On the nature of the beast: re‐charting political geographies of the european union

Abstract

This review paper begins with the premise that since the European Union remains a process of construction with no agreed or pre‐designated end‐point, its power structure is open to a diverse range of interpretations. Moreover, the apparent novelty of the EU renders it hard to characterize according to familiar taxonomies. The novelty lies in part in the complex territorial configurations of authority in the EU. Different conceptualizations of the EU are varied readings of the structure, balance and scales of authority — which thereby invoke different actions and spaces of possibility.

Key words:

• European Union
• multi‐level governance
• networks
• regions
• territoriality
• scale
• geopolitics