European politics of survivance: Europeanization as a rite of passage

This paper attempts to examine Europeanization as a politics that inaugurates an imagined common sociality among imagined Europeans. It is argued that Europeanization may be viewed as a rite of passage that comes out of a social drama staged for the purpose of surpassing the flaws of the European existence, and for the sake of survivance (risk reduction). The notion of Europeanization is examined against a body of empirical (secondary) data as well as against theoretical concepts stemming from different areas of humanistic knowledge. The conclusion is that Europeanization is staged as a process of bringing about qualitative changes in politics, the economy and the social order with the aim to create and maintain the desired image of an imagined progressive Europe.