Rethinking Europe

Rethinking Europe

by Gerard Delanty, Chris Rumford
Released September 2005
Publisher(s): Routledge
ISBN: 9781134277933

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Book description

Dominant approaches to the transformation of Europe ignore contemporary social theory interpretations of the nature and dynamics of social change. Here, Delanty and Rumford argue that we need a theory of society in order to understand Europeanization. This book advances the case that Europeanization should be theorized in terms of:

  • globalization 
  • major social transformations that are not exclusively spear-headed by the EU
  • the wider context of the transformation of modernity.

This fascinating book broadens the terms of the debate on Europeanization, conventionally limited to the supersession of the nation-state by a supra-national authority and the changes within member states consequent upon EU membership.

Demonstrating the relevance of social theory to contemporary issues and with a focus on European transformation rather than simplistic notions of Europe-building, this truly multidisciplinary volume will appeal to readers from a range of social science disciplines, including sociology, geography, political science and European studies.

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. Rethinking Europe
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. 1 Theorizing Europeanization: towards a constructivist theory of society
    1. Why a theory of society?
    2. Europeanization, globalization and social theory
    3. Europeanization between integration and differentiation
    4. Europeanization from a social constructivist perspective
    5. Recognition, cosmopolitanism and Europe
    6. Main themes of the book
  7. 2 History, modernity, and the multiple conceptions of Europe: European transformation in historical perspective
    1. Borders and definitions of Europe
    2. The European civilizational constellation
    3. Multiple modernities and European transformation
    4. Implications of the enlargement of European Union
    5. Conclusion: towards a post-western Europe?
  8. 3 Is there a European identity? European self-understanding beyond unity and diversity
    1. Some conceptual issues
    2. Defining European identity
    3. Unity in diversity – a new European repertoire of evalu
    4. Neither the one nor many
    5. Conclusion: beyond the diversity myth
  9. 4 What does it mean to be a ‘European’? The possibility of cosmopolitan loyalties
    1. Americans and Europeans
    2. Cosmopolitanism and Europeanness
    3. The possibility of cosmopolitan loyalties: is there a European loyalty?
    4. The European Union and dilemmas of loyalty
    5. Conclusion: post-national loyalty?
  10. 5 The new cultural logic of Europeanization: citizenship, memory, and public discourse
    1. European post-national citizenship
    2. Globalization and the nation: cosmopolitan imaginaries
    3. Spheres of memory: commemoration and the politics of peoplehood
    4. Is there a European ‘people’?
    5. Conclusion: Europeanization and public culture
  11. 6 The European Social Model: from welfare state to learning society and beyond
    1. The emergence of a European social model
    2. The learning society and the European social model
    3. Conclusion: Europe in search of a society
  12. 7 Organizing European space: borderlands, ‘undivided Europe’ and spatiality beyond territory
    1. Social theory and space
    2. ‘Undivided Europe’: proximity and neighbourhood politics
    3. Borderlands and European space
    4. Conclusion: the ‘dynamic space’ of the European Union
  13. 8 The European Union as non-state: the spatialization of EU governance
    1. Social theory, the state, and governance
    2. Constructing EU governance
    3. Conclusion: a new model of European governance
  14. 9 Towards a European polity? Europe meets the world
    1. Definitional issues
    2. Polity and the new governance agenda
    3. Re-thinking polity: the global context
    4. Conclusion: towards a theory of society?
  15. 10 Rethinking European society: the global civil society context
    1. The neglected global dimension to civil society
    2. Global civil society as a natural realm
    3. The question of the public sphere
    4. Conclusion: rethinking European civil society
  16. Conclusion: towards a cosmopolitan Europe
    1. The dimensions of social transformation
    2. European futures
    3. Cosmopolitan Europe
  17. Notes
  18. References
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: Rethinking Europe
  • Author(s): Gerard Delanty, Chris Rumford
  • Release date: September 2005
  • Publisher(s): Routledge
  • ISBN: 9781134277933