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Constructing Europe: Insights from historical sociology

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

This article argues that one of the benefits of mainstreaming sociology in EU studies is the potential to better understand the underpinnings of the EU's political authority. In particular, the use of macrohistorical approaches and insights from the sociology of culture literature can help us see what is innovative about the EU as an emergent political form while highlighting the tensions in its claims on European citizens’ loyalty.

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Notes

  1. There is an excellent nascent literature in EU studies that investigates various aspects of the process of European integration with reference to Anderson's ideas. Most prominently, see Laura Cram (2001, 2006).

  2. See Pouliot (2008) for a full articulation of this approach, and an application to the dynamics of security communities.

  3. Again, see Cram (2001).

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  1. Mortara Center for International Studies, Georgetown University, 3600 N Street, NW, Washington DC, 20057, USA

    Kathleen R McNamara

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  1. Kathleen R McNamara
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McNamara, K. Constructing Europe: Insights from historical sociology. Comp Eur Polit 8, 127–142 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2010.8

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