The spatialities of Europeanisation: Territory, government and power in 'EUrope'

Abstract

Europeanisation is now widely researched in the social sciences, but a geographical contribution to these debates is lacking. Yet Europeanisation's myriad socialisation and learning processes have been configured over centuries by territorial propinquity and sites of government and power, with construction and projection of these continent-wide processes by political elites integral to nation building and latterly European integration, that is the building of 'EUrope'. We argue here that an examination of the under-researched scales and spaces of Europeanisation can furnish a more encompassing geographical understanding of this multifaceted suite of processes, and help address lacunae in contemporary social science accounts on Europeanisation's origins and contemporary manifestations under the imprimatur of European integration. © 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) 2008.