Globalisation and the European Union

Abstract

[conclusion]...If the concept of globalisation is to be of any use to the study of the EU, then analyses need to recognise the multiple images of globalisation that exist as well as the complexity of the EU polity and the unevenness of European integration and governance. To settle for one dimensional images of globalisation may well be a route to parsimony and to quantifiable indices, but it risks at the same time (a) debate that amounts to little more than ‘dialogues of the deaf’ and (b) explanation that uses ‘globalisation’ as a proxy for alternative (possible less fashionable) concepts. To question the analytical utility of the concept of globalisation in EU studies is not the same as suggesting that there is nothing meaningful to be said about the globalisation-Europeanisation relationship. If nothing else, the fact that ‘globalisation’ appears as a staple concept in the real world policy discourse of the EU compels a social scientific investigation of that presence. The task is less to understand how globalisation affects European integration and more to think about why the concept had become so ubiquitous within European policy communities. Show more