ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the strong drive towards projectification throughout European Union (EU) funding policy. It addresses why this approach has become so prominent in the context of EU policy making and the major sociological implications of the EU’s move towards project funding. It is argued that project funding is an attractive tool for the European Commission – the major executive agent of EU policy making – which has gained political influence despite a position of limited political authority. However, as will be shown, the project approach in EU funding policy comes at the cost of increased standardisation and specialisation of policy implementation. This growing “expertisation” of EU funding has created new categories of social distinction and new hierarchies within the structures of EU policy implementation and has fostered the expansion of “projectified” imperatives and working conditions in public policy.
