Review article
The European Union and Reflexive Modernization: Is Anthony Giddens' and Ulrich Beck's Theory of Late Modernity Convincing as a Political Discourse of Europeanization?
Krešimir Petković
orcid.org/0000-0003-3319-1838
; Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Zagreb
Abstract
The article discusses Anthony Giddens’ and Ulrich Beck’s vision of the European Union, which they constructed on the basis of theoretical insights developed in their sociology of late modernity. Starting from the “moderate version” of political discourse theory, the author tries to show how Giddens’ and Beck’s sociology of late modernity has a strong normative-political dimension that neglects the social and political reality of classical modernity, and shows how political discursive interpretation of their theory can even be derived from their own methodological presuppositions. The author concludes that, once outside the protective belt of legitimacy provided by the category of neutral scientific theory, Giddens’ and Beck’s theory, as one of the political discursive projects of European integration, has to consider more seriously the persistent counterpolitics of classical modernity: the nation state institutions, the strength of national identity and the nation state allegiances, whether those are understood as primordial givens or as firmly established discursive-political forces of the contemporary world.
Keywords
reflexive modernization; European Union; Ulrich Beck; Anthony Giddens; sociology; politics; discourse
Hrčak ID:
51793
URI
Publication date:
30.4.2010.
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