Ian Manners
Professor
Crossroads in European Union Studies
Author
Editor
- Kennet Lynggaard
- Ian Manners
- Karl Löfgren
Summary, in English
EU studies is at a crossroads where the many disciplinary interests in Europe meet, as well as temporally where the past weaknesses of methodology meet the future challenges of a new research agenda on Europe. These weaknesses emanate from a number of traditional research design dichotomies in EU studies:
Research ontology. Do we approach our research through rationalist or constructivist assumptions about EU affairs?
Research epistemology. Is our ultimate knowledge ambition to formulate explanatory theories capturing EU affairs? Or is our research a process of conceptual (re)constructions aimed at understanding EU affairs?
Research methodology. Do we best capture EU affairs through positivist and deductive research strategies, or through interpretative and inductive processes?
Research methods. Do we prefer quantitative or qualitative research methods and data?
We need to deal with, and seek to overcome, such traditional dichotomies to meet the future challenges of a new research agenda on Europe. Scholars within EU studies have thus become increasingly preoccupied with epistemological issues when conducting research on EU affairs (for discussions, see Manners, 2003; Jupille, 2006).
Research ontology. Do we approach our research through rationalist or constructivist assumptions about EU affairs?
Research epistemology. Is our ultimate knowledge ambition to formulate explanatory theories capturing EU affairs? Or is our research a process of conceptual (re)constructions aimed at understanding EU affairs?
Research methodology. Do we best capture EU affairs through positivist and deductive research strategies, or through interpretative and inductive processes?
Research methods. Do we prefer quantitative or qualitative research methods and data?
We need to deal with, and seek to overcome, such traditional dichotomies to meet the future challenges of a new research agenda on Europe. Scholars within EU studies have thus become increasingly preoccupied with epistemological issues when conducting research on EU affairs (for discussions, see Manners, 2003; Jupille, 2006).
Publishing year
2015-07-07
Language
English
Pages
3-17
Publication/Series
Research Methods in European Union Studies
Document type
Book chapter
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Topic
- Political Science
Keywords
- European integration
- research strategy
- research methods
- European Union
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-1-137-31696-7
- ISBN: 978-0-230-36305-2