English > Rethinking European in...

Rethinking European integration

• About
• Aim and ambitions
• Members
• Contact

About

This constitutes an initiative to set up a research group with the ambition to rethink European integration. Research on European integration has until recently been dominated by relatively few disciplines - political science, law and economics - which have contributed with a wealth of studies, but at the same time have had a somewhat restricted focus on the EU; its law and policies. Other disciplines such as sociology, ethnology, anthropology, history and cultural studies have made inroads into European integration studies but not managed to become influential enough to contribute to the larger research agenda. Despite the plurality of disciplines now studying the process of European integration, interdisciplinary efforts are few and far between. It is high time that an effort is done to rethink the study European integration on basis of a truly interdisciplinary debate between the many new disciplines that have recently become attracted to European integration studies.

A starting point for the research group is the need to consider the processes of European integration in a much broader social, cultural and historical context than done by mainstream research. Studies of the EU in the narrow sense remain one of the group's central concerns (if certainly not the only one), but even the nature of the EU cannot be truly understood except when analysed in a broad societal context and as part of the wider European history. On the one hand, processes of European integration play a central role in the history of the European nation state during the twentieth century. On the other hand, regional European integration is both part of wider globalisation processes and a particular response to them. Another interest of the research groups are the various conflict lines in European societies and in the European state system to which integration has been a response, but which at the same time continues to disentangle the central results of integration. The role of identity, historical memory, borders and how these issues interact with the broader social and political developments of European societies are of central importance here.

The research group will be run by the Centre for Modern European Studies and the Centre for Studies in Legal Culture (Copenhagen University) and led by Morten Rasmussen and Mikael Rask Madsen. It will be open for participation for all interested. The list of members provided below constitutes a first wave of invitations.

Aim and ambitions:

1. Organise 2-4 research seminars annually, where members of the group present ongoing research. The plan is to invite 2 international scholars to each seminar.
2. Organise 1 annual conference to which international scholars should be invited to discuss important research themes. Contributions should be published internationally. The first conference will possibly be co-organised with Prof. Kiran Patell, Department of History and Civilisation, European University Institute and held in Florence in Autumn 2009.
3. Hold the ambition to constitute an alternative and original forum of debate on contemporary Europe and European integration that goes decisively beyond the relatively narrow research agenda of single academic disciplines.
4. Over time provide the framework for the development of national and international research projects.

Members:

Internal CEMES

• Morten Rasmussen (history)
• Kristine Maria Berg (rethoric)
• Thomas Højrup (ethnology)
• Marie Sandbjerg (ethnology)
• Ulf Hedetoft (history)
• Karl Christian Lammers (history)

Internal CRS

External:

• Ann-Christina Knudsen (European studies, Aarhus University)
• Adrian Favell (European studies, Aarhus University)
• Dorte Andersen (Department of Border Region Studies, University of Southern Denmark)
• Ian Manners (DIIS)
• Helle Krunke (CEC, Københavns Universitet)
• Rebecca Adler-Nissen (CEP, Københavns Universitet) 

Associated international members:

• Antonin Cohen (political science, Amiens)
• Antoine Vauchez (political science, European University Institute
• Wolfram Kaiser (history, University of Portsmouth)
• Kiran Patell (history, European University Institute)
• Nillo Kauppi (political sociology, CNRS-Strasbourg)

Contact:

For more information on this research group and how to join, please contact:

• Morten Rasmussen
• Mikael Rask Madsen