British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Germany and Europe: A ‘Europeanized’ Germany?
A Research Workshop in association with: the British Academy,
the Economic and Social Research Council's Future Governance Programme,
STICERD-LSE, and the Association for the Study of German Politics
29–30 November 2001
The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH
About the Conference
Since the early 1990s there has been a growing academic interest in the 'Europeanization' of European states, and academics have become concerned with the development of a more rigorous treatment of the concept and of its use in empirical research together with a more critical view of its power as an independent explanatory variable for domestic political and policy changes. For scholars and students of German politics and policy it is timely to consider the value of the concept of Europeanization as a means of explaining changes and, in particular, to pin down precisely how the processes of Europeanization operate and with what effects. Contributors to the Workshop will be asked to address the following questions:
- In what sense has Europeanization made a difference to German domestic politics and policies, at what level, and in what form?
- What are the linkages between European-level decision-making processes and domestic political and policy changes, and what are the triggers for change? To what extent do domestic issues, such as institutional capacity and the requirements of policy implementation, affect Europeanization?
- Who are the key actors in Europeanization and what are their motives? To what extent are the actors using Europeanization for domestic purposes; conversely, to what extent are they dedicated European seeking to transform domestic politics and policies.
This Workshop is intended to serve as a brainstorming session about the concept of Europeanization and the challenges of applying it to explain change within the German polity, politics and policies. Contributors are not expected to present formal papers, but rather to talk through how they envisage tackling the problems of using this concept, and differentiating the effects attributable to Europeanization from other sources of change.
A programme for the workshop is currently available. This workshop is for invited guests only.
This 2001 workshop was followed up by a conference on Germany And Europe: A 'Europeanized' Germany? held on 9-10 May 2002.