EU accession and enlargement: Dialoguing EU and post-Communist social policy (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship)

The EU entered a very unique and particular landscape when it ventured into the project of eastern enlargement, and engaged in a political, economic, social and cultural dialogue with the post-communist countries. The research, taking the standpoint of the candidate countries, aims to bring the indigenous perspectives of accession countries into the academic forum to de- and re-construct understandings of the EU accession and its social dimension. EU accession is conceptualised as a multi-dimensional project, which transforms perceptions, identities, institutional structures, discourses and policy meanings. As it is argued, EU accession is essentially a linguistic and conceptual mapping, a ‘different world view’ and a meaning-making process whereby accession countries acquire access to European concepts, and policy frameworks, and develop ownership over these new constructions. In an effort to theorise the process, accession is seen as a continuous translation process, emphasising the continuous process of displacement, transformation and negotiation that takes place.