The impact of Europeanisation on civil society
A new framework in Europeanisation studies is examining the impact of the EU's and other institutions' norms and policies related to European integration on a politically mobilised civil society such as the one in Turkey. An EU-funded project – EUROCIV (Europeanisation of public debates and civil society in Turkey) – has explored this further. In the process, EUROCIV looked at how and in what ways the EU-required legal and constitutional reforms on the freedom of association and assembly have affected the political/structural conditions of CSOs in Turkey. It also examined the reactions of CSOs and the ways they used the EU/European context in a manner that would benefit their political agenda. Various discourses regarding the EU and Turkey's integration into Europe were mapped out. They exhibit the politically mobilised engagement within the concept of Europeanisation. This new framework for analysis was geared toward a better means of comprehension of how European integration affects societies. In so doing, there was also an attempt to redefine and reposition the scope and boundaries of Europeanisation on a wide sociological spectrum. Results have yielded publications of academic articles, research papers and online briefs. Work has also been presented in several academic conferences and a short documentary and website have been created. EUROCIV has served to extend research into the impact of Europeanisation on civil society in an EU candidate country. Beyond that, it has presented a comprehensive analysis of civil society's presence in seminal public debates.
Keywords
Europeanisation, civil society, identity, Turkey, European integration
