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Conforming neither to the hierarchical and bureaucratic organization of the European nation-state nor the anarchical structure of international organizations, the European Union (EU) and its predecessors provide an exemplary site for developing a decentred approach to the study of governance.
The book offers an analysis of the formation and transformation of the EU as an example of governance above the nation-state and is framed by the recognition that the construction of the EU has resulted in variegated and decentred forms of governance. The chapters look at distinct aspects of EU governance to bring to light the influence of elite narratives, scientific rationalities, local traditions and meaningful practices in the making and remaking of European governance. As such, each chapter offers a unique contribution to the study of the EU. In doing so, the book challenges dominant narratives of European integration and policymaking that appeal to reified rationalities and social structures, and uncovers the contingency and conflict endemic to European governance.
This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union politics, European politics/studies, governance and, more broadly, to public management, international organizations, anthropology and sociology.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Decentring European Governance [Mark Bevir and Ryan Phillips] 2. Calories, Tractors & ‘Technical Agriculture’: Manufacturing Agrarian Cooperation within the OEEC (1947-1954) [William Biebuyck] 3. The EU’s International Cultural Strategy [Caterina Carta] 4. Participatory Processes as Unreliable Narrators: Political Legitimacy and Governance Narratives in the Social OMC Peer Review Process [Dion Curry] 5. Decentring European Higher Education Governance: The Construction of Expertise in the Bologna Process [Dorota Dakowska] 6. The Governance of Expertise Production in the EU Commission’s ‘high level groups’: Tracing Expertisation Tendencies in the Expert Group System [Eva Krick and Åse Gornitzka] 7. A Genealogy of Eurozone Governance [Nicolas Jabko] 8. EU Council Networks and the "Tradition" of Consensus [Jeffrey Lewis] 9. Decentred Governance in the EU’s Security and Development Policies [Ludvig Norman] 10. Decentring European Governance: A Research Agenda [Mark Bevir and Ryan Phillips]
About the author
Mark Bevir is a professor in the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Center for British Studies, at the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Ryan Phillips is an assistant professor of Political Science at Lycoming College, USA.
Summary
The book offers an analysis of the formation and transformation of the EU as an example of governance above the nation-state and is framed by the recognition that the construction of the EU has resulted in variegated and decentred forms of governance.
