CIAO DATE: 04/2009
January 2009
Centre for European Political Sociology
Sociological research on the European Union provides a much needed alternative to mainstream EU-studies dominated by economics, law, IR and political science. However, until now this sociological alternative has mostly involved the adaptation of sociological terminology such as “social construction” or “identity” and the introduction of new objects of research, such as the social conventions regulating national security or the discursive constructions of Europe. It is however the claim of this paper that sociological theory also provides the tools for a more fundamental re-evaluation of some of the ontological and epistemological presuppositions of EU research and a corresponding reconstruction of the object of study of European studies.
Resource link: Rationality, Institutions and Reflexivity in the EU: Some Ontological and Epistemological Considerations [PDF] - 1.1M