The Integration of “East” and “West”. Slovenian “Eurocrats” and the Politics of Identity within the Institutions of the European Union

Authors

  • Tatiana Bajuk Senčar ZRC SAZU, Novi trg 2, Ljubljana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2009380211

Keywords:

anthropology, European Union, identity, integration, cultural constructions of expertise // antropologija, Evropska unija, identiteta, integracija, kulturna konstrukcija ekspertize

Abstract

This paper explores the politics of identity construction in the institutions of the European Union after the European Union began its expansion to the east in the year 2004. To do so it will present an analysis of the career narratives of first generation of Slovenian EU officials. Approaching the issue of identity from the perspective of career narratives provides a constructive complement to existing anthropological theories on the construction of identity in the EU institutions that have been based primarily on an exploration of the relationship between the national and the European.

***

Besedilo raziskuje vprašanje konstrukcije identitete v ustanovah Evropske Unije po njeni širitvi na vzhod v letu 2004 na podlagi pripovedi o poklicni karieri prve generacije slovenskih uradnikov v EU. Spoznanja o identiteti, kakršna omogočajo analize pripovedi, so konstruktivno dopolnilo znanim antropološkim teorijam o pojmovanju identitete v ustanovah EU, ki so temeljile predvsem na analizi razmerja med Evropo in nacijo.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abélès, Marc. 1993. Political Anthropology of the Transnational Institution: The European Parliament. French Politics and Society 11(1): 1–19.

Abélès, Marc. 2004. Identity and Borders: An Anthropological Approach to EU Institutions. Online Working Paper, Number 4. The Center for 21st Century Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Bellier, Irène. 1995. Une culture de la Commission Europeene?: De la rencontre des cultures et du mulilinguisme des fonctionnaires. In: Mény, Y., P. Muller, and J. L. Quermonne (eds.), Politiques Publiques en Europe. Paris: L’Harmattan.

Bellier, Irène. 2000. A Europeanized Elite?: An Anthropology of European Commission Officials. Yearbook of European Studies 14: 135–156.

Bellier, Irène. 2000b. The European Union, Identity Politics and the Logic of Interests’ Representation. In: Bellier, Irène and Thomas M. Wilson (eds.), An Anthropology of the European Union: Building, Imagining and Experiencing the New Europe. Oxford and New York: Berg.

Delanty, Gerard. 2000. Social Integration and Europeanization: The Myth of Cultural Cohesion. Yearbook of European Studies 14: 221–238.

Eppink, Derk-Jan. 2007. Life of a European Mandarin: Inside the Commission. Tielt, Belgium: Lannoo.

Holmes, Doug. 2000. Integral Europe: Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

MacDonald, Maryon. 1996. ‘Unity in Diversity’: Some Tensions in the Construction of Europe. Social Anthropology 4: 47–60. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8676.1996.tb00313.x

MacDonald, Maryon. 1997. Identities in the European Commission. In: Nugent, Neill (ed.), At the Heart of the Union: Studies of the European Commission. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Shore, Cris. 2000. Building Europe: The Cultural Politics of European Integration. London and New York: Routledge Press.

Stevens, Anne and Hadley Stevens. 2001. Brussels Bureaucrats?: The Administration of the European Union. New York: Palgrave Press.

Thedvall, Renita. 2006. Eurocrats at Work: Negotiating Transparency in Postnational Employment Policy. Stockholm: Intellecta Docusys.

Zabusky, Stacia E. 2000. Boundaries at Work: Discourses and Practices of Belonging in the European Space Agency. In: Bellier, Irène and Thomas M. Wilson (eds.), An Anthropology of the European Union: Building, Imagining and Experiencing the New Europe. Oxford and New York: Berg.

Ziller, Jacques. 1993. Administrations comparées: Les systèmes politico-administratifs de l’Europe des Douze. Paris: Montchrestien.

Downloads

Published

15.11.2009

How to Cite

Bajuk Senčar, T. (2009). The Integration of “East” and “West”. Slovenian “Eurocrats” and the Politics of Identity within the Institutions of the European Union. Traditiones, 38(2), 165–178. https://doi.org/10.3986/Traditio2009380211

Issue

Section

Europe. Imagination and Practices / Evropa. Imaginacija in prakse