A Meta-organizational Perspective on the Europeanization of Civil Society: The Case of the Swedish Women’s Lobby

As a consequence of European integration and the EU’s expanded social policy, more citizens’ interests are today organized at EU level. In the case of the women’s movement, there is an umbrella organization—the European Women’s Lobby (EWL)—in place in Brussels coordinating national women’s movements. The EWL demands from its members that they be nationwide and representative umbrellas, which has structuring effects on the women’s movements at domestic level. This article proposes to study the Europeanization of civil society through the lens of meta-organization theory (Ahrne & Brunsson 2008). Europeanization can thus be understood as a process which imposes meta-organizational structures on civil society. Through a case study of the Swedish Women’s Lobby, this article analyses the consequences for the women’s movement in Sweden of the meta-organizational structure brought into being by Europeanization.