CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES IN THE STUDY OF EUROPEAN SOCIALIZATION

Abstract

Socialization is an important concept in contemporary empirical studies on European integration and politics. However, the existing empirical research differs substantially in terms of research design, operationalization and measurement as well as analytical categories. Yet, despite these divergences, some relevant conclusions can be drawn from this somewhat disparate literature, conclusions which nuance the view of the European arena as a key socialization site. This essay offers a critical assessment of the socialization literature and aims to identify some fruitful avenues for future research. It argues that socialization research faces conceptual and methodological challenges with regard to process–product ambiguity, the notion of internalization and the temporal nature of socialization processes.

Keywords:

• European socialization
• research design
• individual policy-makers

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the conference ‘L’Europe: objet, agent et enjeu de socialization’, Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Lyon, France, 9–10 October 2008. In particular I wish to thank the conveners of this conference, Hélène Michel and Cécile Robert, for giving me the opportunity to present some of my ideas that inspired the writing of this paper. I would also like to acknowledge the constructive and critical comments I got from my colleagues in Antwerp, in particular Jorg Kustermans.

Notes

Overall, contemporary large-N studies on the EU are, as their predecessor from the seventies, not very supportive of European socialization. The neo-functionalist expectation that European experiences are conducive to the adoption of co-operative pro-European norms led in the 1970s to a large number, nowadays mostly forgotten, empirical studies (Feld and Wildgen 1975; Peck 1979; Pendergast 1976; Scheinman and Feld 1972; Smith 1973; Wolf 1973). It is important to note that few of these studies were able to conclude that more involvement into European policy-making led to an increased support for integration.

COREPER stands for ‘Comité des Représentants Permanents’ (in French), or the ‘Committee of Permanent Representatives’. It is made up of the head of mission member states in Brussels. Its key role is preparing the agenda for the Council as well as overseeing more than 200 Council working groups.

The concepts field and habitus developed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu are useful in this area, and some scholars indeed rely on Bourdieu (Ghecui 2005). Bourdieu views the habitus as a system of dispositions and meanings associated with particular fields. Crucial is that habitus relates past with the present; it is conditioned by social origin, subsequent trajectories and experiences with past fields (Dobbin 2008; Emirbayer and Johnson 2008). So each member of a group has a habitus developed through experiences in other organizational fields.

This is similar to what Ikenbery and Kupchan argue about state socialization (1990, 292–4; see also Flockhart 2004, 362; Schimmelfennig et al. 2006, 243–4, 258).