Social constructivism

Abstract

This chapter explains how the emergence of crises is often the product of societal perceptions and beliefs about events, rather than structural flaws built into the international system itself. The author builds upon the concept of moral or societal panic—more specifically to the EU, integrational panic—as an approach to understand the social construction of crisis in Europe. Integrational panic occurs when there is some form of overreaction to events, often in the media, as well as the consolidation of narratives about these events, defining them as crises of EU integration. This disproportional reaction often brings pre-existing societal tensions to the surface that are not necessarily directly related to the crisis event itself, but lead to the perception that societal or political breakdown of some kind is imminent.