Kommentar |
Prof. Dr. Ettore Recchi (Sciences Po, Paris).
European integration is a multi-faceted, long-term project steered by political institutions but premised on underlying commonalities of social organization across the Continent. In the last decade or so, however, such commonalities have been contested and the overall legitimacy of the project questioned in several countries. Eventually, in 2016, anti-EU sentiments culminated in the Brexit vote. Differences between national societies, rather than being regarded as signs of cultural and economic richness, have been increasingly emphasized as latent contradictions of EU integration. How large are such differences? Do they prevail over commonalities? This course aims at surveying national societies in Europe, assuming (but also discussing) the persistent centrality of the nation state as key template of social life. Building on the macro-micro dialectics, the course unfolds as an encounter with ‘structures’ and patterns of individual ‘agency’ across European societies (geographical space and infrastructures, political organizations and activities, the economic sphere, family and leisure choices, cultural norms and individual attitudes). With a comparative approach, the course draws on empirical research on the characteristics and behaviours of institutions and actors. Trajectories of convergence, divergence and hybridization are illustrated as forming a complex texture that ultimately defines the uniqueness of ‘Europe’ in the contemporary world. |