Full Description
This book addresses the important but understudied question of how social scientific knowledge is entangled in the process of European integration. More specifically, it provides the first systematic introduction to a sociology of knowledge approach to European integration and demonstrates the value of such an approach through empirical illustrations.
Drawing on new research in the intersection of sociology of knowledge and political sociology, the book is the first to analyse the entanglement of social scientific knowledge and the development of the EU. The book provides the first systematic mapping of the relations between social scientific knowledge and particular aspects of European integration such as the Euro and monetary governance, constitution- and treaty-negotiation, education policy, enlargement and external relations. The book imports key ideas from the sociology of knowledge, sociology of science and political sociology to cast new light on the field of EU studies and its relation to the EU. The result is a fresh account of European integration, shaped - in often surprising ways - by relatively small groups of people and their particular ideas about economy, law, culture and politics.
This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.
Contents
1. A Sociology of Knowledge Approach to European Integration: Four Analytical Principles 2. Performing Theory/Theorizing Performance in Emergent Supranational Governance: The 'Live' Knowledge Archive of European Integration and the Early European Commission 3. Methodological Europeanism at the Cradle: Eur-lex, the Acquis and the Making of Europe's Cognitive Equipment 4. In the Eye of the Beholder: A Sociology of Knowledge Perspective on Norm Transfer 5. The Euro Crisis' Theory Effect: Northern Saints, Southern Sinners, and the Demise of the Eurobond 6. Reforming the Bulgarian State of Knowledge: Legal Expertise as a Resource in Modelling States 7. What is the Nature of the Relationship between Changes in European Higher Education and Social Science Research on Higher Education and (Why) Does It Matter? 8. The Creation of a European Socio-economic Classification: Limits of Expert-driven Statistical Integration 9. Sociology of Knowledge and Production of Normative Power in the European Union's External Actions
