Social Gap: The Double Meaning of ‘Overlooking’

Abstract

European studies acknowledged what is usually considered the elitist bias of European integration long before Fligstein, in Euroclash, concluded that

Europe as a social and cultural project is clearly a social class project. The class aspects of European economic and social integration explain some of the anti-EU national politics that have emerged.

(Fligstein, 2008: 251)

The bias concerns first the unequal benefits that different social groups gained from market integration and from the corollary reforms. Second it concerns the persistently unequal support that citizens give to the European political system, depending on their social class, whether this is measured primarily by income, wealth, occupational status or educational attainment (Belot, 2002; Cautrès & Grunberg, 2007).