Towards a Social History of European Integration

Abstract

This introduction to the special issue ‘Towards a Social History of European integration’ takes as its starting point that European citizens have from the early days of European integration engaged with ‘Europe’ as an emerging political and social entity, be this indirectly, as in the case of German coal miners marching to Bonn, or directly, as exemplified by farmers taking to the streets of Brussels. Moreover, European policies have shaped lived experiences and natural environments. Such episodes do not structure European integration textbooks, however; nor do they feature prominently in overviews of European contemporary history. The special issue focuses on manifestations of engagement, support and contention from European citizens, social groups and their representatives, both within European institutions and outside. This introduction presents a research agenda for a social history of European integration. The authors use the term ‘social history’ to describe an approach that centres social actors and their lived experiences with the European Community (EC). First, the article provides an overview of the role which social actors and non-institutional perspectives have played in the historiography of European integration. Second, it discusses relevant trends in writings on contemporary European history, which – when applied to the history of the EC/European Union – allows for moving away from formal institutions of power and expanding the range of political spaces, actors and practices that constitute the ‘political’. The authors propose that following social actors as they moved across different political arenas illuminates how they experienced European integration and perceived of the (legitimacy of the) ‘European project’.