This book argues that contemporary European politics creates new forms of
transnational power that challenge the traditional parameters of the nation-state.
Kauppi identifies and critically explores the evolving dynamics between national
and transnational spaces, groups and knowledge, and suggests that European public
policies and transnational institutions like the European Parliament create new spaces,
types of knowledge and novel political practices.
Toward a Reflexive Political Sociology of the European Union is structured around
three parts. The first focuses on evolving transnational fields. The second explores the
changing role of academics and universities. The third section engages with the works
of Pierre Bourdieu on politics and the media. The issues discussed throughout the
book revolve around the challenges to the nation-state and of knowledge production
that is tied to it.
This book will be an invaluable resource to academics and researchers interested in
European politics, European Union studies and political sociology.

Section 1: The Politics of Transnational Integration1. Towards a Sociology of EU Politics2. Exploring the Political Ontology of European Integration3. Analyzing Integration4. Constructing Transnational Fields5. Political Legitimation and European Publics Spaces: Communication as Practice and Resource6. Processes of Differentiation of Political Power in the EUSeciton 2: Reflexive Action and Knowledge Production7. Intellectual Power in Europe8. European Academic Identity9. European Political Science and Global Knowledge10. Academics as Politicians and as Operators of Global GovernanceSection 3: Bourdieuisian Meditations11. Translation and the Politics of Circulating Ideas12. The Secondary Reality of the Media13. Pierre Bourdieu's Theory of Politics: An Interpretation14. The Bourdieu Affair15. Toward a Politically Theory of the SublimeEpilogue: Tinkering with the Future of the EU.

Niilo Kauppi
is Research Professor at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and is Distinguished Professor at University of Jyväskylä, Finland.