ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a meta-theoretical account of Europeanization, drawing from poststructuralist discourse theory in the tradition of Foucault and Derrida and as introduced to political science in the works of Laclau and Mouffe. In establishing the implications of poststructuralism for an understanding of Europeanization, the chapter also focuses particularly on the anti-essentialist ontology and epistemology. It provides a synopsis of discursive approaches within the broader field of European Studies. The chapter offers a novel outlook on the structure-agent dichotomy and their mutual relationship. Poststructuralism in the tradition of Laclau and Mouffe starts from the assumption that the social world is discursively constructed, consequently implying that all social phenomena, including politics, are to be interpreted via discourse analysis. The principal metaphysical hypothesis of Laclau and Mouffe's thought, established in line with the poststructuralist anti-essentialist ontological stance, is that social meanings are discursively defined – they read the identity-action nexus through the prism of a discursively-grounded social reality.
