Reinvented through Crises: The Political Economy of the Western European Left within European Integration

ongoing

Due to recurring economic and political shocks, the past decade has consolidated crisis-management and resilience as a key priority of the European Union (EU). Academic research has long interrogated the ways in which crises are dealt with at the European level. Yet, the excessive emphasis on electoral trends or elite-led processes has failed to capture the long-term quiet politics of support towards European integration. The role of European progressives, a key source for the European ideals of solidarity and internationalism, has received little attention. This is surprising given the fact that progressive politics and European integration have both experienced a long series of mutations and adaptations shaped by recurring crises. While these processes have been studied separately, little attention has been given to their intersection. As a result, progressive politics has been conceptualised as a passive victim of increasing integration and the EU is often seen as squeezed in the middle between populism and technocratic decision making. CrisEU will build a theoretically informed and impact-oriented study to investigate the ideas and group characteristics that through critical junctures create long-lasting support to integration. The main hypothesis I will investigate is that progressive politics is ‘reinvented’ at different stages in relation to three interrelated factors: 1) The changes in the composition of left-wing social networks (in relation to gender, age, education, etc.); 2) The evolving memories of past crises; 3) The shifting understanding of what is needed to ensure Euorpean integration. Beyond academia, the proposed research will help political parties and trade unions identify the factors that drive (dis)integration within the EU, the ways in which memory informs crisis-management and the role played by social networks' pluralism in driving policy innovation.