Difficulties of the EU As a Common Object for Identification

In order to understand and explain the current situation of the European Union one has to study the long-term development of this institution, created mainly by political, economic and intellectual elite ‘from the top’. The main thesis of this presentation is that the transition of the social habitus of the majority of Europeans has been lagging behind the transition of national institutions towards European supra-national institutions.

From a process sociological point of view, I will discuss about the reasons of this asynchrony between different habitual, functional and institutional dimensions of this rather a project than a process. European Union could serve here as an paradigmatic example of social differentiation without accompanying processes of social and political integration.

Especially, the emotional aspects of social integration and disintegration will be called into consideration. There will also be discussions about some difficulties of the emergence of a new ‘survival unit’ in more democratic societies in comparison to authoritarian societies, with regard to the question of legitimacy.