The Politics of Everyday Europe

The EU response, and the showdowns it has produced in the subsequent years, has been interpreted by observers in two ways. One view holds that the crisis has drawn Europe closer together. This is what the political scientist Kathleen McNamara argues in her thoughtful new book, * Ngaire Woods, Foreign Affairs *
The Politics of Everyday Europe is a path-breaking analysis of how the European Union has created an imagined community of Europeans. In this superb book, McNamara deftly shows how the EU has consolidated Europe and its own authority by creating shared symbols and practices for everyday life. From money to travel to architecture and diplomacy the EU has made itself a taken-for-granted social fact through exercises that are often technocratic, even banal, but pervasive and powerful. A must-read, not just for those interested in Europe, but for anyone interested the nature of power in contemporary politics. * Martha Finnemore, University Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The George Washington University *
Kathleen McNamara asks a simple but profound question: Why is the EU accepted as a new actor and legitimate site of political authority? Demonstrating how the EU has promoted itself as a banal, deracinated political entity, entwined with existing national identities, explains both the EUs development and how its legitimacy may be self-limiting. The real brilliance of the book comes in its asking profound questions about European integration that others have failed to ask. In so doing, McNamara forces us to rethink how we see the EU, and opens up new avenues of inquiry. * R. Daniel Kelemen, Professor of Political Science and Jean Monnet Chair in European Union Politics, Rutgers University *
The Politics of Everyday Europe situates European integration within a broader history of comparative political development, convincingly showing why Europe" is a part of our everyday reality--for better and for worseand the consequences for the future of the EU. McNamaras contribution to the sociology of Europe is immense, and challenges our thinking about state transformations and political legitimation in twenty-first century governance. * Virginie Guiraudon, Research professor at the National Center for Scientific Research, Sciences Po Center for European Studies *
Even after decades of intensive scholarship, we still dont fully understand what kind of political object the European Union is, and where it takes its authority from. To answer these very big, cardinal questions, Kathleen McNamara shifts our gaze to the realm of the infinitely small. Myriad everyday practices, part of a seemingly banal cultural infrastructure, add up to compose the social fact of European integration. This brilliant, innovative and timely book sheds new light on longtime puzzles in IR theory, EU studies and comparative political development. * Vincent Pouliot, Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar, McGill University *
offers a refreshing account of this phenomenon, not a dry institutional analysis. This insightful work draws on a wide literature in cultural analysis and sociological theory to make a strong argument that the political development of the EU must be seen in the context of a deeper cultural transformation * Gerard Delanty, Current History *