Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2013

The Field of Eurocracy

Mapping EU Actors and Professionals

Palgrave Macmillan

Part of the book series: European Administrative Governance (EAGOV)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiv
  2. Introduction: Studying Eurocracy as a Bureaucratic Field

    • Didier Georgakakis, Jay Rowell
    Pages 1-15
  3. MEPs: Towards a Specialization of European Political Work?

    • Willy Beauvallet, Sébastien Michon
    Pages 16-34
  4. ECB Leaders. A New European Monetary Elite?

    • Frédéric Lebaron
    Pages 87-104
  5. Expert Groups in the Field of Eurocracy

    • Cécile Robert
    Pages 137-165
  6. European Business Leaders. A Focus on the Upper Layers of the European Field Power

    • François-Xavier Dudouet, Eric Grémont, Audrey Pageaut, Antoine Vion
    Pages 202-225
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 248-274

About this book

The word Eurocracy has resonance throughout out Europe but in reality we know little about the people who work in and around the EU or how they fit into its large bureaucratic framework. Based on extensive fieldwork, this book addresses this problem by exploring the MEPs, diplomats, civil servants and commissioners that work in and around the EU.

Reviews

'Didier Georgakakis and Jay Rowell have put together a thought-provoking volume on 'the field of Eurocracy'. Contributors provide a wealth of information on the EU's actors while introducing a new sociological, actor-centred perspective which provides a welcome supplement (or even antidote) to more conventional studies of the European institutions.'

- Michelle Cini, Professor of European Politics, University of Bristol, UK and Co-editor, Journal of Common Market Studies

'The institutions of the European Union, despite valiant efforts to increase their transparency, remain puzzling to specialists and citizens alike, encouraging reductionisms such as that of a tentacular and all-powerful 'Brussels bureaucracy.' There are bureaucrats in Brussels, they are divided, functionally dispersed and, while very competent, much less powerful than such myths make them out to be. This excellent volume helps greatly to map 'Eurocracy' and demolish these myths. At a moment when the project for building a new Europe is under siege, such contributions are essential.'

- George Ross, ad personam Chaire Jean Monnet, Université de Montréal, Canada; Emeritus, Brandeis University, USA and Faculty Associate, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University, USA

'Forty-five years after A. Spinelli's 'The Eurocrats', this is the first book to systematically deploy the concepts, analytical tools and methodology of contemporary sociology to thestudy of the European Union institutions. An entirely original perspectives on the institutions and the people who work for them thus emerges. Specialists of European affaires, scholars and students in politics, administration and sociology as well as citizens will develop a new understanding of who rules the EU institutions and why, sociologically speaking, the European project appears to be in crisis.'

Juan Díez Medrano, Professor of Sociology, Universidad de Barcelona, Spain and Chair of the Council for European Studies

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Paris I-Sorbonne, France

    Didier Georgakakis

  • University of Strasbourg, France

    Jay Rowell

About the editors

Philippe Aldrin, Sciences Po Aix, France Willy Beauvallet, University of Strasbourg, France Filippa Chatzistavrou, ELIAMEP foundation, Athens, Greece Guillaume Courty, Sciences Po Lille, France François-Xavier Dudouet, University of Paris-Dauphine, France Eric Grémont, Observatory of Capitalist structures (OpesC) Frederic Lebaron, University of Picardie, France Sébastien Michon, University of Strasbourg, France Hélénè Michel, University of Strasbourg, France Audrey Pageaut, University of Strasbourg, France Cécile Robert, Sciences Po Lyon, France Antoine Vion, University of Aix-Marseille, France Anne-Catherine, University of Paris I Sorbonne, France

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access