ESA Conference 2001 - Call for Papers

PLEASE FORWARD THIS CALL FOR PAPERS TO INTERESTED COLLEAGUES


The 5th European Conference of Sociology
of the European Sociological Association (ESA)
2001, August 28 - September 1, Helsinki, Finland
"Visions and Divisions - Challenges to European Sociology"
(www.valt.helsinki.fi/esa/)


Call for papers for sessions on ‘European Integration in the World System’
 WHAT MOVES EUROPEAN INTEGRATION FORWARD?

Sociological Research on European integration transcends research on Europe in the sense of analyzing national societies and institutions in Europe by comparing them. A central aim a sociological research is to raise the question of the specific functions of the European level for societal processes in Europe, within and beyond national borders. Sociological Research on European integration does thereby not focus solely on the formalized procedures in the EU as political science tends to do. It explores the transformation of statehood in Europe and the nature of the emerging European state. Although sociology can present an impressive amount of case studies, policy areas analyses and important theoretical arguments, there is still no general sociological theory of regional integration and supranational institution building. Neither the (multidimensional) integration mechanisms nor the possible outcomes of this process have been theorised comprehensively. Sociological research on European integration analyzes the fact that with and through European integration a) the European economies, societies and nation states and b) Europe's working in the world change in many ways.

Long before the globalisation debate started, European integration provided the incentives and the framework for extensive political and economic cross-border processes. The most important elements of statehood at European level, the Commission (right of initiative and of procedures) and the Court of Justice (broadening of European jurisdiction), were bound for federalism from the beginning; some rather weak elements of democratic legitimation (European Parliament, the emerging European system of interest mediation) have enforced this process in many ways. With the relaunch of European integration since the early 1980s the integration process has gained new quality without transforming the European nation states into a single European state. The sociological analysis of the puzzling nature of the governance structures embodied in the institutions of the European Union has only started.
The ongoing Eastern enlargement process presents new challenges, regarding the efficiency of the actual European institutions and their capacity to deal with the painful adjustment of the Middle and Eastern European countries to continental and world-wide processes.
The role of the European Union in the world political economy is often too narrowly analyzed in terms of economic aggregates or reduced to participation in international negotiations. This omits the fact that competition in the world system is also intrinsically a form of competition between socio-economic trajectories and specific institutional patterns. Therefore, beyond analyses of processes, structures and institutions in Europe in a perspective from within sociological research on European Integration also puts emphasis on analyses of Europe in a global, comparative, world systems perspective. We invite abstracts of proposed papers that examine the diverse phenomena implied by such a perspective.

We plan sessions on the following topics:

THEORIZING EUROPEAN INTEGRATION
Towards a sociological theory of regional integration processes; European integration and state theory; World Systems theory and regional integration processes

STATE-BUILDING IN EUROPE
Supranational institution-building; European integration and the transformation of statehood in Europe; European institutions in comparative perspective

CONCEPTUALIZING MAJOR TRENDS IN EUROPEAN INTEGRATION
The interplay of local, national, and regional factors; Unity and diversity in European integration; Enlargment, differenciation or fragmentation of the European Union; New and old peripheries

EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, GLOBAL COMPETITION AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
Globalization as moving force of European integration; Europe’s position in the world economy; Convergence or divergence in the world system - the impact of European integration; The future of the European societal model; Europe in global politics; Europe and the future of hegemonic rivalry; European colonial heritage and development policies

Abstracts should be sent before January 30, 2001. Notification of acceptance of the proposed papers will be sent before April 1, 2001.

Prof. Nikolai Genov
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Institute of Sociology
13A, Moskovska Str.
BG-1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Tel/Fax: 00359/2-980-61-32
e-mail:

nbgen.most.risk@datacom.bg
 
Prof. Dr. Maurizio Bach
Institute of Sociology, University of Passau
Innstr. 51, D - 94030 Passau, Germany
e-mail:
bach@uni-passau.de

Dr. Patrick Ziltener
Sociological Institute, University of Zurich
Raemistr. 69, CH-8001 Zurich, Switzerland
Fax: 0041/1/634 49 89 
e-mail:
zaibat@soziologie.unizh.ch