{"title":"What can science do in the face of pandemics?","authors":"Alexander Bogner","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-122","url":null,"abstract":"In 2020, the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) publicly announced a prize question: “What can science do in the face of pandemics?” (2021). For this journal article the prize-winning essay submitted by the author was translated, updated and - thanks to helpful reviewer comments - revised. Science, it is argued, has different roles in times of crisis: First of all, it must educate about the (changing) crisis situation and provide as robust data, studies and facts as possible. In order to stabilize public trust in science, it is also necessary to provide the public an insight into the logic of scientific knowledge production and related uncertainties and insufficiencies. Last but not least, science has to educate about the limits of its own responsibility and authority. This means that the basic difference between science and politics should not be blurred. Especially in times of crisis, when the political value of science is particularly evident, science should avoid the impression that it can replace political decision-making thanks to its findings.","PeriodicalId":249754,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"254 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117346439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"European monetary policy: Between market neutrality and climate change","authors":"Jenny Preunkert","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-192","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-192","url":null,"abstract":"Climate change has also become a relevant topic in the financial sector. According to a survey of 33 central banks, 70 percent describe climate change as a major threat to financial market stability. Thus, if climate change threatens the stability of the financial markets and worries central banks, the next question is what role does climate change play in the current monetary policy of the eurozone and other currency areas? This article will address this question, drawing on speeches by the European Central Bank (ECB) Governing Council. The article analyses the speeches of the ECB Governing Council with a view to establishing how the ECB’s top management handle climate change and what kinds of institutional change result from the new green policy. The paper will show that in recent years, the issue of climate change has increasingly moved from a marginal position towards the centre of the ECB Executive Board’s agenda. Gradually, the growing awareness of the problem has resulted in institutional change: Climate change was initially seen as a risk factor for the financial markets – it is now considered a threat to price stability itself. Redefining the relationship between climate change and the ECB’s primary task has created new scope for action. Now, it is not only a matter of the ECB gathering knowledge on climate change and integrating that into its own calculations and models, but also of it pursuing an active monetary policy in the fight against climate change. In this context, the concept of market neutrality has been abandoned and replaced by the more interventionist principle of market efficiency.","PeriodicalId":249754,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124710133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"COVID-19 related social media use and attitudes towards pandemic control measures in Europe","authors":"Monika Verbalyte, Monika Eigmüller","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-37","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-37","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we explore how the public sphere in Europe changed in the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., under conditions of extensive social isolation and limited physical contact opportunities. Using data from the Eurobarometer from 2020 and 2021, we show what role digital and social media in particular played in the pandemic. In doing so, we pursue the question of what significance these media had for attitudes towards issues of pandemic control and thus also for emerging social conflicts in the context of the pandemic.","PeriodicalId":249754,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"53 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114117990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The (conceptions of) European identity of pupils in the border region of Rhineland-Palatinate","authors":"Saskia L. M. Langer","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2023-1-96","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2023-1-96","url":null,"abstract":"Do you identify with Europe, and if so, why? 248 lower secondary school students answered this question in a survey conducted in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The area is part of the so-called Greater Region, which is a cross-border region between Germany, France, Luxemburg and Belgium with the possibility of a transnational everyday-life. The aim of the article is to give space to the pupils’ perspectives on their felt identity as well as to reflect on the importance of the border region for their justification of identifying with Europe. The justifications of the students offer a new perspective: the patterns of reasoning not only indicate different reasons for identity, but also a variety of conceptions of Europe, and refer to different levels and dimensions of social identity. While no correlation between proximity to the border and their identification with Europe could be found, individual practices, such as crossing the border freely, were students’ preferred justification for European identity. Because the students were capable of independently arguing their position on European identity, this article suggests to treat European identity as a topic in school giving students the opportunity to reflect on the contested nature of Europe and European identity in class.","PeriodicalId":249754,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133365806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From order to chaos. How the Brexit economic expert discourse articulates structural dissolution in times of COVID-19 crisis","authors":"Jens Maesse, Thierry Rossier","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-68","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-68","url":null,"abstract":"This paper analyses the transformation of identities and institutions of economic experts as politico-economic professionals brought about by the Brexit process between 2016 and 2020. In order to understand the transformation from order to chaos in times of COVID-19, a mixed methods approach is applied. In a first step, a discourse analysis of two competing letters from two different groups of economists is carried out. One letter was published by “Economists for Remain” before the Brexit referendum in 2016; the other letter was published by a group called “Economists for Free Trade”, arguing for leaving the EU. In a second step, we conduct a field and social space analysis of economists who signed the letters in order to analyse their social backgrounds and professional positions within the UK academic, media, political and economic system. The paper shows that members of both groups take significantly different positions. In a final step, we conducted interviews in 2019/20 with selected members of each group. Here we show how the professional system of UK economic governmentality enters a state of crisis. The paper finally argues that contemporary nationalist movements cannot provide a new social order. They lead societies into chaos instead.","PeriodicalId":249754,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128568116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"European Border and Coast Guard standing corps. The establishment of a European border police","authors":"Isabel Hilpert","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2023-1-74","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2023-1-74","url":null,"abstract":"In the European Union, borders are largely communitised. With the creation of the European Border and Coast Guard standing corps, their Europeanisation has reached its temporary climax in the expansion of the Frontex mandate decided in 2019. This standing corps of 10,000 Frontex border guards (until 2027) is to be used for border controls, repatriations and work against human trafficking. For the first time, the European agency not only receives extensive resources, but also executive powers at the external borders of the European Union. The creation of the standing corps marks a paradigm shift in the European Union – it means the de facto establishment of a European border police. This border police is uniformed, armed, and has genuine border police tasks and executive powers previously reserved for the bodies of European nation states. Theoretically, this milestone of deepening Europeanisation can be classified as the result of supplementary institutionalisation. How the standing corps is formed, with which discourses and symbols the establishment of the border police is accompanied, and why it can be understood as supplementary institutionalisation, is the subject of this contribution.","PeriodicalId":249754,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"85 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129240349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The European Green Deal and the limits of ecological modernisation","authors":"Tobias Haas, Felix Syrovatka, Isabel Jürgen","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-247","url":null,"abstract":"With the European Green Deal (EGD), the European Commission presented an ambitious roadmap for accelerated “ecological modernisation” in December 2019. Semantically, the EGD is linked to the New Deal and the debates surrounding the Green New Deal. In contrast, the European Commission’s strategy aims less at profound social change and the questioning of social power relations. Rather, the EGD remains largely within the leitmotif of “ecological modernisation”, which relies on technological innovations without far-reaching social change. The thrust of the EGD bears the hallmark of ecological modernisation; it is about reconciling economy and ecology, about continuing the growth path under green auspices. The greening of the EU is to take place primarily by means of technological innovations. Amongst others, clean hydrogen and carbon dioxide removals (CDR) are central pillars to reach the aim of climate neutrality by 2050. Technological improvements are closely linked to the aim of improving the competitiveness of the European economy and stabilising global power relations under a green mantle. Such a strategy runs the risk of renewing social inequalities within the EU as well as globally. In addition, the war in Ukraine raises further problems for the fulfilment of the EGD.","PeriodicalId":249754,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126438254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How do state authorities act under existential uncertainty? Hypotheses on the social logic of political decision-making processes during the Coronavirus pandemic","authors":"K. Kraemer","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-5","url":null,"abstract":"After a critical examination of the rational model of politics, this article discusses an alternative explanatory model in order to better understand and explain state response patterns and decision-making processes for containing the Coronavirus pandemic in its various phases from a sociological perspective. In doing so, I draw on central considerations of political sociology and organisational studies in order to reconstruct the social logic of the (non-)action of state authorities with special regard to the case examples of Germany and Austria (action under radical uncertainty, expert delegation, isomorphism of state action, path dependency of decisions, promissory legitimacy, collective morality of the “anxiety community” as a social driver of pandemic management). The article concludes with some general considerations on the vaccination exit strategy as well as on the problem of strategic ignorance and the logic of performative-symbolic action by state decision-makers.","PeriodicalId":249754,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133192399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Integrationists, Critical Europeanists and Pessimist Europeanists: EU attitudes among students in a German university","authors":"Céline Teney, Juan Deininger, Josefine Zurheide","doi":"10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2022-1-100","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate attitudes toward the EU of a sample of students enrolled in a German university by using a mixed-methods data design. We conducted an online survey among students at the University of Göttingen (N=730) and asked them closed questions on the EU enlargement, the allocation of authority at the EU level, the way democracy works at the EU level, and an open question on their wish for the future of the EU. We then ran a latent class analysis of the recoded answer categories from the open question and of our set of closed questions. Our three-class solution highlights variation in support for the EU among students. Indeed, while the vast majority of the respondents take highly supportive attitudes towards the EU, we can distinguish between ‘Integrationists’ (in favour of pursuing the EU integration project; 68% of the sample), ‘Critical Europeanists’ (supportive of the EU but dissatisfied with the way democracy works at the EU level; 20.50% of the sample) and ‘Pessimist Europeanists’ (supportive of the EU but afraid of the implosion of the EU; 11% of the sample). Our study highlights the importance of the use of non-standardised measures and mixed-methods data collection for understanding citizens’ attitudes towards the EU in a more nuanced way.","PeriodicalId":249754,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Practice & Europeanization","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131362475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}