Usage of European Integration Europeanisation from a Sociological Perspective

Abstract

The effect of European integration on its member states constitutes the new research agenda within the study of\nEuropean integration. Marked by the “the institutionalist turn” of Anglo-Saxon political sciences, the most dominant\ntheories on europeanisation focus on structural arrangements. Institutional incompatibility between the European and\nthe national level, so the hypothesis, creates pressures for change. Actors are often only considered as mediators of\nthese pressures. Consequentially, few approaches try to explain adaptational change initiated by policy actors in the\nabsence of institutional pressures. Using a political sociology approach, the central concern of this paper is to insist on\nthe political discretion of national actors in translation of European requirements. We believe that understanding not\nonly “adaptation to” but also “usage of” the process of European integration is important to understanding the\ntransformation of European member states. By insisting on usage, we aim at analysing both the strategic interaction of\nrational actors with the European institutions and the more sociological effect of “usage” – as “daily practice” – on the\ninterest and identities of the actors.