Analyzing European Union Politics

Bindi, Federiga and Eliassen, Kjell A. and Moses, Jonathan and Wiberg, Matti and Falkner, Gerda and Muravska, Tatjana and Justaert, Arnout and Van Den Brande, Karoline and Delreux, Tom and Drieskens, Edith and Nachev, Ivan and Garaski, Salla and Jorgensen, Knud Erik and Manners, Ian and Costa, Olivier and Borzel, Tanja and Heinze, Torben and Contogeorgis, George and Chryssochoou, Dmitris N. and Ocsko, Edina and Giusti, Serena and Dijkstra, Hylke and Vink, Maarten and Marino, Marit Sjovaag and Bergmann, Erikur and Pisarska, Katarzyna and Vila Maior, Paulo and Ramos, Claudia T. and Angelescu, Irina and Ollora, Izea and Sitter, Nick and Dunphy, Sarah and Laursen, Finn and Roy, Joaquim and Strelkov, Alexander and Entin, Mark and Barabanov, Oleg and Zeff, Eleanor and Shaw, Kelly B. and Andrews, Davis (2011) Analyzing European Union Politics. [Conference Proceedings] (Submitted)

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Abstract

The speed and depth with which the European Communities/ European Union has evolved is breathtaking and has radically shaped the life of the continent. Ever since the beginning of this ambitious economic and political project, scholars around the world have tried to explain the underlying logic behind it and the mechanisms of its functioning. Thus, a plethora of studies developed alongside the evolution of the EU. SENT (Network of European Studies) is an innovative and ambitious project which brought together about 100 partners from the EU member states, candidate and associated countries, and other parts of the world. It was a far reaching project aimed to overcome disciplinary and geographical- linguistic boundaries in order to assess the state of EU studies today, as well as the idea of Europe as transmitted by schools, national politicians, the media, etc. SENT’s main goal was to map European studies, in order to get a comprehensive picture of the evolution of European studies over the last decades in different disciplines and countries. This approach permitted to achieve a better understanding of the direction these studies are now taking. Five disciplines were identified where EU studies have particularly evolved: law, politics, economics, history, and social and cultural studies. The mapping of EU studies thus includes a review of the most studied issues in EU studies today, the main academic schools, the most influential journals and books published, but it also shows how local realities and national identities affect the study and teaching of Europe around the world. In addition, an important work was done in mapping and discussing teaching methodologies in relation to European studies with the aim of introducing and diffusing the most up-to-date techniques.

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