Contemporary European Politics最新文献

{"title":"Beyond the Classroom: International Field Trips in Postgraduate Politics and International Relations Education","authors":"Jamie Pow,&nbsp;Andrew Thomson,&nbsp;Viviane Gravey","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70040","url":null,"abstract":"<p>International field trips are typically designed to meet multiple objectives. First, they serve a pedagogical value: as a form of active and experiential learning, they enhance learning and provide students with the opportunity to connect concepts and theories to real-world practice. Second, they serve a cohort-building purpose: by bringing students together with their peers over a multi-day period, they are likely to strengthen their sense of community within their programme and, in turn, enhance their overall student experience. Third, field trips can shape professional development: by giving students the opportunity to meet with a variety of practitioners in professional settings, they may get a clearer sense, or fresh ideas, about how (and where) they may use their academic experience beyond graduation and enhance the attainment of transferable professional skills. Using survey data collected before and after postgraduate study trips to Brussels, this paper investigates the extent to which academic field trips in politics and international relations (IRs) meet their intended objectives. The study highlights the importance of international study trips and how they may be most effectively designed.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"4 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70040","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148167076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Interplay of Policy and Practice on Europeanisation in the Context of the European Universities Initiative","authors":"Barbara Curyło,&nbsp;Alexander Frame,&nbsp;Maija-Kaisa Hirvonen,&nbsp;Robert Geisler","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70037","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper examines how Europeanisation unfolds within European University Alliances (EUAs) by analysing the interplay between EU-level policy frameworks and locally embedded academic practices. It advances a conceptually integrated approach situated at the intersection of European integration studies, international relations and higher education research, with the primary aim of explaining how Europeanisation is produced and practised at the subnational level rather than merely assessing policy implementation outcomes. The paper rests on a three-part conceptual framework combining subnational Europeanisation, paradiplomacy and science diplomacy, and explicitly links these perspectives to concrete organisational mechanisms within EUAs: knowledge-creating teams (KCTs). Subnational Europeanisation provides the overarching analytical lens, conceptualising universities as subnational actors through which European norms, values and governance logics are interpreted and institutionalised. Paradiplomacy specifies the mode of agency exercised by universities, capturing their capacity to initiate and govern transnational cooperation. Science diplomacy, in turn, explains the functional logic through which academic collaboration serves simultaneously epistemic, relational and integrative purposes. In conclusion, KCT structures are examined as sites where EU policy objectives are translated into locally embedded practices (vertical Europeanisation) while also enabling peer-to-peer learning, norm diffusion and institutional convergence across borders (horizontal Europeanisation). The analysis demonstrates that Europeanisation within EUAs is not a linear process of policy transmission but a negotiated, uneven process shaped by institutional capacities, power asymmetries and strategic interpretation. By systematically connecting the conceptual framework to specific organisational mechanisms, the paper contributes to the analytical relevance of paradiplomacy and science diplomacy to Europeanisation research, and positions EUAs as active arenas—rather than passive instruments—of European integration in higher education.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"4 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70037","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148174558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Projects as Sites of Experimentalist Governance and Europeanization: Border Region Universities in Focus","authors":"Alina Felder-Stindt","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70036","url":null,"abstract":"<p>European Union (EU) funding relies on short‑term, project‑based instruments while pursuing long‑term strategic policy objectives. Existing research rarely examines how these project‑based instruments contribute to the interpretation and evolution of these objectives as articulated in EU governance architectures. Addressing this gap, project‑mediated Europeanization is theorized: a mode of EU influence that emerges when projectified policy delivery structures enact an experimentalist governance cycle of goal translation, implementation, reporting, and revision. Governance architectures define EU priorities and strategic frames, while project cycles create feedback that enables iterative reinterpretation of these priorities. Empirically, the study examines how higher education (HE) institutions in cross‑border regions interpret and enact strategic EU goals through European Territorial Cooperation (Interreg). Focusing on the University of the Greater Region (UniGR), a network of HE institutions across Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg, the analysis draws on document analysis and semi‑structured interviews with academic staff, administrators, and policymakers at regional, national, and EU levels. The findings show that projectification enables alignment with EU opportunity structures while providing room for local reinterpretation of strategic goals. HE institutions act simultaneously as implementers of EU policy and as representatives of regional interests, revealing their dual role in shaping Europeanization from both above and below. This interplay exposes tensions between short‑term project logic and long‑term visions and demonstrates how project‑based governance extends EU influence in areas of limited formal competence.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"4 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70036","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147808306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Team Is Built on Trust: In-Group Trust Formation and Trust Generalisation in European Football Fans","authors":"Jonas Biel","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70034","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper investigates the association between football fandom, interpersonal trust and social cohesion across Europe. Drawing on a representative four-country survey (Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain) and employing structural equation modelling, the study examines whether and how identification as a fan contributes to trust in fellow citizens from other European countries. Building on theories of social cohesion and interpersonal trust, the analysis conceptualises fandom as a culturally embedded and Europeanised form of social identity capable of bridging national divides. The findings indicate that fandom is associated with trust in European citizens more broadly through a mediated pathway via trust in fans and in fans from other European countries. These effects are independent of generalised trust, European identification, and socio-demographic factors. The study thus reveals a layered process of identity-based trust generalisation rooted in fan culture. The paper contributes to the literature on trust, social cohesion, and the social dimension(s) of European integration, and demonstrates how shared cultural practices may serve as foundations for connectedness and exchanges across borders. It provides insights for policy and civil society actors seeking to harness the integrative potential of sport in times of political polarisation and social fragmentation in Europe.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"4 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70034","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147568030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Norm Transformation in EU Research Security: A Pragmatist Approach","authors":"Håvard Rustad Markussen","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70033","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article examines the recent development of a research security policy agenda in the EU. In responding to changes in the geopolitical environment, the EU has adapted its research and innovation policy by subjecting it to security concerns. At stake in this development is the norm of openness in international science, and more broadly, the status of the liberal values and principles on which the EU rests. To examine this development, this article mobilises pragmatist norm transformation theory, which, in brief, proposes that norms transform through the reorientation of conventions and the creative adaptation to changing political circumstances. Through this theoretical lens, the article analyses key policy documents about research security coming out of the EU from 2021 to 2024 and finds that the norm of openness in international research was transformed through the negotiation of two main discursive tensions: open/safe science and national/global security. These tensions were ultimately reconciled, moreover, as the EU framed international research cooperation as ‘open and safe’ and in need of ‘derisking, not decoupling’.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70033","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147585294","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Europeanisation in an Illiberal Country? Post-Socialist Local Development and Governance in the Budapest Agglomeration","authors":"Adrienne Csizmady,&nbsp;Gergely Olt,&nbsp;Márton Bagyura","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70029","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this article, we illustrate the effects of the post-socialist transformation and the resulting politically hybrid contexts on Europeanisation by presenting the case of Napliget, a wealthy village within the Budapest Agglomeration. Our detailed case study of the settlement, within a research project on local planning and development, also represents issues of Europeanisation in an illiberal regime. It is a local example of the U-turn in the post-socialist transformation from liberal democracy to autocracy/illiberalism, which affected local governance everywhere, even if in different concrete forms. Drawing on qualitative data from fieldwork and interviews, we examine how EU norms, funding mechanisms, and governance frameworks are interpreted and implemented at the local level. We find that, while Europeanisation can be observed in infrastructure investment and sustainability discourse, its implementation is shaped by domestic political dynamics, neopatrimonial governance and elite-driven development strategies. The study reveals a form of Europeanisation that is both selective and strategic, whereby local and national elites utilise EU funding and normative frameworks to reinforce their social and political privileges while sidelining principles such as transparency, public accountability and inter-municipal cooperation. This case demonstrates how the insensitivity of EU institutions to political and institutional contexts leads to ‘Potemkin Europeanisation’ or ‘symbolic compliance’ in environments characterised by centralised decision-making, entrenched informal networks and weak coordination at the metropolitan scale, typical in this case of post-socialist illiberalism. In such contexts, EU funds used in (sub)urban development not only deepen spatial and social divides but also reinforce economically inefficient and antidemocratic governance and planning by allowing the illiberal state party and related elites to uncontrolledly appropriate EU funds. With these findings, the paper adds to current discussions on the uneven impact of EU integration.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70029","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147637058","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From Conflict to Synergy? Climate Policy Coherence in EU External Energy Policy Towards Natural Gas Suppliers","authors":"Marco Giuli","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70032","url":null,"abstract":"<p>As climate change has become central to EU policymaking over the last decades, questions have emerged about the extent to which climate objectives have reshaped the EU's external energy policy (EEP). This article investigates the evolution of EU's EEP towards major gas suppliers and identifies the institutional, material, and ideational conditions underpinning its coherence with climate goals. The analysis reveals increasing alignment with climate objectives, initially driven by commercial and geopolitical interests, and later reinforced by stronger climate-related institutional and discursive enablers, albeit unevenly across the cases—reflecting the relevance of supplier-specific characteristics. Overall, the study suggests that the geography of Europe's future energy relations will increasingly reflect the intersection of environmental imperatives and strategic considerations, and that EEP coherence with climate objectives is attainable when the EU pursues stringent climate action.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146217272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Imagining Climate and Environmental Transformation in the European Union","authors":"Simon Hollis","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70031","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The EU is clearly committed to its response to the climate and environmental crisis. Transformative policy solutions and targets have been set within the Union to restore 90% of degraded ecosystems and reach climate neutrality by 2050. The EU also remains one of the biggest donors of climate and environmental development aid. Green growth, good governance, adaptation and mitigation strategies, technology, corporate social responsibility, and other locales of change are intended to lead toward a more sustainable, secure and equitable future. These policies are commendable, but what potential do they have as transformative capacities? This article examines the underlying value systems that legitimise current EU climate and environmental policy for the purpose of critically reflecting on the Union's ability to effect fundamental changes to social, political and economic systems. Via a discourse and visual analysis on speeches, policy documents and images, the outcome suggests that policy development ought to reflect on human-nature interconnectedness to overcome the limitation of its eco-modernist and utilitarian value system.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70031","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146049419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Island of Ireland and the European Union: Past, Present and Future","authors":"Giada Lagana,&nbsp;Michael Holmes","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70030","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This Special Collection explores the evolving relationship between the island of Ireland and the European Union (EU) against a backdrop of profound political, economic and geopolitical change. Brexit, shifting EU security priorities, growing global trade uncertainty and other challenges have disrupted long-standing patterns of Irish engagement with Europe, with distinct consequences for both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Addressing themes ranging from crisis governance and external relations to peacebuilding, taxation and identity politics, the contributions highlight the diverse ways in which Ireland's European future is being reshaped. Organised around the dual contexts of the Republic and Northern Ireland, and complemented by cross-border analyses, this Special Collection highlights the importance of an all-island perspective. Collectively, the articles shed light on broader questions concerning small states in the EU, the management of crises, the long and demanding journey of building peace and the interplay between domestic and European change, while emphasising both Ireland's vulnerabilities and its agency as it navigates an uncertain European and global order.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70030","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145909085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adapting to a Multilevel Administrative Space: The Administrative Integration of Norwegian and Swedish Subnational Bureaucracies","authors":"Ole Andreas Danielsen,&nbsp;Marthe Indset,&nbsp;Linda Alamaa,&nbsp;Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren","doi":"10.1002/cep4.70027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70027","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Whereas a considerable literature emphasizes the role and function of municipalities and regions in the European Union (EU) as an expression of multilevel governance, a parallel literature has emerged which projects a view of the EU as an example of multilevel administration. This latter literature directs attention towards emerging vertical linkages implying new chains of accountability and control, yet it is unclear whether and how the subnational level fits into this assumed multilevel union administration. Moreover, its hierarchical focus contrasts with how, especially, the multilevel governance literature has tended to emphasize the opportunities arising from EU governance as much as the potential constraints. Drawing on a study of administrative EU work in Norwegian and Swedish municipalities, the paper argues that insights from the two literatures should be combined to gain a fuller understanding of how the subnational level adapts to an emerging integrated administrative space.</p>","PeriodicalId":100329,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European Politics","volume":"3 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/cep4.70027","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145739554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}