Eurocrats at Work Eurocrats at Work Negotiating Transparency in Postnational Employment Policy Renita Thedvall Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology, 58 2006 Eurocrats at Work Negotiating Transparency in Postnational Employment Policy Doctoral dissertation © Renita Thedvall Stockholm Studies in Social Anthropology, 58 Department of Social Anthropology Stockholm University S-106 91 Stockholm Sweden All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author. ISBN 91-7155-186-7 Printed by Intellecta Docusys, Stockholm 2006 This book is distributed by Almqvist & Wiksell International P.O. Box 7634 S-103 94 Stockholm Sweden E-mail:
[email protected] For my mother, Göta CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION EU BUREAUCRACY: IDEAS, PRACTICES AND PEOPLE IN EU POLICY-MAKING 1 Aim of the study 4 Background: ‘Social Europe’ in the making 6 Anthropological perspectives on the European Union 12 National and postnational tensions 14 A postnational EU in the making 15 Transparency in process? 18 The ‘epistemic culture’ of numbers 19 Numbers transcending borders 22 Keeping the culturally intimate hidden 23 Meeting in the postnational order 24 Fieldwork: following a decision-making process in EU meetings 26 Working as part trainee, part researcher 28 Yo-yo-ing between Stockholm and Brussels 30 Observing in meetings 32 Outline of the study 35 CHAPTER 2 BUILDING ‘SOCIAL EUROPE’ 41 Introduction: ‘more and better jobs for Europe’ 41 ‘Social Europe’: a postnational ‘society’