Ronchi, StefanoMiró Artigas, Joan2024-06-042024-06-042024Ronchi S, Miró J. The middle-class base of European integration? New class divides and attitudes towards market integration in ten EU countries. European politics and society. 2024 Apr 15. DOI: 10.1080/23745118.2024.23413202374-5118http://hdl.handle.net/10230/60342Includes supplementary materials for the online appendix.Data de publicació electrònica: 15-04-2024.Highly educated 'new' middle classes have been identified as a fundamental constituency that, by supporting technological innovation and liberalisation, bolsters the stability of advanced capitalism. By contrast, less educated production workers are usually described as opponents of such policies. This article investigates the extent to which these class divides translate into different positions on support for EU integration, a key process in the liberalisation of European political economy. In addition to class-based positions, we take into consideration how the subjective perceptions of situations such as unemployment, income loss and job insecurity affect support for EU integration. By relying on an original 2019 survey conducted in ten member states, the analysis confirms that high-skilled middle classes overwhelmingly support European market integration, while 'old' middle classes appear more concerned about the welfare losses that integration could imply. Low-skilled service workers emerge as a critical cross-pressured group, taking a mid position between 'old' and 'new' middle classes.application/pdfeng© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.info:eu-repo/semantics/article2024-06-04http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2024.2341320European integrationKnowledge economyMiddle classPublic opinionEmployment insecurityPost-industrial labour marketsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess