Practices and Challenges in Research Design in European Union Studies

Abstract

EU studies have been criticised as lacking firmer methodological/research design grounding compared to mainstream political science; suffering from ‘methodological nationalism’ (i.e. the overexposure of the nation state’s role in EU politics); and, a ‘mono-disciplinary’ culture that limits its ability to handle complex EU politics phenomena. Our research design choices are crucial in inevitably restricting certain research questions, analytical units, research methods and data, and, eventually, our ways of studying the EU as a political reality. Research design debates in EU studies are largely grounded in principles deriving from stylised and fairly fixed methodological positions. While this panel does not disregard such debates, its point of departure is the practices of research design and their associated challenges. Its contributions therefore adopt ‘in-practice’ arguing to advance research design directed at EU politics on the basis of the following questions: a) What are the limitations to research design practices in key EU studies areas? b) What are the implications of such practices on how we portray the EU as a political reality? c) More importantly, how can we address the limitations of past practices? The objective of the panel is threefold: 1) Advance a series of systematic and methodologically rigorous reviews mapping the practices of research design in EU studies. 2) Identify and address intra-/inter-methodological challenges to research designs. 3) Advance innovative research designs to improve our insights into EU politics. To that extent, contributions interview the key literature on their specific methodological or research agenda elements; identify pitfalls and advantages in the literature; discuss the implications hereof for how we portray the EU as a political reality; and offer fresh ways of doing things in their subfield of study with the purpose of researching the complex EU politics issues of our time. We also welcome additional contributions that respond to the questions above.

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