The Spatialities of Europeanization - Power, Governance and Territory in Europe

Europeanization is increasingly fashionable in the social sciences as a research focus as well as a backdrop for studies of the European Union and its relations with its member states. However, to date there is little consensus among the scholarly community over what Europeanization is or how it should be analyzed. Spatialities of Europeanization is the first work to comprehensively analyze contemporary research across the social sciences and humanities in order to bring together critically informed and previously unconnected contributions on this vital topic. The authors identify unexplored communalities between these different research traditions as well as shedding light on its neglected geographical and spatial dimensions which they argue are critical to understanding Europeanization in the 21st century. This book reflects a strong conceptual approach which is supported by detailed empirical materials drawn from interviews with policy elites at supranational, national and regional levels in the EU who are engaged in short, medium and long term EU policy planning and management. Offering fascinating empirically grounded insights into why Europe’s governance must now become more transparent and accountable to its 500 million citizens this book will appeal to scholars and researchers in the fields of Political Science, International and European Studies.

1. Europeanization: A Critical Stocktaking 2. Theorizing Europeanization as Process 3. Political Elites and Europeanization: Changing Preferences in the Corridors of Power? 4. Spaces of Europeanization: Central and Eastern European Elites and the 2004 Accession 5. Discourses of Europeanization: The European Commission, European Narratives and European Neighbourhood Policy 6. Territorial Spaces of Europeanization: Narratives and Politics of Multifunctionality in English and French Rural Areas 7. The Spatialities of Europeanization: Power, Governance and Territory in Europe