Contrapuntal Europe: New Research Topics and Valuable Old Sociological Theories in the Study of EU Questions

This paper adapts to European studies the contrapuntal logic of musicology, i.e., the relationship between two or more voices or melodies that are independent in contour and rhythm and interdependent in harmony. The several melodies simultaneously played thus intertwine and together form a richer whole. A contrapuntal Europe may thus bring together two original objects in the field of European studies: Elsewhere Europe, and Otherwise Europe. In the first section of this paper, it is argued that European integration affects social groups not only from above, i.e., through top-down norms and patterns but also from below. For scholars, new research topics can thus be found elsewhere through indirect reflections on EU institutionalization. However, the study of such new topics requires no new paradigms. Instead, notions widely used by scholars in understanding what is taking place in EU integration can be enlighten thanks to traditional sociological tools. The second section of the paper discusses a notion specific to EU issues, namely Europeanization, through an old concept drawn from Norbert Elias’s work in order to demonstrate that the latter can considerably enrich the former.