The ‘Expertisation’ of European Studies. A critical perspective on discursive institutionalism Abstract: The paper puts into perspective the conceptual evolution of European Studies and one of its latest theoretically based approaches, Discursive Institutionalism. It argues that in the field of European Studies expert frameworks aiming for ‘answers’ are overshadowing the intellectual efforts striving for ‘questions’. This tendency undermines the proper identification of problems and it also erodes the effectiveness of proposed policy solutions as these recommendations lack the appropriate conceptual foundations. The paper stresses that this negative trend of ‘expertisation’ is particularly relevant nowadays, when the European Union is undoubtedly struggling with challenges of social disengagement, and that research projects are required to apply approaches that can adequately reveal people’s cognitivenormative understandings and ideationally driven praxes, as well as, most importantly, the generative causes behind EU-sceptical attitudes. Keywords: European Studies, Discursive Institutionalism, constructivism, European Union, Social disengagement Pages: 252-272
Author
Abstract
Suggested Citation
Download full text from publisher
References listed on IDEAS
- Bell, Stephen, 2011. "Do We Really Need a New ‘Constructivist Institutionalism’ to Explain Institutional Change?," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(4), pages 883-906, October.
- Zoltán GRÜNHUT, 2017. "Concepts, approaches and methods on europeanisation – a meta-analysis," Eastern Journal of European Studies, Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, vol. 8, pages 157-176, June.
- Paul Magnette, 2003. "European Governance and Civic Participation: Beyond Elitist Citizenship?," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 51(1), pages 144-160, March.
- Nirvikar Singh, 2007.
"The dynamics of reform of India’s federal system,"
CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 8(01), pages 22-31, April.
- Singh, Nirvikar, 2007. "The Dynamics of Reform of India’s Federal System," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt9gh5p65t, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
- Singh, Nirvikar, 2007. "The Dynamics of Reform of India’s Federal System," MPRA Paper 2282, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- anonymous, 2007. "Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City: 2006 annual report," TEN, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue Spr, pages 37-80.
- anonymous, 2007. "Federal Reserve offers online mortgage calculator," Financial Update, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 20(3).
- Hall, Peter A. & Taylor, Rosemary C. R., 1996. "Political science and the three new institutionalisms," MPIfG Discussion Paper 96/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
Most related items
These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.- Aude Bicquelet & Helen Addison, 2017. "How to refuse a vote on the EU? The case against the referendum in the House of Commons (1974–2010)," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 2141-2162, September.
- Roberts, Cameron & Geels, Frank W., 2019. "Conditions for politically accelerated transitions: Historical institutionalism, the multi-level perspective, and two historical case studies in transport and agriculture," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 221-240.
- Nikpay, Sayeh, 2022. "The medicaid windfall: Medicaid expansions and the target efficiency of hospital safety-net subsidies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
- Sasha Quahe, 2018. "EU in crisis: what implications for climate and energy policy?," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 169-182, June.
- James Dawson & Seán Hanley, 2019. "Foreground Liberalism, Background Nationalism: A Discursive‐institutionalist Account of EU Leverage and ‘Democratic Backsliding’ in East Central Europe," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 710-728, July.
- Yefimov, Vladimir, 2009. "Comparative historical institutional analysis of German, English and American economics," MPRA Paper 48173, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Maarten Hillebrandt, 2017. "Transparency as a Platform for Institutional Politics: The Case of the Council of the European Union," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 62-74.
- Broich, Tobias, 2017. "Do authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development finance than democratic ones? Empirical evidence for Africa," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 180-207.
- Caroline Patsias & Anne Latendresse & Laurence Bherer, 2013. "Participatory Democracy, Decentralization and Local Governance: the Montreal Participatory Budget in the light of ‘Empowered Participatory Governance’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 2214-2230, November.
- Raitio, Kaisa, 2013. "Discursive institutionalist approach to conflict management analysis — The case of old-growth forest conflicts on state-owned land in Finland," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 97-103.
- Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
- repec:mje:mjejnl:v:12:y:2017:i:2:p:25-70 is not listed on IDEAS
- Emil Evenhuis, 2017. "Institutional change in cities and regions: a path dependency approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 509-526.
- Sophie Jacquot & Cornelia Woll, 2003. "Usage of European Integration - Europeanisation from a Sociological Perspective," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01019642, HAL.
- Reibling, Nadine & Ariaans, Mareike & Wendt, Claus, 2019. "Worlds of Healthcare: A Healthcare System Typology of OECD Countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(7), pages 611-620.
- Streeck, Wolfgang, 2009. "Institutions in history: Bringing capitalism back in," MPIfG Discussion Paper 09/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
- Bernhard Ebbinghaus, 2009.
"Can Path Dependence Explain Institutional Change? Two Approaches Applied to Welfare State Reform,"
Chapters, in: Lars Magnusson & Jan Ottosson (ed.), The Evolution of Path Dependence, chapter 8,
Edward Elgar Publishing.
- Ebbinghaus, Bernhard, 2005. "Can Path Dependence Explain Institutional Change? Two Approaches Applied to Welfare State Reform," MPIfG Discussion Paper 05/2, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
- Maixe-Altes, J. Carles, 2009. "The diversity of organisational forms in banking: France, Italy and Spain 1900-2000," MPRA Paper 14838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
- Baum, Fran & Ziersch, Anna & Freeman, Toby & Javanparast, Sara & Henderson, Julie & Mackean, Tamara, 2020. "Strife of Interests: Constraints on integrated and co-ordinated comprehensive PHC in Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
- Kaplan Yilmaz, 2017. "China’s OBOR as a Geo-Functional Institutionalist Project," TalTech Journal of European Studies, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 7-23, June.
- Michael Grothe-Hammer & Héloïse Berkowitz, 2024. "Unpacking Social Order: Towards a Novel Framework that Goes Beyond Organizations, Institutions, and Networks Forthcoming in Critical Sociology," Post-Print hal-04426296, HAL.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jes:journl:y:2020:v:11:p:252-272. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alupului Ciprian (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csjesro.html .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.