French Follies?

This article provides a critical analysis of the contribution made by French political sociologists to the study of the European Union.. While expressing scepticism about the quest for specific national or disciplinary contributions, the author remains positive about potential uses for the utilization of the impressive body of knowledge that has been accumulated by researchers – including French researchers - on the European Union. This involves, not least, the potential to develop concepts that can be used to structure that knowledge and that can act as a basis for fruitful comparison across cases both within Europe and without. The various papers in this special issue suggest a number of important avenues to be explored in this regard.