Varieties of Politicisation

In this paper, I would like to develop some elements for an alternative approach to politicisation. Politicisation has been for some time a key topic of research in European politics. Theorisation has, however, been lacking until now, as politicization has been implicitly conceptualized as an empirical phenomenon that consists of the putting into question by various marginal groups such as NGOs and extremist parties of established political procedures. Politicisation is then perceived as something negatively disruptive, as something auxiliary to politics proper. I see politicisation not so much as a process that emerges after the political field has been institutionalized and naturalized, but rather as the condition of possibility of the political field itself. This alternative perspective requires fine tuning different aspects of politicisation.