Habermas and European Integration: Social and cultural modernity beyond the nation-state

153 Pages·2019·2.388 MB·English

by  Shivdeep Grewal

WITH A NEW PREFACE
‘This splendid little book traces some interesting and important connections H
between Habermas’s theoretical work and his analyses of the European A
Union, linking one of Europe’s most important contemporary thinkers with B
its most important current political project.’ E
William Outhwaite, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of R
Newcastle M
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German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has written extensively on the

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European Union. This is the only in-depth account of his project. Published
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now in a second edition to coincide with the celebration of his ninetieth
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birthday, a new preface considers Habermas’s writings on the eurozone

and refugee crises, populism and Brexit, and the presidency of Emmanuel E
Macron. U
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL
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Placing an emphasis on the conception of the EU that informs Habermas’s O
MODERNITY BEYOND THE
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political prescriptions, the book is divided into two main parts. The first
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considers the unfolding of ‘social modernity’ at the level of the EU. Among NATION-STATE
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the subjects covered are Habermas’s concept of juridification, the latter’s
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affinities with integration theories such as neofunctionalism, and the

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application of Habermas’s democratic theory to the EU. The second part N
addresses ‘cultural modernity’ in Europe — ‘Europessimism’ is argued to T S
be a subset of the broader cultural pessimism that assailed the project of E
modernity in the late twentieth century, and with renewed intensity in the G H
years since 9/11. R
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Interdisciplinary in approach, this book engages with European/EU studies, T V
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critical theory, political theory, international relations, intellectual history, O
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comparative literature, and philosophy. Concise and clearly written, it will N
be of interest to students, scholars and professionals with an interest in these E
disciplines, as well as to a broader readership concerned with the future of
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Europe. E
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Shivdeep Grewal has taught at Brunel University and University College
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London
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Cover Image: R
Photo by Wolfram Huke CC BY-SA 3.0
Cover Design: ISBN 978-1-5261-4273-3 E
Abbey Akanbi, Manchester University Press
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9 781526 142733
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
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HABERMAS AND EUROPEAN
INTEGRATION

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HIVDEEP REWAL
habermas and
european integration
Social and cultural modernity beyond the nation-state
MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © Shivdeep Grewal 2012, 2019
The right of Shivdeep Grewal to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any
external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee
that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA, UK
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available
ISBN 978 1 5261 4273 3 paperback
This edition first published by Manchester University Press 2019
C
ONTENTS
Figures and tables pagevii
Preface and acknowledgements ix
Preface to the second edition xi
Abbreviations xix
Introduction: Modernity, welfare state and EUtopia 1
Part I Social modernity 11
1 Habermas on European integration 13
2 Metatheory 23
3 Integration theory 33
4 Democratic theory 47
Part II Cultural modernity 55
5 Rationalisation 57
6 Neoconservatism 64
7 Cartographies of disenchantment 71
Part III Empirical research 87
8 The conceptual landscape of the Constitutional Convention 89
Conclusion: An unfinished project? 97
Afterword John Goff 100
Appendix: The writers of social science 110
References 112
Index 126

F T
IGURES AND ABLES
Figures
3.1 The constructivist continuum page 34
3.2 The constructivist continuum 39
3.3 The underlying principles of the constructivist continuum 41
3.4 Social Europe and the constructivist continuum 44
5.1 Three conservative types 63
6.1 Situating neoconservatism 64
7.1 Nietzsche’s influence 71
7.2 The dark and the black 77
7.3 Mapping antimodernism 81
A1.1 The writers of social science 110
Tables
4.1 Lifeworld reproduction processes page 49
(adapted from Habermas, 1995: 142–4)
4.2 Lifeworld pathologies 50
(adapted from Habermas, 1995: 143)
7.1 Antimodernism in the early 1980s and today 72

P
REFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study builds on research conducted at the Universities of Reading and
Essex, yet its origins lie further back. As an undergraduate, I studied English
Literature. The critics impressed me as much as the writers, and it would not
be inaccurate to say that my work to date has been marked by early readings
of Susan Sontag and Marshall McLuhan, the French poststructuralists and the
Frankfurt School. My attention soon turned to the work of Jürgen Habermas.
I was inspired by the affirmative account of modernity at its heart. This has
been the object of critique for some time, and in recent years it has seemed
difficult even to articulate. That it remains plausible to me, still – despite
everything, a declaration of hope – is the reason I have persisted with the
present avenue of research.
I had originally intended to produce an account of the ‘democratic
deficit’. This would have been structured by a selection of Habermas’s
concepts, particularly those of his later, legal-democratic, theory. After the
tragic events of 9/11, however, I was forced, like many others, to question my
most basic assumptions. It gradually became apparent that Habermas’s work
was not rendered obsolete by the dramatic occurrences of the time, which in
a sense marked the passing of the postwar context in which he had developed
his major ideas. I would have to broaden my investigation, I realised, not
abandon it.
Habermas has written of the ‘densely populated, ethnically mixed
suburbs in the vicinity of Heathrow Airport’ (2001c: 75). I grew up nearby,
and it was to the suburbs that I returned to do the bulk of the writing. More
than once a key sentence or idea has come to me on an evening stroll (in
unconscious homage to Walter Benjamin, perhaps), and the importance to
my research of the European ‘lifeworld’, the experiential rather than market-
administrative aspect of the integration process, probably stems from this
peripatetic orientation. I also worked in the vicinity of Heathrow Airport, as
a visiting lecturer at Brunel University – my warmest gratitude goes to
Professors Justin Fisher and Alex Warleigh-Lack for inviting me back each
year.
Thanks are due to a number of people. To begin with, Professor Richard
Bellamy – I could not have asked for a better supervisor. My gratitude also
goes to Professor Emil Kirchner and Professor William Outhwaite, both in
relation to this study and the research that preceded it. Along with everyone
at Manchester University Press, I am indebted to Professor Thomas