European Affairs at the Local Level: The Emergence of a Professional Field?

Since the Maastricht Treaty, Europe has had a growing impact on local policies. More precisely, EU instruments, such as the Structural Funds are implemented and reappropriated by local actors. They adapt their practices and daily work to the administrative and technical tools of the EU instruments (projects applications, accounting standards, EU objectives…). Up to now, literature has focused on the efficiency of EU instruments, but not on the practices, strategies and representations of the local actors specialized in handling them. This paper will open a new research agenda on the sociology of European affairs policy actors at the local level. Relying upon the sociology of EU policies, sociology of administration and sociology of professions, we will define a research design in order to understand how EU instruments influence the development of specific practices or know-how of local actors; and, how it influences the rise of a specific professional field.