Europaian Studies

Summary, in English

I compare and contrast four cross-disciplinary approaches to the social and natural sciences within the specific context of the tradition of speculation about Europe. As we will see later, I have termed the three conventional social science approaches ‘civilisational’, ‘categorical’, and ‘cultural’ Europe. My innovation is to suggest a fourth approach drawn from the natural sciences — that of ‘co-constituted’ Europe. As Lynn Margulis suggested in the extract at the start of this article, as a species we cling to the familiar, comforting conformities of the mainstream — a mainstream that often determines what we see and how we know. By challenging ‘convention’ head-on in this article, I intend to argue that it is possible to engage in European theory through an understanding and appreciation of broader developments in the social and natural sciences — an engagement I will term ‘Europaian studies’. What I intend to do is speculate about Europe from four radically different crossdisciplinary approaches, a speculation that will lead me to conclude by reflecting on what Europaian studies means for the understanding of contemporary Europe.

• Author: Ian Manners
• Publishing year: 2003
• Language: English
• Pages: 67-83
• Publication/Series: Journal of Contemporary European Studies
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14782800305479
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Routledge
• Topic: Political Science
• Keywords: European Studies; European Union; Gaia; co-constituted Europe; holism; homoeostasis; symbiosis; atomism
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1478-2804