At the end of the 20th century, Europe decided to completely change the lifestyle of its people, a lifestyle it propagated for centuries.
In the new story, the central actors that dictate social life differ from the past ones. If the state was the central player until the end of 1945, then the world wars they started convinced the society to reorganize and change the way they live especially when the state was the one that primarily led to the violation of the social treaty. The fact that the nation-states had the complete power of decision and triggered world wars instead of using diplomacy and avoiding any conflict, made the Europeans move towards a new model of social organization and governance, one in which states no longer have the complete power of decision, and which are actually obligated to comply with the regulations and rules of a new construct of governance, namely the European Union.
In addition to this new model of political and administrative organization, the new European social construct brings in a set of principles and values that lay a new foundation for all policies and establish a new path of social development. They shift the focus of Europeans’ attention from national values and international competition to diversity and common growth and development.
It is interesting to note that these values and the EU brings with it a totally new lifestyle based on change. If before society was afraid of change and had a hard time overcoming crises, then the EU comes up with a new approach to everyday life and says that change is good because it encourages us to grow, develop, and live better. For this reason, the Union places special emphasis on lifelong learning, technology, research, and innovation; all of which contribute to continuous change and development through research and innovation.
This change takes place at the recommendation of the Union and under the permanent control of the EU institutions in order to comply with European principles and values. This is why we call this change, and lifestyle, Europeanization.
For a long time, researchers have tried to measure Europeanization, more or less efficiently. And of course, it is quite hard to measure it, considering that Europeanization is about social change and involves human subjectivity. However, Europeanization is not impossible to measure. For more on measuring Europeanization (especially the Europeanization of institutions) see my book at the link below.