Symbolic enrichment as a "cultural other" : the interpretation of world polity scripts in the field of European social inclusion policy

Abstract

"This paper puts forward a sociological perspective on the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) going beyond the usual focus on power and learning in governance studies. It uses a combined approach based on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social fields and John W. Meyer's neoinstitutionalism. Seen from this angle the OMC transmits and amplifies the abstract ideas of the world polity for EU Member States. The coordination procedure gives rise to a political field in Bourdieu's sense filled with a variety of actors that claim to be selfless and disinterested 'cultural others'. Hence, the OMC can be used by these actors as an opportunity structure for symbolic enrichment. By symbolically enriching their strategies, these actors avoid triggering the automatic recourse to subsidiarity as a means to fend off European influence. Empirically, the article identifies five types of cultural others: conceptual entrepreneurs, knowledge producers, fundamental critics, detached observers and robust actors." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Bernhard, S. (2009): Die symbolische Inszenierung als kultureller Anderer. Zur Definition weltkultureller Skripte im Feld der europäischen Inklusionspolitik. In: Berliner Journal für Soziologie, Vol. 19, No. 1, p. 29-54. DOI:10.1007/s11609-009-0048-5