Competing Euro Stories

Integration, disintegration and accommodation

Lecture

Today in the wake of the euro-crisis the European Union appears to be pulled in different directions simultaneously: towards greater integration in the Euro-zone, and towards greater disintegration through states seeking to renegotiate their status (notably the UK).

When we look at these depictions in relation to the mainstream thinking on the EU, we are struck by how heavily the integrationist story and in particular the normative desirability thereof, weighs in. The renewed focus on disintegration is therefore needed not only to bring in realism in relation to the Union’s frailty but also to furnish a necessary corrective to the dominant narrative. The subject of this lecture is whether such an undertaking might also benefit from highlighting a third analytical category, namely accommodation of difference and/or diversity.

About the speaker

John Erik Fossum is professor in Political Science at the ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo and currently he is Visiting Professor at ACCESS EUROPE.  Previously, he was professor at the Department of Administration and Organization Theory, University of Bergen.

Published by  ACCESS EUROPE