Europeanisation: Challenges of a New Research Agenda

The concept of Europeanisation enjoys increasing popularity within the study of European integration. Although there are many different definitions, Europeanisation can most generally be defined as the impact of European integration at the national level. In contrast with traditional theoretical approaches like neo-functionalism or intergovernmentalism that focused more directly on European institutions and interstate bargaining, scholars now more and more focus on the national political domain to find out whether and how European actually matters. This shift has surely been a reaction to the apparent differential implementation of EU policies, particularly of directives, in EU member-states. From a broader perspective, however, the research agenda of Europeanisation connects equally well to more general debates on the transformation or ‘hollowing out’ of the European nation-state. This section will focus on the challenges of the new research agenda of Europeanisation. In four panels we discuss theory and methods of the study of domestic changes in reaction to European level developments. Up to now only a rather hybrid constellation of theoretical notions is available, and it seems crucial for future work in this field to develop more elaborate typologies of Europeanisation. Our first panel is specifically devoted to that topic, and we invite people to present a paper for example on the concept of Europeanisation, on the relation of (theories of) European integration and Europeanisation, or on the (comparative) methodology of Europeanisation research. The other three panels are devoted to some of the most contentious fields of empirical research related to Europeanisation. We invite people to present a paper on the (limits of) Europeanisation of political parties, South European politics, and CEE countries. Call for Papers: We invite scholars working in the field of Europeanisation, in particular (post-) doctoral researchers, to submit a paper proposal (max. 200 words) for one of the four panels of this section. We stress that for panel 1, papers should not be confined to specific empirical research interests but rather focus on conceptual, theoretical and/or methodological debates that are general to the research agenda of Europeanisation. Papers for panels 2-4 should present original empirical research, although as much as possible from an angle that takes into account more generalized discussions of Europeanisation. Paper proposals should be submitted to: Maarten P. Vink Department of Political Science, Leiden University PO Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands E-mail: mpvink@fsw.leidenuniv.nl