Crossroads in European Union Studies

Kennet Lynggaard, Karl Löfgren, Ian James Manners

1916 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Over the past two decades the educational practices within EU studies have been challenged by the lack of comprehensive texts on research strategy, design and method useful for study programmes. Since the ‘comparative turn’ of the 1990s, where we saw a shift towards applying theories, analytical frameworks and research methods known from the study of national political systems, EU studies programs have been faced with two choices when putting together curricula: either to downplay issues of research methodology in the curriculum, or to embark on the troublesome journey of putting together discrete readers of articles and papers from a limited and dispersed scholarly field. The actual practice of EU studies programmes has probably been somewhere in-between. That is, to give a lesser amount of attention to research strategy, design and method through the use of general textbooks combined with, at best, empirical examples derived from actual research projects in EU affairs. Yet, this otherwise pragmatic approach has become increasingly difficult. In this sense EU studies is at a crossroads of the meeting place between many disciplinary interests in Europe, as well as the point in time where the past weaknesses of methodology meet the future challenges of a new research agenda on Europe.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationResearch Methods in European Union Studies
EditorsKennet Lynggaard, Ian Manners, Karl Löfgren
Number of pages15
Place of PublicationBasingstoke
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Publication dateJul 2015
Pages3-17
Chapter1
ISBN (Print)9780230363052
ISBN (Electronic)9781137316967, 9781137183378
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2015
SeriesPalgrave Studies in European Union Politics

Keywords

  • Faculty of Social Sciences
  • European Union studies
  • research methods

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Crossroads in European Union Studies'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this