Workshop “Disintegration as driver of the European unification process?” and book presentation in the Representation of Baden-Württemberg in Berlin
The workshop was based on the presentation of the book “On the conceptionalisation of European disintegration – tractive and counterforces in the European integration process”, published by Dr. Annegret Eppler (University of Innsbruck) and Dr. Hendrik Scheller (University of Potsdam).
The publishers argued for a modification of the concept of European integration, particularly in light of the financial and economic crisis, towards a conceptionalisation of European integration as a dialectical interaction between integration and disintegration. Thereby, disintegration is conceived as a process of erosion in several dimensions (institutionally, judicially, economically, territorially), which can take systemic as well as sociocultural forms and takes place overtly or covertly. According to the publishers, such a conception could counteract the normative and constitutional bias of previous integration theories, which value further integration over disintegration and neglect the sociocultural in favour of the institutional, systemic dimension.
The subsequent discussion was chaired by Dr. Katrin Böttger and featured Prof. Dr. Andreas Maurer (University of Innsbruck), Prof. Dr. Martin Höpner (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne), Dr. Wilhelm Knelangen (University of Kiel) and Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christian Joerges (Hertie-School of Governance, Berlin).
The book is available for purchase in the Nomos Shop.
Phillip Handy