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Re‐Embedding European Market Society? EU Labour Regulation and the ‘Double Countermovement’ to Market‐Making Integration

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  • Sven Schreurs

Abstract

Scholars who have examined European integration from a neo‐Polanyian perspective have long been sceptical about the opportunities for a ‘countermovement’ against the EU's market‐making bias. However, as part of a broader ‘social turn’, recent years have seen the adoption of EU legislation to promote fair and decent working conditions. Based on a contextual analysis of four key labour‐law directives, I argue that these amount to a meaningful ‘re‐embedding’ of liberalised labour markets. Conventional theories of organised interests or public opinion explain little about this move to market‐correcting integration. Returning to Polanyi, I argue that this (re‐)emergence of EU labour regulation has been the corollary of a ‘double countermovement’, that is, an attempt to restore the Union's social legitimacy in response to (perceived) popular discontent with market‐making integration that surfaced during the 2000s and reached its height during the Eurozone crisis in the early 2010s.

Suggested Citation

  • Sven Schreurs, 2026. "Re‐Embedding European Market Society? EU Labour Regulation and the ‘Double Countermovement’ to Market‐Making Integration," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 881-901, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:64:y:2026:i:2:p:881-901
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.70006
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