"Urban Upper-middle Classes as agents of Globalisation and Europeanisation".

The increasing interconnection between societies and markets at the global level facilitates an unprecedented level of interconnectedness between individuals and societies across nation-state borders. The global decentralization and fragmentation of production redefines the accumulation of capital, and class formation processes do not seem to be so clearly attached to territory, national productive structures, or to the jurisdiction of nation-states anymore. The accelerating mobility patterns associated to globalisation seem to have encouraged European bourgeoisies to loosen some of their ties to their national systems, in a move aimed at not loosing relative ground in a growingly transnational world. The 'partial exit' strategy of a group that had been central in the process of consolidation of national communities makes the study of these groups particularly relevant. In this research, based on some 500 in-depth interviews with managers in 8 European cities, we aim at tracing down the gradual opening of European urban upper-middle classes to the international sphere (specifically at the economic level, but also at the social and, to some extent, even the political level). This paper focuses on the perceptions that this group has about globalising processes, as well as on their self-representation as a modernising force within their national and local societies. By reviewing their perceptions about the nature and consequences of globalisation and Europeanisation processes, their attitudes towards European institutions and the role of markets, we aim at pinning down the emergence of a European bourgeoisie that has internalised the basic premises of a global liberal order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]