Scientific priorities and research themes
The objective of the Centre for European Studies is the study of political and social changes in Europe and their extensions in the international arena. Its aim is to become an essential player as regards research into these issues. Its principal ambitions are threefold:
To understand European construction and its impact
The process of European integration, its dynamic and its effects constitute a preferential object of research for the Centre. This takes into account its multiple dimensions: political decision-making at the European level; its influence on the restructuration of the State, on national societies and individuals; the forms of adhesion, resistance or rejection that the integration process provokes in the countries concerned; and also the role of Europe as a player in the international system and an integral part of the dynamics of globalisation, not only politically but also economically and socially. This plurality (as regards levels, approaches and disciplines) enables a better grasp of this original social and political order under construction that is the European Union and the specificity of its international action. The research conducted by the Centre is resolutely comparative (including with extra-European situations), in order to better put into perspective the studied objects as well as the insertion of the work of the researchers into international networks and debates.
To grasp the policy/politics articulation
The articulation between the dimensions of political competition, public action, and also the political area and social structures lies at the heart of the intellectual project of the Centre. The analysis of what is at stake at the frontier between public and political spheres on the one hand, civil society and societal forces on the other, is a nodal point in disciplinary terms but also in terms of scientific and democratic questions: what are the links between the modalities and the products of public action, modes of selection of those who govern, and the representations and behaviours of the governed. The work carried out in this perspective facilitates a contribution to the debate about the relative autonomy of politics from a social and economic point of view; forming part of the controversy on the social foundations of politics, the endogenous logic of political competition and the specific effects of public action. Furthermore, the focus on the policy/politics articulation is fundamental in the understanding of the current state of the European Union, which has become a major player in the transformation of policies, without for all that managing to establish an integrated political and public space.
To invest in methodological questions
The research conducted within the Centre for European Studies at Sciences Po gives a central role to the reflection on qualitative and quantitative methods and techniques as well as to the production of original data and inventive methodologies. The idea is to produce the appropriate data for the validation of ambitious theoretical questions developed within the Centre’s projects. This data also aims to meet the criteria for international scientific excellence, which focuses on the command of the technical aspects of research and the role of methodological innovation within theoretical renewal.
These priorities of themes and methodology are by nature transversal. They simultaneously mobilize the main fields of political science, while giving plenty of room to the dialogue with the other social sciences. Participation in research programmes in association with the other laboratories at Sciences Po, in particular within the framework of the research priorities 2008-2012, constitutes a natural extension.
In a complementary fashion, research being inconceivable without transmission, teaching, training and the integration of young researchers (doctoral and post-doctoral levels) are at the heart of the missions of the Centre.
