Forces Shaping the EU - Social Science Approaches to Understanding the European Union

This book investigates the European Union as an object of the social sciences. Although its main direction is to discuss different dimensions of the EU project and the direction of its development, it also reflects the state of the social sciences in this development. Accordingly, the book is structured to take into consideration «modernist», «critical» and «culturalist» perspectives. Given this frame the contributions by individual authors deliver a wide range of insights into the EU project, insights which often point to aspects hidden, rarely mentioned or not at all recognized in the official discourse about the EU. Besides, attention is raised for the precarious cognitive situation of the social sciences in times of rapid societal transformation.