Conceptual Change In and Via European Integration

Abstract

This panel tackles a field not much touched upon both in European integration studies and in conceptual history. The lack of studies linking European integration and conceptual history is surprising: both date back to the same era and they both highlight mistrust towards the modern liberal state. The EU is a changing polity and an object of actual political controversies. Today, European integration has been in trouble for quite a long period of time; but the solutions developed either do not work properly, or reflect too much liberal state practices. In this situation, the tradition of historical study of social and political concepts may provide a productive perspective to the perusal of European integration. But so far, the EU has been like a “melting-pot” generating from varying mixture of materials new words, vocabularies and concepts, as well as institutions and practices. Therefore, an analysis of conceptual change and conceptual controversies with regard to the EU seems to impose itself for several reasons. Nevertheless, conceptual history approaches have only rarely been applied to the EU, the study of political concepts in the past centuries being their main objects of study.

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