Building Europe: The Cultural Politics of European Integration

Description

The EU today seeks to forge 'ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe' and to lay the foundations for a new system of government that will supersede the nation-state. But corruption scandals in Brussels and declining public support for European institutions highlight serious deficiencies, and reveal a corrosive lack of democracy and accountability. In the search for solutions, the EU has increasingly turned to 'cultural action'. Building Europe details the attempts of EU elites to use culture as a tool for forging a sense of cohesion and belonging among Europeans - from invented Euro-symbols and statistics to European citizenship and the single currency. Unprecedented first-hand insights into the working culture of the European Commission are provided, with explanations for its seemingly endemic fraud and corruption. The author asks whether, in the absence of a popular European consciousness, the EU's supranational ideal can ever lead to a 'people's Europe' rather than a centralised and unaccountable nation state. Building Europe offers a revelatory anthropological scrutiny and powerful critique of the attempt to create a single Europe. It will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the culture and politics of the EU, as well as being highly relevant to courses in international relations, politics and social anthropology.

Cris Shore is Head of the Anthropology Department at Goldsmith's College, University of London. He has published and lectured extensively on European integration and EU cultural politics.