European integration, valuation, and exchange: Toward a value theoretic understanding of transnational sociality in the European Union

Abstract

_{The article elaborates on a possible framework to conceptualize the notion of ‘value’ with a view to European integration. In the political rhetoric of the European Union, ‘integration’ usually refers to both the widening of policy fields and societal sectors for supranational governance and to an increase in the depth of regulation. ‘Value’, in its turn, usually comes in the plural, denoting certain principles often held to be part and parcel of Europe’s cultural heritage and the European Union’s political project. In contrast to these discourses, this article suggests exploring integration with a view toward transnational social relationships in the EU and to conceptualize value as a term that refers not to principles or beliefs, but to acts of valuation as embedded in those transnational relationships. The sociology of the EU, although having produced a plethora of studies on various forms of transnationalism in Europe, has not developed a particular conceptual interest in the notion of exchange as of yet. The article addresses this lacuna through a conceptual discussion of anthropological work that interconnects questions of social valuation with an analysis of exchange practices. It arrives at an understanding of valuation as emanating from a particular understanding of exchange which arises out of the logic of the ‘gift’. This conceptualization is then applied to one of the most prominent, long-lived, and widespread practices of exchange in the EU, namely, town twinning. Referring to a qualitative research project conducted by the author, it is demonstrated how particular understandings of twinningrelated exchange trigger valuations of transnational European relationships, and which factors possibly counteract such valuations. The article concludes on more general implications of the approach suggested here.}