Completed Third-Party Funded Projects

1) Jean Monnet Chair „Bridging the Gap between the EU and its Citizens (BridgE)”

Funds: 50.000 Euro, 24.400.- Euro Co-funding by the der University

Funding institution: Europäische Union

Duration: 09.2019 – 08.2023

Applicant: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner

The Jean Monnet Chair project “BridgE” has the thematic focus and aim to help bridging the gap between the European Union and its citizens by enhancing active debates on the EU.

Despite the efforts of EU and national institutions as well as intermediate institutions and actors, research as well as opinion surveys diagnose a growing gap between what has been termed “EU elites” and EU citizens. The European Union has a legitimacy problem, support rates have been decreasing during the peak of the financial crisis, as the respective Eurobarometer data clearly show, and despite the economic situation improving, votes for populist, extremist, anti-EU and anti-democrat parties and movements are on the rise throughout the EU. At the same time, the Europeanisation of politics and decision making continues to impact and transform the national democratic systems of the member states.

The work programme for the Chair takes stock of this situation. The primary aim is to debate the EU with a) students and b) citizens that are neither engaged in EU-oriented civil-society organisations, nor in political parties, in order to bridge the gap between citizens and the EU.

In order to do so, teaching, citizen focus group discussions, public events, and research activities will be integrated. The results will deliver well-based findings about the sources of contemporary EU-criticism and be disseminated in public discussion events, academic conferences, and via publications directed at academics and EU practitioners in the sense of EU stakeholders, EU officials, and EU and national politicians. The work will help to bridge the gap between EU elites and average citizens.

In all this, a particular focus is set on MA students and young researchers, including them into the research process in teaching research seminars and additionally in offering them training courses in cooperation with Fulda Graduate School in the Social Sciences.

The work plan of the Chair follows three objectives (Teaching and Debating Europe, Networking and Communication, Dissemination) that are carried out in the following work packages:

Work package 1 – Teaching and Debating Europe

1.1. Teaching/research seminars organised around citizen focus group discussions aim at debating Europe with students and citizens. BA, MA and Ph.D. students will be actively integrated into the research activities. They will be guided into carrying out a proper research on citizens opinions on the EU. The focus group discussions will allow for developing a broad understanding on the European Union’s perception and the reasons of citizen support or citizen distrust in and of the EU. All in all, understanding the background reasons of average citizen´s opinions on the EU will allow for a more nuanced assessment of the alleged gap between the EU´s elites and its citizens, and the ways to bridge it.

1.2. In cooperation with the international Graduate School in the Social Sciences at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Ph.D. training courses will be organised and offered to the participating Ph.D. students.

1.3. A MA course will teach research methods and research design specifically directed at MA students in EU studies and with topics in EU studies. In their third (pre-thesis) semester it prepares them for presenting an exposé for their MA thesis and start working on it well prepared.

Work package 2 – Networking and Communication

BridgE will also become the nucleus for an accessible and inclusive community of discussion on the European Union where issues are debated critically with a wide range of views. It will transfer expert knowledge and research results into public debate and will enhance the level of public deliberation about the EU. The process of exchanging and debating enhances the legitimacy of the EU not only as a polity, but also as a policy-making process by regaining citizen’s trust in their ability to use political discussions to influence the policy-making process, including a wide range of actors.

Networking aims at connecting the Chair, students, other researchers, citizens as well as stakeholders, practitioners and EU and national politicians by several tools and activities:

2.1. The Chair will have a publicly accessible website that presents the aims and rationale of the project, announces news and events, publishes reports on the events and presents the most important research findings. The website will be immediately set up upon beginning of the project.

2.2. A more specific and password protected online platform is the basis for a) uploading the results of the teaching research seminars and the analyses, and also b) for a comment and discussion platform that connects citizens, stakeholders, students and the Chair.

2.3. Citizens, stakeholders, practitioners and EU and national politicians will be invited to regular debating events.

2.4. Panels at international conferences will be organised to further connect the Chair with the international academic community.

Work package 3 – Dissemination

Besides the activities above, the results will be disseminated via the following channels:

3.1. Relaunch of the Europe Certificate programme directed at non-social-science students from all faculties at Fulda University of Applied Sciences under the applicants´ direction.

3.2. A concluding conference serves at discussing the results of the teaching research seminars against the state of the art in the discipline and with practitioners.

3.3. Presentations at the major international conferences in EU Studies and Political Science (IPSA, EISA, ISA, CES, ECPR, UACES) are carried out.

3.4. International academic publications.

Publications directed at practitioners.

2) Practising Transnational Politics (PATRAPO)

Funds: 285.379.- Förderung

Funding institution: Europäische Union

Duration: 03.2021 – 02.2023

Applicant: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner

Involved: Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Autonomous University Madrid, Zagreb University

Summary

United Nations Model Games (MUN) is a worldwide practice of simulations in which participants take on the role of an international delegate in a simulated committee of the United Nations (UN). Against this backdrop, the goal of Practising Transnational Politics in Blended Learning (PATRAPO) is to contribute to the international MUN community by developing open access transnational teaching kits and a handbook for a two-semester series of online blended learning seminars that train students for the participation in MUNs. To do this, PATRAPO builds on a cooperation of three European Universities and a Canadian associate partner university for training for MUNs. For the time being, neither such a transnational structure nor such teaching kits and handbooks exist.

The partner universities are Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Autonomous University Madrid, Zagreb University and, as an associate partner, MacEwan University Edmonton. The partners all have previous experience both in MUN model games and in EU projects and can build on previous MUN activities. The advantages of such a joint structure are the mutual support, the possible synergy effects, a widening of the respective horizons to different input and experiences, and last not least a development and implementation of best practice teaching kits as well as a joint grading scheme. Besides it furthers intra-European relations and fosters EU values. Based on their individual experiences, the partners will jointly develop, establish and implement the following elements and aim at the following results, to be carried out in a yearly rhythm:

1) a teaching kit for preparative joint blended MUN training seminars (including work in small groups and virtual seminar sessions; 1st semester of each academic year) at all participating institutions, including: teaching curricula, seminar plans, active-learning methodology, material, content, explanation, organization, training video collection (accessible on the project website). We aim to teach 30 students per semester.

2) a teaching kit for joint blended MUN (including delegation work in small groups and a virtual MUN; 2nd semester of each academic year), including: procedure, technical solutions, organizational advice, and detailed description of “how-to” (accessible on the project website). We aim to teach 30 students per semester.

3) a handbook including a manual (intellectual property of the partners) and user advice for third parties for the two teaching kits. The handbook will be made available open access on the project website.

4) a project website to provide information on the project, the ongoing process and the teaching kits as well as the open access handbook with manual.

5) four intensive staff trainings for blended MUN seminars for applying these facilities: the project is a learning system including further training for teachers. We plan four staff trainings with two participants from Fulda UAS, two participants from UAM Madrid and one participant from UNIZG at the beginning of each semester.

6) intensive study programmes to attend life MUN (if pandemic allows it, if not, in a big virtual MUN). At least 30 students should participate per year.

7) until the end of the project, the blended MUN seminars shall be implemented as permanent elective courses in all participating institutions and a joint ECTS grading scheme established.

The project aims at permanently establishing the new seminar series and the cooperation of the participating universities and build appropriate infrastructures in order to provide long-term benefits with respect to student competencies and the quality of the participating universities. Partners will establish a joint ECTS grading scheme. All students will obtain ECTS credits according to the institutional demands at each partners’ university and study program for participating in the MUN seminars. The joint blended MUN training seminars at all participating institutions will be maintained after the end of the EU funding as a fixed part of the partners’ study programmes and teaching activities. A project website will be set up by the partners and include a project description of PATRAPO, the ongoing process, results and links to the two teaching kits as well as the handbook including a manual and user advice for third parties for the two teaching kits. The website will be continued and updated after the end of the EU funding by the partners. In order to organise the seminar series, the regular exchanges in online meetings of the partners will also continue. The project PATRAPO will connect not only the faculty members but also students of the participating universities and thus build a basis for further exchange and collaboration.

3) ECPR Summer School “Political Concepts”

Period: 2016-2019, 2022

Since 2016, the ECPR Standing Group is the co-organizer of a summer school with a long tradition in the field: the Helsinki Summer School in Conceptual History. It is organised jointly with Concepta and the Centre for Nordic Studies at Helsinki University, and attracts a very dynamic, multidisciplinary and international crowd of PhD and advanced MA students.

Ergebnisse: summer school

4) Democracy in EU crisis mode – concepts, institutions, discourses and citizens

Interne Forschungsförderung, Hochschule Fulda

Funds: 40.000- Euro

Duration: 02.2020 – 07.2020

Applicant: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner

Democracy and Politics in the European Union´s multilevel system have been subject to public and academic disputes since the early days of integration. But in times of the current crisis, they have been especially challenged: eurosceptic and populist parties have been on the rise in several of the member states, and even in the notorious pro-European Federal Republic of Germany. Citizen support of the EU and trust in its institutions have been declining at least temporarily during the crisis. The institutional handling of the financial crisis has given rise to criticism of the related democratic deficits. The politicisation of the European Union in this respect is discussed as a problem for or at least as a challenge to contemporary representative democracy. In the academic debate, the EU´s crisis has also been related a critique of representative democracy more generally or the tension between democracy and market capitalism especially in the EU. This state of the art of the academic debate on the EU´s crisis is the starting point for the research: Which changes did the crisis bring to democracy and politics in the multilevel system? And to what extent are these also challenges for democracy and legitimacy? More precisely, I will research four interrelated leading themes and questions in my work. Based on 1) a conceptual analysis of the categories that are crucial for the empirical studies (such as legitimacy, representation and politicisation, see below in detail) it will be assessed comparatively 2) which empirical changes the handling of the sovereign debt crisis brought about to checks and balances on the EU level, in the member states, and between the member states, 3) how these changes have been discussed in public discourse, and 4) how they are perceived by the citizens. The research will tackle these issues in a multi-method setting. The overall objective is to address the effects of the crisis conceptually and empirically.

5) Democracy in EU crisis mode – concepts, institutions, discourses and citizens

BMBF funding for Horizon 2020 projects

Funds: 24.906,24.- Euro

Duration: 10.2019 – 02.2020

Applicant: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner

Democracy and Politics in the European Union´s multilevel system have been subject to public and academic disputes since the early days of integration. But in times of the current crisis, they have been especially challenged: eurosceptic and populist parties have been on the rise in several of the member states, and even in the notorious pro-European Federal Republic of Germany. Citizen support of the EU and trust in its institutions have been declining at least temporarily during the crisis. The institutional handling of the financial crisis has given rise to criticism of the related democratic deficits. The politicisation of the European Union in this respect is discussed as a problem for or at least as a challenge to contemporary representative democracy. In the academic debate, the EU´s crisis has also been related a critique of representative democracy more generally or the tension between democracy and market capitalism especially in the EU. This state of the art of the academic debate on the EU´s crisis is the starting point for the research: Which changes did the crisis bring to democracy and politics in the multilevel system? And to what extent are these also challenges for democracy and legitimacy? More precisely, I will research four interrelated leading themes and questions in my work. Based on 1) a conceptual analysis of the categories that are crucial for the empirical studies (such as legitimacy, representation and politicisation, see below in detail) it will be assessed comparatively 2) which empirical changes the handling of the sovereign debt crisis brought about to checks and balances on the EU level, in the member states, and between the member states, 3) how these changes have been discussed in public discourse, and 4) how they are perceived by the citizens. The research will tackle these issues in a multi-method setting. The overall objective is to address the effects of the crisis conceptually and empirically.

6) Transformations of Concepts and Institutions in the European Polity (TRACE)

Research team under the Finnish Distinguished Professorship (FiDiPro), Academy of Finland.
Duration: 2015-2019
Applicant: Prof. Dr. Kari Palonen
Involved: Prof. Dr. Niilo Kauppi, Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner, Dr. Taru Haapala

The University of Jyväskylä invites Research Professor Niilo Kauppi (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and University of Strasbourg, France) as a Finnish Distinguished Professor for the years 2015-2019 with the project “Transformations of Concepts and Institutions in the European Polity” (TRACE). The project will be led by a Research team. Its core consists of three persons at different career stages and with slightly different research profiles that relate to Kauppi’s work in manifold respects and different combinations. PD Claudia Wiesner will be Senior Research Fellow, PhD Taru Haapala is Postdoctoral Fellow, and Prof. Kari Palonen will be contributing as Professor Emeritus. All will be funded for the entire FiDiPro period in their research activities.

The title of the FiDiPro project summarizes the research profile for the upcoming years: “Transformations of Concepts and Institutions in the European Polity”refers to a constellation of mutually linked research topics that relate to the fields of higher education, knowledge production, transnational exchanges, EU and European integration, concepts, debates, and conceptual and intellectual history. Research will concentrate on four interrelated topics: 1) the analysis of the history and contemporary forms of political thought and concepts, 2) the analysis of debates as the uniting theme of parliamentary and university cultures, 3) the conceptual study of European Union politics with the focus on political agency and rhetorical strategies in the power struggles in the EU and in its relations to the member states, 4) the ‘new geopolitics’ of conceptual and intellectual transfers.

The project is associated with the Finnish Centre in Political Thought and Conceptual Change. It is directly connected to three interconnected research fields, namely conceptual transfers between different contexts, links between political and academic cultures as well as conceptualisation of the European Union as a new type of polity. In all fields there are first rank scholars at the University of Jyväskylä, who will be included in the broader group of cooperation partners.

7) Representative democracy in the EU financial crisis: a comparative analysis.
Duration: February 2019 to February 2020
Granted funds: 9,952.80 euros
Applicant and Director: Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesner

Subject: The euro financial aid policy intervenes massively in democratic processes of the member states. However, it is formally outside the EU system under the Lisbon Treaty; the European Parliament does not participate. Financial assistance among euro states is handled by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). They are only granted after the "troika" of staff from the ESM, the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has negotiated criteria with the recipient states for their budgets and set them down in "memoranda of understanding" (MoU). However, as a result of this process, governments and parliaments of the borrowing countries lose some of their core competencies: Normally, parliaments decide on national budgets that governments bring in. This is not the case in financial aid policy. In recipient states, parliaments (and, depending on the course of negotiations, governments as well) can only agree to the troika's budget proposals - or reject them and forego loans. In donor states, too, parliaments' powers are being disregarded. Overall, very different modes of governance are evident in the euro states.

Research question: How do the decision-making processes in financial aid policy in the euro states proceed are representative democratic standards observed in the process, and why do national differences emerge?

Objectives: Objectives: The project investigates changes in representative democracy in the EU and its member states in the implementation of EU financial aid policy in order to prepare and submit 1) a DFG proposal on this topic and 2) a Ph.D. project for the Ph.D. Center for Social and Cultural Studies based on a preliminary survey.

Results: Publications and research proposals

8) EU Multilevel Democracy in Crisis Mode – Concepts, Institutions, Discourses, and citizens

Granted Fund: 7057 Euro (Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung)

Duration: February – April 2019

Democracy and Politics in the European Union´s multilevel system have been subject to public and academic disputes since the early days of integration. But in times of the current crisis, they have been especially challenged: eurosceptic and populist parties have been on the rise in several of the member states, and even in the notorious pro-European Federal Republic of Germany (on populism in Europe see e.g. De Vries 2018). Citizen support of the EU and trust in its institutions have been declining at least temporarily during the crisis (e.g. Armingeon/Guthman 2014; see also the respective Eurobaromete data). The institutional handling of the financial crisis has given rise to criticism of the related democratic deficits (see e.g. Crum 2013; Matthijs 2017, Menendez 2015, White 2015). The politicisation of the European Union in this respect is discussed as a problem for (e.g. Hooghe/Marks 2009) or at least as a challenge to contemporary representative democracy (cf. Hutter/Grande/Kriesi 2016). In the academic debate, the EU´s crisis has also been related a critique of representative democracy more generally (e.g. Laffan 2014 and 2016, Mair 2013, Offe 2015) or the general tension between democracy and market capitalism (e.g. Merkel 2016, Crouch 2015, Streeck 2015).

This state of the art of the academic debate on the EU´s crisis is the starting point for the research framework presented here: Which changes did the crisis bring to democracy and politics in the multilevel system? And to what extent are these also challenges for democracy and legitimacy? More precisely, I will research four interrelated leading themes and questions in my work. Based on 1) a conceptual analysis of the categories that are crucial for the empirical studies (such as legitimacy, representation and politicisation, see below in detail) it will be assessed comparatively 2) which empirical changes the handling of the sovereign debt crisis brought about to checks and balances on the EU level, in the member states, and between the member states, 3) how these changes have been discussed in public discourse, and 4) how they are perceived by the citizens.

The research will tackle these issues in a multi-method setting. The overall objective is to address the effects of the crisis conceptually and empirically, to allow for a diagnosis of the state of the art regarding politics, democracy and legitimacy in the EU multilevel system, focusing on four dimensions:

1) The concepts and categories used to analyse the current challenges empirically and comparatively (democracy, politics, legitimacy, representation, parliamentarisation, politicisation, populism)

2) The institutional changes and challenges on the EU and member state level

3) Public mediated discourses on these issues

4) Citizen´s perceptions and attitudes

9) Marie-Curie-Fellowship “Conceptualizing representative democracy in the EU polity by re-thinking classical key conceptual clusters for the EU multi-level polity” (EUPOLCON)

Duration: December 2010 – March 2014

The innovation of the project lies in applying a key insight from Conceptual History to European integration and the EU multilevel system: Political concepts are not stable, but their meanings are always contingent and controversial.Conceptual History offers both methodology and methods to study conceptual change, and Comparative Politics teaches us how to do it in a comparative perspective. To systematically apply this approach is therefore fruitful for the fields of Comparative Politics, European integration Studies, Political Theory – and Conceptual History Itself:

1) European integration decisively affects key concepts as analytical and theoretical categoriessince it brings about changes to the political practices they refer to. Parliaments, citizens, governments, and states, to name some core examples, increasingly become part of a multilevel regime. These changing social, political and institutional realities point to a double analytical problem: a) in the developing multi-level EU regime, nation states no longer are the only reference frame for parliamentarism, citizenship or government – even if nation states may still be central, the EU and sometimes sub-national entities have become other reference frames. B) Concepts as analytical and theoretical categories are seldom systematically reflected or re-described with regard to the setting of the developing EU multilevel regime.

2) At the same time, concepts are factors and indicators of the social, institutional and political changes brought about by European integration, as can be seen a) in conceptual-political discussions in the individual member states (the debates related to the Constitutional Treaty or the sovereign debt crisis are key examples); b) through symbolic and conceptual politics trying to forge a new conceptual language (“the area of freedom, security and justice”) and symbolism (flag, anthem, Europe day) for the EU.

The project has the following aims:

To systematically develop a research agenda for for applying conceptual history methodology to the EU multilevel system and for studying the conceptual changes in a comparative perspective.
To sketch a conceptual framework for a democratic and multi-level EU, developed in a broad historical perspective of political thought and conceptual change. The conceptual framework is constructed around three key conceptual clusters (state-government-policy-polity; parliament-representation-politicians; citizens-subjects) as thematic perspectives. These clusters are both challenged by European integration and discussed in the debates on the character of the EU.
To extend the methodological insights of conceptual history on the contingent and controversial character of political concepts to past and present debates on the EU as a changing polity.
To establish a disciplinary link between conceptual history, Democratisation studies and European integration studies, supported by insights from constitutional law, philosophy, history, and linguistics.

Results: Articles, monographs and edited volumes

2019: Inventing the EU as a democratic Polity: Concepts, Actors, Strategies, Palgrave Macmillan
2017: Debates, Rhetoric and Political Action, Palgrave Macmillan, together with Kari Palonen and Taru Haapala
2018: Shaping Citizenship: A Political Concept in Theory, Debate and Practice; New York: Routledge, Series Concepts in Comparative Politics, ed. with Anna Björk, Hanna-Mari Kivistö und Katja Mäkinen
2015: In Debate with Kari Palonen. Concepts, Politics, Histories; Baden-Baden: Nomos, ed. with Evgeny Roshchin and Marie Boilard
2014: The Meanings of Europe, London: Routledge, ed. with Meike Schmidt-Gleim
2014: The concept of Citizenship: post-world-war II changes and challenges, panel in Contributions to the History of ConceptsNo 1/2014, ed. with Anna Björk
2018: The Micro-Politics of parliamentary Powers: European Parliament Strategies for expanding its Influence in the EU Institutional System, in: Journal of European Integration 4/2018, S. 375–391
2018: Exit Politics, Enter Politicisation, Journal of European Integration 2/2018, S. 227-233, together with Niilo Kauppi
2018: Representative democracy in times of austerity, in: Austerity and its social and political consequences, special issue, Zeitschrift für Politik, ed. Von Sturm, Roland; Griebel, Tim und Winkelmann, Thorsten
2017: Möglichkeiten und Grenzen repräsentativer Demokratie in der Finanzkrise, in: die integration 1/2017, S. 52-66
2016: Democracy, Capitalism and the EU, in: Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 10(3), S.219-239
2016: The Politification and Politicisation of the EU, in: Redescriptions Volume 19, Number 1, Spring 2016, together with Niilo Kauppi and Kari Palonen S. 72-90

10) Democracy, Activation, Sustainability: Scientific support of the Caritas Frankfurt
Duration: November 2012 - March 2014

Caritas Frankfurt is responsible for several neighborhood management projects in Frankfurt. The management of Caritas and the neighborhood managers reflect in a dialogical process with scientific support their definitions of democracy, activation, and sustainability, as well as the consequences for the concrete implementation. In the end, there are guiding principles that summarize what democracy, activation, and sustainability mean exactly in the sense of the Caritas philosophy and how they are to be implemented.

Results: Interim reports, final report, partial chapter monograph „Multi-Level-Governance und Lokale Demokratie“ (Springer VS 2017)

11) Structuring and research agenda on "Unwritten Constitutions in Asia and Europe": a total of 67,200 euros.
a) " Unwritten Constitutions in Europe and Asia / Unwritten Constitutions in Europe and Asia", Research Promotion Fund Universities of Marburg and Giessen.
Duration: 10.2013 - 10.2014
Funds raised: 28.000.- Euro
Applicants and project management: Prof. Dr. Claudia Derichs, Philipps-Universität Marburg; Prof. Dr. Ursula Birsl, Philipps-Universität Marburg
The research field "Unwritten Constitutions in Asia and Europe was systematically processed here as well as in the project "Gender-related Research Program" (see b) and structured and published in the context of a workshop conducted in 2013 (see c) and several publications.
Result: Publications

b) Gender-related research program on "Citizenship and democracy in 'unwritten constitutions' - a European-Asian comparison".
Applicants and project leaders: Prof. Dr. Ursula Birsl, Philipps-Universität Marburg; Prof. Dr. Claudia Derichs, Philipps-Universität Marburg
Further participants: PD Dr. Samuel Salzborn, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Dr. Daniela Marx, Philipps University Marburg
Duration: 08.2011 - 08.2012
Funds raised: 29,000 euros
On the topic of "Unwritten Constitutions in Europe and Asia", a gender-related research program was developed that systematically integrates dimensions of the category gender in comparative and multi-level analyses. Until now, these have often been oriented toward a gender-unspecific perspective or have remained entrenched in a male bias: gender relations as power relations as well as the intertwined constructions of ethnicity, religion, class, and gender are rarely given systematic consideration. The Framework Program was designed to contribute to addressing this research desideratum in a larger research context. The requested funds were used to finance the positions of a research assistant (12 months) and a student employee (3 months à 36 hours). They supported the conceptualization and the organizational preparations of the research program. In the preparatory phase, two workshops (Sept. 2011 and March 2012) were also organized as milestones in which interim results were presented to scientific colleagues for critical discussion.
Results: Two workshops, publications

c) DFG-funded international workshop on the planned research group proposal: "Democracy in the 'unwritten constitution' - a European-Asian comparison".
Together with Prof Dr Ursula Birsl, Marburg, Prof Dr Claudia Derichs, Marburg, Prof Dr Samuel Salzborn, Göttingen.
Implementation: 01.2013
Funds raised: 10,200 Euro
In preparation for the research group proposal "Unwritten Constitutions in Europe and Asia" described in more detail below (see 4.), as well as the individual projects, the DFG approved funding for a workshop with international experts.
Results: The workshop took place in January 2013. The results were published in a special issue of ASIEN.

12) International cooperation project „Parliament, Europe, Citizens. Historical, conceptual and rhetorical aspects of political practices“
together with Prof. Kari Palonen and Dr. Tapani Turkka

Duration: July 2008 – July 2011

“A new world requires a new science of politics.” Following Alexis de Tocqueville’s famous words from 1835, the project aimed at discussing the changes implied by European integration on the key concepts of Parliament and Citizenship. These key concepts are crucial for Political Science – in particular, the project contributed to the state of the art in EU studies, Comparative Politics, and Political Theory.

The project was based on the key insights of conceptual history: Political concepts have a key role in and for political science - they serve at describing, analysing, explaining, and understanding research objects. But political concepts are not stable, since they are themselves controversial and an object of politics. Following this key insight, the aim of the project was to make conceptual change related to European integration a subject of discussion and analysis.

In particular, parliament and citizenship were not part of the original project of European integration as it began in 1952. But the direct election of the European Parliament and the development of Union Citizenship have questioned the governmental and administrative character of this project. So limited, fragmentary and unpopular the powers of the EU might still be, today it posits a challenge to central concepts of political language – such as state, government, parliament or citizenship – as well as to their rhetorical legitimisation before the Europeans. The challenge reopens old conceptual and rhetorical struggles, reminding that the concepts and discourses of the daily political speech in the different European languages remain contingent and controversial. The past disputes contain also resources for the present and future ones, and are therefore an inherent part of the European self-understanding.

The triad Parliament, Citizenship, Europethus indicates a new constellation of concepts. Parliament, Citizenship andEurope in this context have three roles - they are objects of change, objects of debate, andat the same time they set thestructures for debate. It was the aim of this project to study how parliament and citizenship change in today´s Europe, or because of European integration.

Results: The project included two workshops which also served at the preparation of a collected volume: „Parliament and Europe. Rhetorical and conceptual studies on their contemporary connections“, ed. by Claudia Wiesner, Tapani Turkka and Kari Palonen Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2011

13) Scientific consultation and support of the project „Bildungspartnerschaften“

Duration: May 2006 – June 2010

In the model project "Educational Partnerships", a focus is being placed in an existing network of community work, care and educational services in the Marburg districts of Richtsberg, Waldttal, Stadtwald and Wehrda, which relates specifically to promoting the education and language skills of children and their parents. Here, existing activities are integrated and networked, and new elements are expanded, specifically focusing on the promotion of parents' educational skills and the interaction between parents and children. The scientific consulting and monitoring was primarily based on process support and evaluation through workshops and coordination meetings, which have the methodological function of group discussions and expert interviews, supplemented by the evaluation of evaluation forms from the city of Marburg.

Results: Expert´s report / final report; partial chapter monograph „Multi-Level-Governance und Lokale Demokratie“ (Springer VS 2017)

14) Scientific evaluation of the project „Interkulturelles Zentrum JobKomm“, City of Gießen

Duration: October 2007 – October 2008

The "Interkulturelles Zentrum JobKomm" in the Nordstadt district of Giessen was funded under the special program "Employment, Education and Local Participation" of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs. The special program was funded by the European Social Fund and the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Affairs. The focus of the special program was to support commitment to greater tolerance and integration and to promote civil society structures and civic engagement in the areas covered by the federal-state "Socially Integrative City" program. Here, this new initiative made it possible for the first time to fund social-space-oriented labor market policy measures. The focus was on local, including ethnic, economies and on integrating the long-term unemployed and/or young people - especially those with a migration background - into training and the labor market.

Giessen's Nordstadt was a funding site of the "Socially Integrative City" program. The model project "Intercultural Center JobKomm" aimed at the integration of long-term unemployed into employment and/or joint business start-ups, the integration of young people into training, qualification, and work taking into account the gender aspect, the strengthening of the local economy with a focus on training and employment promotion, activation and learning in the self-learning center, the systematic further implementation of the recommendations for action within the framework of the integrated action concept for the Socially Integrative City and the promotion of social integration and strengthening of civil society and the community. To this end, the project center integrated a training pilot, an employment pilot, and a self-learning center.

The objective of the scientific evaluation of the project was to evaluate the implementation and the success of the project, as well as to advise on the establishment of the new structures and to provide feedback to the participants on the results of the process. In the evaluation and scientific monitoring of the "intercultural center JobKomm," a combination of quantitative, qualitative, and process-accompanying components was used. It included a quantitative evaluation (definition of quantifiable indicators, preparation of quantitative data collection sheets on the project in cooperation with the project management and the city of Giessen, evaluation of the quantitative data on the project collected through these data collection sheets), a qualitative evaluation (definition of qualitative indicators, preparation of qualitative data collection sheets on the project, implementation and transcription of six interviews with participants in the project, evaluation of this qualitative data) and a process evaluation (preparation, implementation, and evaluation of three workshops as well as regular problem-oriented meetings as expert discussions or group discussions, weekly workshops, weekly group discussions, weekly group discussions). group discussions, and weekly presence of scientific support in the project center).

Results: Monograph „Lokales Regieren – Innovation und Evaluation. Beschäftigungsförderung, Gender Mainstreaming und Integration im lokalen EU-Modellprojekt“, together with Sylvia Bordne, Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag, 2010 as well as a final report; partial chapter monograph „Multi-Level-Governance und Lokale Demokratie“ (Springer VS 2017)

15) Scientific evaluation of the project „Türöffner“, City of Marburg

Duration: October 2007 – October 2008

The central idea of the "Türöffner" model project was to further open up access for people from the Richtsberg district of Marburg to the training and labor market in the city as a whole. This included the promotion of students from the district in all schools in the city and the further strengthening of civil society structures and organizations in the district itself. The project had three focal points: a) Integration of young people into training through in-depth vocational orientation in the last two graduating classes of the Hauptschulen and Realschulen, b) Introduction of the Verbundausbildung "ethnischer" Betriebe", creation of additional training places and opening of opportunities for the placement of motivated and suitable young people from the Richtsberg, c) Creation of networks of the district economy and the "ethnic" economy through the deployment of a mobile consulting team.

Results: Expert´s report / final report, partial chapter monograph „Multi-Level-Governance und Lokale Demokratie“ (Springer VS 2017)

16) Research work „Europäische Identität und nationale Europadiskurse“, research grant of the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung

Duration: January 2007 – December 2008, interrupted from October 2007 – September 2008

The topic of the research project was the formation of European identity and, in particular, the role of identification-forming national discourses on Europe within the EU. Using the example of the French referendum debate in 2005, the aim was to investigate how national discourses on Europe develop, whether they are related to the development of EU citizens' attitudes towards the EU and their identification with the EU, and what conclusions national discourses on Europe allow for the formation of European identity as a whole. The project was based at the Center for Conflict Research at the University of Marburg and at the Institut des Études Politiques (IEP)in Paris, where a research visit to the Observatoire Francais de Conjoncture Economique, Department of Political Sociology, took place from March 2007 to July 2007.

Results: Various lectures and articles, final report

17) Scientific consulting of the Hessian Community Initiative "Socially Integrative City
Duration: 01.2004 - 08.2006, Direction Prof. Dr. Adalbert Evers
Total funds raised: 30,000 euros

Based on the findings of the scientific monitoring of the Hessian municipalities participating in the federal-state program "Socially Integrative City", a working group of representatives of interested participating municipalities existed from January 2004 to March 2006 on the topic of "stabilization". The working group was chaired by Prof. Dr. Adalbert Evers and Claudia Wiesner from the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and Dr. Annegret Boos-Krüger and Christoph Kummer from the "Hessische Gemeinschaftsinitiative Soziale Stadt" (Hessian Social City Community Initiative) service center. The aim of the working group was to discuss the results of the scientific monitoring as well as the experiences of the municipalities with their representatives and to finally record them.

Result: Expertise / final report; download under: 84

18) Policy Networks: Scientific Monitoring of the Hessian Community Initiative "Socially Integrative City
Duration: 06.2001 - 12.2003, Direction Prof. Dr. Adalbert Evers
Total funds raised: 70,000 euros

Since 1998, the federal-state program "Social City" has been directed at so-called urban districts with a special need for renewal. In a broadly based process, all actors relevant to the renewal of the district in urban, social and economic terms are to be brought together there. In cooperation and policy networks, they develop the concepts and instruments necessary for the renewal of the district. What is new about the approach is that policy areas and actors that have traditionally acted separately are now to develop concepts together and work hand in hand. The program thus represents both a new approach in social policy and a step in administrative modernization and the restructuring of the political system in Germany. It represents a change from government to governance. The task of the scientific monitoring was to examine and evaluate the results and successes of 18 Hessian program locations in the subarea of policy networks.
Results: several expert reports and other publications, final report, download at: http://www.hegiss.de/he_main.htm