Staff from Europa/Social Sciences (Caitríona Carter), School of Social and Political Studies (Richard Freeman) and the Centre for Educational Sociology (Martin Lawn) have successfully bid for a Europa Institute funded seminar series on "Practicing EU government: Problematisation, Mobilisation, Legitimation".

This seminar series brings together a group of scholars seeking to engage and take a lead in debates to consolidate a ‘political sociological' approach to EU studies. To provide direction and focus, we critically appraise the ‘distinctiveness' of political sociology's application to EU government in two concrete ways:

• first, regarding the object of study, we ask a sociology of ‘what'?;
• second, regarding methodological tools, we ask ‘how' to study ‘government' as a set of institutionalising regulatory practices and interactions, instruments and ideas.

Our discussions will be organised in five half-day seminars centred upon cross-cutting debates within political sociology and as applied to ‘practicing EU government'. Each seminar will be led by an invited external speaker, followed by three papers from Europa/Edinburgh colleagues. All seminars will be held throughout 2009, to maximize the intensity and continuity of our discussions.

If you are not a participant of the seminar group, but are interested in further information, please contact c.a.carter@ed.ac.uk

Introductory seminar. Practicing EU government: Why ‘political sociology'?

Lead speaker: Prof. Andy Smith, Sciences-Po Bordeaux and Honorary Fellow, Europa Institute, University of Edinburgh.
Chair: Richard Freeman

Paper entitled ‘Studying the government of the EU: The promise of political sociology'

Date: Friday 20th February
Time: 14.30 - 18.00
Venue: Centre for Educational Sociology, Seminar Room, Room 4.22

Seminar 1. A Sociology of What?

What are the objects - material, technical, legal, political - of a critical/interpretive sociology of EU government? How should we think about ‘practices' in terms of their domains, spaces, objects, subjects, processes and systems of operation?

External Speaker: Prof. Craig Parsons, University of Oregon
Chair: Caitríona Carter

Internal Speakers: Caitríona Carter, Martin Lawn
Chair: Richard Freeman

Date: Friday 20th March
Time: 12.00 - 18.00
Venue: Centre for Educational Sociology, Seminar Room, Room 4.22

Seminar 2. Problematisation

How are problems of and for EU government identified? How are they constructed and reconstructed as objects/sites of discussion and prospective intervention? How do changes in ideas affect changes in EU practice?

External Speaker: Prof. Cris Shore, University of Auckland
Chair: Martin Lawn

Internal Speakers: Christina Boswell, Diego de la Hoz del Hoyo, Sotiria Grek
Chair: Caitriona Carter.

Date: Wednesday 6th May
Time: 12.00 - 18.00
Venue: Europa Institute/Institute for Governance Seminar Room; 21 George Square

Seminar 3. Mobilisation

Which networks and associations, meetings, seminars and workshops bring actors together? What do they do when they meet? What processes of learning and socialization do such networks entail? What connections and relationships do they form with each other?

External Speaker: Dr. Virginie Guiraudon, CNRS Lille.
Chair: Christine Boswell

Internal Speakers: Rosalind Cavaghan, Elisa Henderson & Irvine Lapsley, Richard Freeman
Chair: Martin Lawn

Date: Friday 9th October
Time: 12.00 - 18.00
Venue: Centre for Educational Sociology, Seminar Room, Room 4.22

Seminar 4. Legitimation

How are claims for action made plausible and legitimate? How are issues of representation and accountability realized and resolved? What cognitive resources are deployed by actors to legitimise EU action and alliance building?

External Speaker: Dr. Chris Rumford, Royal Holloway
Chair: Andy Smith
Internal Speakers: Jenny Ozga, Farah Shaik, Richard Sparks
Chair: Richard Freeman

Date: Friday 23rd October
Time: 12.00 - 18.00
Venue: Centre for Educational Sociology, Seminar Room, Room 4.22