Conclusion: The Field of Eurocracy: A New Map for New Research Horizons

Abstract

Concluding a book of this type is no easy task. By developing tools for a sociological analysis of European politics, this book provides a more concrete and, in many aspects, more human or at least more incarnated understanding of what is at play in the EU’s central institutional space, understood as a social arena of political and administrative delegation. Consequently, this book is less the outcome of an overall thesis than a common endeavor to respond to the many invitations to operationalize the concept of field inspired by Bourdieu’s sociology as a step towards further studies. It is hoped the various chapters have convinced the reader of the fruitfulness of this approach, but what overall picture, in the full sense of the word, do the chapters present, and what is the contribution of the book as a whole to EU studies? Without enclosing the analysis by drawing overly definitive conclusions, we would nonetheless like to highlight two broader contributions.