Europeanisation in the Societal/Trans-National Realm: What European Integration Studies Can Get Out Of Analysing Football

Abstract

This article combines our empirical analysis concerning the impact of EU- and European-level developments on socio-economic patterns in the field of German football with the growing Europeanisation research agenda in EU Studies. Going beyond the traditional top-down (and bottom-up) approaches dominating this field of study, we seek to contribute to this debate by focusing on what we term the ‘societal/trans-national’ dimension of Europeanisation. This allows us to draw attention to societal spheres and transnational agency as important aspects/properties of change in Europeanisation processes. Through analysing five cases within the area of German football, we not only want to shed some light on an under-researched field of study for political scientists interested in Europeanisation. We also aim at exploring the applicability of systemising factors of the Europeanisation process derived from the analysis of political contexts to other areas of social interaction in order to capture hitherto neglected processes.