The European Union in Search of Narratives: Disenchanted Europe? François Foret. (Taylor & Francis, 2024)
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: François Foret's book is a timely and thought-provoking intervention in the long-running debate on how the European Union seeks to legitimate itself.For decades, scholars have puzzled over the EU's legitimacy problem, often approaching it through the lenses of institutional design, the socalled democratic deficit, or output performance.More recently, however, attention has shifted towards discourse and storytelling: to the ways in which Europe narrates itself.Foret positions his book firmly within this conversation, engaging with figures such as Van Middelaar, Risse, Manners, and Murray, while carving out his own distinctive approach.The central argument is that Europe increasingly turns to master narrativesabove all 'Europe of rights', 'Europe of values', and the 'European way of life'to sustain its legitimacy.These narratives, Foret suggests, are not simply rhetoric, nor are they benign myths.They function as acts of 'sacralisation', elevating political principles to the level of the unquestionable, seeking to invest them with a kind of quasi-religious authority.Yet, as he carefully demonstrates, these very narratives also generate contestation.By drawing boundaries of belonging, they simultaneously include and exclude, forging unity while provoking dissent.This theoretical move is the book's most original contribution.Where Van Middelaar in The Passage to Europe stresses the 'event' of politics and the performative moments through which Europe comes alive, Foret is more concerned with the symbolic weight and afterlife of narratives themselves.Similarly, while Risse and others have explored European identity in terms of socialisation and communicative action, Foret shifts the focus to the sacralising force of discourse that claims to be beyond politics.The notion of sacralisation complements and at points challenges categories such as securitisation and polarisation.Where those emphasise fear or conflict, sacralisation captures the EU's tendency to present certain values or rights as absolute.It is a fruitful conceptual tool, one that can travel beyond European studies into political sociology more broadly.The book is structured as follows: An introductory chapter sets the scene, situating the study within the narrative turn in EU research and outlining its scope.A second chapter develops the theoretical framework of sacralisation.The following three chapters then examine, in turn, the 'Europe of rights', the 'Europe of values', and the 'European way of life', each tracing the genealogy, activation, and reception of these narratives in public and political life.The conclusion steps back to place these findings in the wider context of a Europe mired in polycrisisfrom the eurozone to migration, Brexit, the pandemic, and the war in Ukraine.Methodologically, the book combines discourse analysis of official documents, political speeches, and media debates with empirical material, including a 2020 survey across eight member
Source: European Political Science
Author: Vittorio Orlando
Institution: University of Iceland
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,550
OpenAlex ID: W7128947130