What Is the EU?

This interpretive article relies on insights from three critical literatures -world-systems analysis, postcolonial studies and, to the extent of an extended simile, the economic sociology of flexible global production -to propose a geo-political understanding of what the European Union (EU) is. The...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International sociology 2005-06, Vol.20 (2), p.153-173
Main Authors: Böröcz, József, Sarkar, Mahua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authority
Colonialism
Decolonization
Dependency
EU enlargement
Europe
European integration
European Union
Geography
Geopolitics
Globalization
Integration
International Organizations
International relations
Member states
Multinational Corporations
Multinational enterprises
Organizational Structure
Political Integration
Political sociology
Politics
Postcolonialism
Sociology
State
Statehood
States
World System Theory
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This interpretive article relies on insights from three critical literatures -world-systems analysis, postcolonial studies and, to the extent of an extended simile, the economic sociology of flexible global production -to propose a geo-political understanding of what the European Union (EU) is. The authors begin by interrogating the tendency within much of the current research and commentary on the EU to treat it as a state of sorts. They then outline some mechanisms -pertaining to its internal and external linkage structures -that have enabled the EU to perform successfully in a geo-political context where most of the main actors are states. Finally, drawing on critical insights from the sociology of subcontracted production and distributed organization, the authors suggest ways in which the EU, in its current form, might be thought of beyond the constraints of the current theoretical language of statehood.
ISSN:0268-5809
1461-7242
DOI:10.1177/0268580905052367