Reinvented through Crises: The Political Economy of the Western European Left within European Integration

Description du projet

Enquêter sur la résilience de l’intégration européenne

La dernière décennie de chocs économiques et politiques a fait de la gestion des crises et de la résilience une priorité pour l’UE. Malgré les recherches sur les crises au niveau européen, l’accent a souvent été mis sur les tendances électorales et les processus menés par les élites, négligeant le soutien discret et à long terme à l’intégration européenne. Les mouvements progressistes européens, essentiels aux idéaux de solidarité et d’internationalisme, ont été oubliés. Avec le soutien du programme Actions Marie Skłodowska-Curie, le projet CrisEU étudiera la manière dont la politique progressiste est remodelée par les crises, en examinant les changements dans les réseaux sociaux de gauche, l’évolution des souvenirs des crises et l’évolution des besoins en matière d’intégration. Cette recherche permettra de mieux comprendre les moteurs de la (dés)intégration de l’UE et le rôle des réseaux sociaux dans l’innovation politique.

Objectif

Due to recurring economic and political shocks, the past decade has consolidated crisis-management and resilience as a key priority of the European Union (EU). Academic research has long interrogated the ways in which crises are dealt with at the European level. Yet, the excessive emphasis on electoral trends or elite-led processes has failed to capture the long-term quiet politics of support towards European integration. The role of European progressives, a key source for the European ideals of solidarity and internationalism, has received little attention. This is surprising given the fact that progressive politics and European integration have both experienced a long series of mutations and adaptations shaped by recurring crises. While these processes have been studied separately, little attention has been given to their intersection. As a result, progressive politics has been conceptualised as a passive victim of increasing integration and the EU is often seen as squeezed in the middle between populism and technocratic decision making. CrisEU will build a theoretically informed and impact-oriented study to investigate the ideas and group characteristics that through critical junctures create long-lasting support to integration. The main hypothesis I will investigate is that progressive politics is ‘reinvented’ at different stages in relation to three interrelated factors: 1) The changes in the composition of left-wing social networks (in relation to gender, age, education, etc.); 2) The evolving memories of past crises; 3) The shifting understanding of what is needed to ensure Euorpean integration. Beyond academia, the proposed research will help political parties and trade unions identify the factors that drive (dis)integration within the EU, the ways in which memory informs crisis-management and the role played by social networks' pluralism in driving policy innovation.