European Imaginaries and the Intelligibility of Integration

This article subjects ‘Europe’ and ‘European politics’ to critical reflection. The article advances in three parts. The first section discusses the importance of narrative in the broader discursive construction of Europe as a political object and reality. The aim of this section is to demonstrate the utility of two conceptual heuristics in particular—‘imaginary’ and ‘field’—insofar as they help to delineate specific discourses and practices related to European politics. The second section explores two imaginaries now influential in shaping the intellectual common sense around Europe: the ‘academic’ and ‘bureaucratic’ imaginaries. The article closes with the third section arguing that to contest Europe requires the destabilization of two assumptions that are foundational for both imaginaries of Europe: (1) the idea that Europe is something ‘already there’; and (2) Europe is something we ‘already know’.