Abstract
For someone who studies the emergence of new European cultural actors, community institutions represent a privileged observatory. It is the supreme laboratory for Europe—so longed for by some and so despised by others. And it might be interesting for an anthropologist to penetrate a universe that has given rise to received ideas more than to serious research. Since I have done in-depth studies of two institutions, the parliament1 and the commission,2 I will present here some reflections about the relation of community actors to language and to culture. Second, I will deal with the impact of this cultural crossroads on administrative and political practices. To conclude, I will tackle some theoretical and methodological issues raised by an anthropological approach to the subject of the community.
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Notes
Marc Abélès. La Vie quotidienne au Parlement européen. Paris: Hachette, 1992.
Marc Abélès, Irène Bellier, and Maryon McDonald. Approche anthropologique de la Commission Européenne, miméo report, Brussels: European Commission, December 1993.
For an analysis of the original traits of the European system, cf. Stanley Hoffmann and Robert O. Keohane (eds.). The New European Community: Decision making and Institutional Change. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991; Jean Louis Quermonne. Le Système politique européen. Paris: Montchrestien, 1993; William Wallace (ed.). The Dynamics of European Integration, London: Pinter, 1990.
On this theme, see Marc Abélès. “Virtual Europe,” in Irène Bellier and Thomas M. Wilson (eds). An Anthropology of the European Union: Building, Imagining and Experiencing the New Europe. Oxford: Berg, 2000: 31–52.
Pierre Muller. “La mutation des politiques publiques européennes.” Pouvoirs 69; “Europe, de la Communauté à l’Union.” Paris: Seuil, 1994: 63–74.
See the analysis by Irène Bellier, “Une culture de la Commission européenne?” in Yves Mény, Pierre Muller, and Jean Louis Quermonne (eds.). Politiques publiques en Europe. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1995: 49–60.
Pascal Lamy. “Choses vues… d’Europe.” Esprit, September 1991: 67–81.
Jean-Marc Ferry. “Pertinence du postnational.” Esprit, September 1990: 80–90.
Dominique Wolton. La Dernière utopie: Naissance de l’Europe démocratique. Paris: Flammarion, 1993.
On this point, see Yves Mény, Pierre Muller, and Jean Louis Quermonne, Politiques publiques en Europe. See also Christian Lequesne. Paris-Bruxelles: Comment se fait la politique européenne de la France. Paris: Presses de la FNSP, 1993; Wolfgang Wessels. “Administrative Interaction,” in William Wallace (ed.). The Dynamics of European Integration: 229–241.
Nathan Wachtel, “L’acculturation,” in Jacques Le Goff and Pierre Nora (eds.) Faire de l’histoire: Nouveaux problèmes. Paris: Gallimard, 1974: 124–146.
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© 2009 Riva Kastoryano
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Abélès, M. (2009). The Practitioners of Europe. In: Kastoryano, R. (eds) An Identity for Europe. The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230621282_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230621282_2
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