How should we assess the prospects for continued European integration in the wake of the Brexit vote and of a resurgent nationalism in many European countries? Is it time to rethink what we know about European integration and begin to theorize processes of disintegration instead? This module addresses a range of fundamental questions facing the European Union and its Member States in the present day.

It first interrogates the conditions under which European integration flourished in the postwar era and examines significant political milestones in the establishment of the EEC and later the EU. It questions how significant a shared sense of European identity and public sphere are in the political integration process. Further, it explores the impact of the collapse of communism, the significance of a re-emergence of nationalism and the extent of political and social convergence at the turn of the twenty-first century. From there it assesses the series of crises that have shaken the project of European integration in the twenty-first century: from the financial crisis and the migration crisis to the challenges of the Covid-19 crisis. Finally, it explores Euroscepticism and asks what forms of European integration might remain feasible in the wake of the Brexit.

There are no pre-requisites for this module. It is designed to appeal to students interested in Politics, History, Sociology, Social Sciences, and different aspects of European Studies.

Introductory Reading:

Van Middelaar, Luuk, Passage to Europe: how a continent became a union New Haven: Yale University Press (2013)

Berend, T.I., Against European integration : the EU and its discontents (2019)

Krumrey, J., The symbolic politics of European integration : staging Europe (2018)

Wiener et al., European integration theory. Third edition (2019)

Zimmermann, H. and Dür, A. (eds.), Key Controversies in European Integration (Basingstoke, 2012)

Norman Davies, The Idea of Europe, in Europe East and West (London, 2007)

Haas, E.B., The Uniting of Europe: Political, Social and Economic Forces 1950-1957, 3rd ed. (2004)

Rasmussen, M., et al. (eds.), The Road to a United Europe: Interpretations of the Process of European Integration (2007).