The European Parliament (EP) – today one of the most powerful actors at EU level – was intended to be a mere consultative assembly at the founding of the European Communities. In my research project on the institutional evolution of the EP prior to its first direct elections in 1979,…
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The informal construction of Europe
Informal dimensions of European integration have received limited academic attention to date, despite their historical and contemporary importance. Particularly studies in European integration history, while frequently mentioning informal processes, have as yet rarely conceptualised the study of informality in European integration, and thus fail usually to systematically analyse conditions, impact…
Continue Reading“National values” in asylum and health policies: Presentation at the RESPOND Conference in Cambridge (17-19 Oct 2019)
From 17 to 19 October 2019, I had the opportunity to be among a wide range of scholars from a variety of disciplines – political science, sociology, law, anthropology, history etc. – who gathered at Newnham College, Cambridge University, to discuss recent developments and new insights in the field of…
Continue ReadingJoining the UACES Executive Committee as elected member
UACES is a vibrant global organisation for academics, students and practitioners interested in all aspects of Europe and the European Union. Amongst its extensive activities, UACES holds and supports a wide range of conferences and events, co-publishes various journals and book series, supports research networks as well as individual fieldwork,…
Continue ReadingNew indices, new indicators, more data: New V-Dem dataset is out
The new dataset of the global data collection project ‘Varieties of Democracy’ (V-Dem) is out and can be downloaded free of charge here (SPSS, STATA, CSV, R): https://www.v-dem.net/en/data/data-version-9/. The V-Dem data is used by scholars, journalists and policy makers around the world in order to understand current and past developments…
Continue ReadingResearch scholarship at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History
From February till April 2019, I have been granted a research scholarship at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main. As a guest researcher, I can use the Institute’s extensive library and its databases, as well as its beautiful working facilities – and I greatly…
Continue ReadingWorkshop on personal perceptions of the end of war – ‘War or Peace’ Festival
This weekend (17-21 October), 300 young people from all over the world met at the ‘War or Peace’ Festival in Berlin, organised by the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin. 100 years after the end of World War One, the participants investigated in…
Continue ReadingRunner-up to the 2018 Luke Foster Prize for Best JCER Article with ‘Far Beyond the Treaties’ Clauses’
The academic association for Contemporary European Studies UACES and the Journal of Contemporary European Research (JCER) have announced the winners of this year’s Luke Foster Prize for the best article by an early-career researcher published in JCER. My article ‘Far Beyond the Treaties’ Clauses: The European Parliament’s Gain in Power,…
Continue ReadingNew V-Dem dataset is out: data on democratic development of more than 200 countries from 1789 to 2017
The global data collection project ‘Varieties of Democracy’ (V-Dem) has published a huge new dataset with data on the development of democracy in more than 200 countries worldwide, covering for the first time a period of over 200 years (1789-2017). This is also the first dataset to which I contributed…
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