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This book examines the increasing internationalization of the social sciences, focusing specifically on how Europeanization has reshaped the production of social science knowledge. Over recent decades, research has highlighted how ideas, people, and techniques have circulated between nation-states and how international organizations have facilitated these flows. Following a similar trajectory to nation-states, the EU has driven shifts in knowledge production to address its unique challenges, including economic and social integration, cultural coordination, homogenization, standardization, and institutional construction. The book explores these dynamics through 10 chapters that analyze the processes and consequences of Europeanization. Drawing on diverse methods and analytical approaches, the chapters are structured around three key dimensions: hierarchies, practices, and institutions. Together, they provide a comprehensive account of how European institutions, networks, and ideas have transformed the social sciences.
List of contents
1) Introduction: Europeanized Social Science changes in hierarchies, practices, and institutions.- 2) Championing the Social Sciences or Creating Champions? Funding Agencies between Agenda Setting and Scientific Autonomy.- 3) Traveling European excellence : scientific mobility, symbolic reputation, and its impact on knowledge production.- 4) Dedicated to excellence: research assessment and isomorphic difference in a European context.- 5) Europeanization in publication practices in EU funded social science research.- 6) What Constitutes Legitimate European Knowledge? Insights from an Elite School Preparing for EU Careers.- 7) Political work and the epistemological position of the social sciences in H2020.- 8) EU Research as Unequal Europeanisation? Exploring the less visible navigational work accompanying EU-funded Social Science Collaboration.- 9) Answering the Call of the European Union: The Case of Swedish Erasmus+ Students in the Social Sciences.- 10) Emerging practices of European social science.
About the author
Kristoffer Kropp is Associate Professor of Sociology at Roskilde University, Denmark, specializing in the production of social science knowledge and its relationship with political institutions and European integration. His research draws on Bourdieu’s field theory and political sociology, focusing on European research policies, social science data, and the reconfiguration of disciplines. He was a member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2017–2018).
Anton Grau Larsen holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His work focuses on mapping social structures within networks, fields, and texts, particularly among elite groups and institutions. Combining sociological theories with advanced quantitative methods like social network analysis and topic modeling, he has studied fields such as corporate networks, higher education, and policy professionals using diverse data sources to explore social hierarchies and structures.
Rachel Fishberg is a sociologist of science whose research focuses on EU research policies, transnational collaboration, and epistemic inequalities in knowledge production. She holds a PhD from Roskilde University, Denmark, where her institutional ethnography explored interdisciplinary research practices in mission-oriented projects. Her recent work examines research integrity policies across Europe, particularly their role in supporting the green transition and fostering equitable knowledge production.
Summary
This book examines the increasing internationalization of the social sciences, focusing specifically on how Europeanization has reshaped the production of social science knowledge. Over recent decades, research has highlighted how ideas, people, and techniques have circulated between nation-states and how international organizations have facilitated these flows. Following a similar trajectory to nation-states, the EU has driven shifts in knowledge production to address its unique challenges, including economic and social integration, cultural coordination, homogenization, standardization, and institutional construction. The book explores these dynamics through 10 chapters that analyze the processes and consequences of Europeanization. Drawing on diverse methods and analytical approaches, the chapters are structured around three key dimensions: hierarchies, practices, and institutions. Together, they provide a comprehensive account of how European institutions, networks, and ideas have transformed the social sciences.
