Formation of a European society? Exploring social and cultural dimensions

The article provides a general overview of the existing historiography on the social (and to a less extent, cultural) dimension of the European integration. Within the wide range of approaches which characterizes historical research on the matter, it identifies three groups of works, on the basis of their perspective and object of analysis. The first group consists of works that study society as a whole, the impact of the integration process on it and, more specifically, whether or not this process stirred the formation of a more homogeneous European society. A category which includes also topics which may not be classified as social history proper – above all those of a largely cultural nature, connected to the definition of European identity, its social base and its symbolic dimensions. A second group deals with the interaction between European integration and political parties, trade unions, employers’ associations and other expressions of civil society. They therefore include studies which analyze this relationship both from the bottom up – the role played by elites and civil society organizations in the integration process – and from the top down – the influence exercised by integration on their cultures and organizational structures, mainly by acting as a stimulus for the creation of increasingly strong and active transnational networks. The third group consists of works that investigate the objectives and social impact of Community policies. This includes social policies in a strict sense as well as the social dimension and consequences of other policies, such as the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or Regional Policy. Due to its connections with all three kinds of approaches, some final remarks are also dedicated to works, usually of a non-historical nature, dealing with the concepts of “European social model” and “European social identity”, which have been growingly debated during the last decades.