Research Methods in European Union Studies

Research on the European Union over the past few years has been strongly implicated in the crises that currently grip Europe with a failure to ask the pertinent questions as well as a perceived weakness in the methods and evidence used by researchers providing the basis for these allegations. This volume moves the study of EU research strategies beyond the dichotomies of the past towards a new agenda for research on Europe through a rich diversity of problem-solving based research. This new agenda acknowledges the weaknesses of the past and moves beyond them towards greater openness and awareness of the importance of research strategies, designs and methods. The 20 chapters in this collection range from micro-level analyses of identities, single policy studies and European discourse, through meso-level analysis of agenda setting, bargaining, implementation and Europeanisation, to macro-level analyses of the EU as a global actor, European integration and globalisation as well as hard and soft governance, elections and party groups, attitude formation, and new-regionalism. As such, it provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to conducting research on the European Union today.

PART I: OVERVIEW 1. Crossroads in European Union Studies; Kennet Lynggaard, Karl Löfgren and Ian Manners 2. Methodology in European Union Studies; Ben Rosamond 3. European Union History; Ann-Christina L. Knudsen PART II: MICRO-ANALYSIS 4. European Identity: Conflict and Cooperation; Angela Bourne 5. People and Social Groups in the European Union; Michael Strange 6. Single Policy Study: Three Variations in Design; Annica Kronsell and Ian Manners 7. Analysing European Discourses; Amandine Crespy PART III: MESO-ANALYSIS 8. Agenda-setting; Sebastiaan Princen 9. Studies of Bargaining in the European Union; Sara Hagemann 10. Implementation Studies: Beyond a Legalistic Approach; Karl Löfgren 11. Analysing Networks; Jenny M. Lewis and Sevasti Chatzopoulou 12. Visual Primes and European Union Identity: Designing Experimental Research; Laura Cram and Stratos Patrikios 13. Europeanisation; Theofanis Exadaktylos and Claudio M. Radaelli PART IV: MACRO-ANALYSIS 14. The European Union in Global Politics: Normative Power and Longitudinal Interpretation; Ian Manners 15. The Blurred Boundaries and Multiple Effects of European Integration and Globalisation; Kennet Lynggaard 16. Hard and Soft Governance; Martino Maggetti 17. Political Parties and the European Union; Magnus Blomgren 18. Studying European Union Attitude Formation Using Experiments; Julie Hassing Nielsen 19. European Union Studies and the New Regionalism; Alex Warleigh-Lack 20. Research Strategies in European Union Studies: Beyond Dichotomies; Ian Manners, Kennet Lynggaard, and Karl Löfgren