now developed a set of broader social structures that are central for explaining the various dynamics of its development. In other words, European integration produces societal effects, which, conversely, should be studied as society, that is, in basic sociological terms and as a process of social structuration.

Borrowing from classical sociology, the book opts for focusing on three elemental sociological issues – power, class and identity – in respect to the larger question of the power elites of the EU. It is our claim that stepping back from the day-to-day complexities of EU decision-making and integration processes and reposing these basic questions provides for developing a more fundamental understanding of European integration.

This volume therefore also differs from existing sociologically inspired literature on European integration by its objective of going further in the introduction of sociology in the area of European studies than previous studies. Essentially, we argue that the question of Europe can – and should - be understood in societal terms rather than simply as a blend of institutions and high stakes politics as in mainstream European research.

This book will be of interest to students of EU studies, sociology, critical security studies, and IR in general.

Contents:

1. Introduction: European Power Elites and Their Consequences Niilo Kauppi and Mikael R. Madsen

Part 1: European Power Elites: Social Positions and Socio-Professional Structures
2. Brokering Power in the EU: European Politics in the Global Field of Power Yves Dezalay
3. European Central Bankers in the European Field of Power Martin Marcussen
4. Commissioners: A New Power Class? Didier Georgakakis
5. Security Professionals. Exporting the Fundamentals of State Power to the European Level Didier Bigo
6. Lawyers. Bringing Structure to an Unstructured Terrain Antonin Cohen and Antoine Vauchez
7. European Diplomats: Inventing a Social Group Rebecca Adler-Nissen

Part 2: Institutional and Symbolic Consequences
8. Comitology: Sociology of a New Form of Negotiation Thomas Christiansen
9. The Power of Cultural Models: Welfare State Reform in the EU Jason Beckfield
10. European Treaty-Making as a Semi-Autonomous Process: Revisiting the Drafting of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights Mikael R. Madsen
11. Normative Power in the Construction of Europe Ian Manners
12. Explanation, Agency and the European Union in the Political Imagination of Citizens Jonathan White
13. Rhetorical Innovation and Institutional Location: The Case of European Parliamentarians Niilo Kauppi. Epilogue 14. Europe as Transnational Society? Margareta Bertilsson. Bibliography