Project acronym AGRIWESTMED
Project Origins and spread of agriculture in the south-western Mediterranean region
Researcher (PI) Maria Leonor Peña Chocarro
Host Institution (HI) AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DEINVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary This project focuses on one of the most fascinating events of the long history of the human species: the origins and spread of agriculture. Research over the past 40 years has provided an invaluable dataset on crop domestication and the spread of agriculture into Europe. However, despite the enormous advances in research there are important areas that remain almost unexplored, some of immense interest. This is the case of the western Mediterranean region from where our knowledge is still limited (Iberian Peninsula) or almost inexistent (northern Morocco). The last few years have witnessed a considerable increase in archaeobotany and the effort of a group of Spanish researchers working together in different aspects of agriculture has started to produce the first results. My proposal will approach the study of the arrival of agriculture to the western Mediterranean by exploring different interrelated research areas. The project involves the
application of different techniques (analysis of charred plant remains, pollen and non-pollen microfossils, phytoliths, micro-wear analyses, isotopes, soil micromorphology, genetics, and ethnoarchaeology) which will help to define the emergence and spread of agriculture in the area, its likely place of origin, its main technological attributes as well as the range crop husbandry practices carried out. The interaction between the different approaches and the methodologies involved will allow achieving a greater understanding of the type of agriculture that characterized the first farming communities in the most south-western part of Europe.
Summary
This project focuses on one of the most fascinating events of the long history of the human species: the origins and spread of agriculture. Research over the past 40 years has provided an invaluable dataset on crop domestication and the spread of agriculture into Europe. However, despite the enormous advances in research there are important areas that remain almost unexplored, some of immense interest. This is the case of the western Mediterranean region from where our knowledge is still limited (Iberian Peninsula) or almost inexistent (northern Morocco). The last few years have witnessed a considerable increase in archaeobotany and the effort of a group of Spanish researchers working together in different aspects of agriculture has started to produce the first results. My proposal will approach the study of the arrival of agriculture to the western Mediterranean by exploring different interrelated research areas. The project involves the
application of different techniques (analysis of charred plant remains, pollen and non-pollen microfossils, phytoliths, micro-wear analyses, isotopes, soil micromorphology, genetics, and ethnoarchaeology) which will help to define the emergence and spread of agriculture in the area, its likely place of origin, its main technological attributes as well as the range crop husbandry practices carried out. The interaction between the different approaches and the methodologies involved will allow achieving a greater understanding of the type of agriculture that characterized the first farming communities in the most south-western part of Europe.
Max ERC Funding
1 545 169 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-04-01, End date: 2013-03-31
Project acronym ALREG
Project Analysing Learning in Regulatory Governance
Researcher (PI) Claudio Radaelli
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary This four-year interdisciplinary project addresses the question what has been learned through the use of better regulation ? Better regulation is a flagship policy on the Lisbon agenda for growth and jobs. Its aims are to provide new governance architectures for law-making, to increase the competitiveness of the regulatory environment, and to secure wide social legitimacy for multi-level systems of rules. Whilst most of the research has looked at how better regulation is changing, this project will produce findings on what has changed because of better regulation. Theoretically, the project will use (and significantly improve on) theories of policy learning. Empirically, it will cover Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the UK and the EU including multi-level analysis and analysis by sector of regulation. Methodologically, the project will draw on comparative analysis of types of learning, experiments with regulatory policy-makers in six countries and the European Commission, large-n analysis of impact assessments, backward-mapping of legislation (to appraise the role played by better regulation in the formulation or laws in the UK and the EU), meta-analysis of case-studies and co-production of knowledge with better regulation officers. Dissemination will target both stakeholders (i.e., policy officers, civil society organizations, and business federations) and academic conferences in political science, law, and risk analysis, with a major research monograph to be completed in year 4 and a final interdisciplinary conference.
Summary
This four-year interdisciplinary project addresses the question what has been learned through the use of better regulation ? Better regulation is a flagship policy on the Lisbon agenda for growth and jobs. Its aims are to provide new governance architectures for law-making, to increase the competitiveness of the regulatory environment, and to secure wide social legitimacy for multi-level systems of rules. Whilst most of the research has looked at how better regulation is changing, this project will produce findings on what has changed because of better regulation. Theoretically, the project will use (and significantly improve on) theories of policy learning. Empirically, it will cover Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the UK and the EU including multi-level analysis and analysis by sector of regulation. Methodologically, the project will draw on comparative analysis of types of learning, experiments with regulatory policy-makers in six countries and the European Commission, large-n analysis of impact assessments, backward-mapping of legislation (to appraise the role played by better regulation in the formulation or laws in the UK and the EU), meta-analysis of case-studies and co-production of knowledge with better regulation officers. Dissemination will target both stakeholders (i.e., policy officers, civil society organizations, and business federations) and academic conferences in political science, law, and risk analysis, with a major research monograph to be completed in year 4 and a final interdisciplinary conference.
Max ERC Funding
948 448 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2013-09-30
Project acronym BRIO
Project Bounded Rationality in Industrial Organization
Researcher (PI) Ran Spiegler
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary "Economists' modern understanding of the functioning of markets is based on the behavioral assumption of individual rationality. Market agents are assumed to hold well-defined preferences and have perfect ability to draw Bayesian inferences in accordance with correct knowledge of the market model and market equilibrium. This research proposal is based on the premise that bounded rationality on the part of consumers is potentially a major source of market friction. My objective is to develop general theoretical tools to investigate this intuition, and to examine whether these tools can be insightfully applied to realistic market settings. So far, the literature on the subject has progressed as a sequence of specific models that capture one aspect of consumer psychology at a time. The challenge is to synthesize and generalize these models into flexible theoretical frameworks for modelling market interaction between profit-maximizing firms and boundedly rational consumers. Hopefully, various aspects of consumer psychology can be embedded into these frameworks, so that analytic results can be stated in terms of general, abstract properties of consumer behavior, rather than in terms of specific psychological effects. In turn, this general analysis is expected to lead to novel applications. Here are some of the general questions that I hope to address. Can we view certain aspects of firms' pricing and marketing strategies as responses to consumers' bounded rationality? To what extent are boundedly rational consumers vulnerable to exploitation by firms? Does competition protect them from exploitation? Does interaction between firms and boundedly rational consumers give rise to inefficiencies, and how are these affected by competition? What is the impact of various regulatory interventions in this context? Do market forces lead firms to ""educate"" or ""debias"" boundedly rational consumers? Does greater consumer rationality imply more competitive industry profits?"
Summary
"Economists' modern understanding of the functioning of markets is based on the behavioral assumption of individual rationality. Market agents are assumed to hold well-defined preferences and have perfect ability to draw Bayesian inferences in accordance with correct knowledge of the market model and market equilibrium. This research proposal is based on the premise that bounded rationality on the part of consumers is potentially a major source of market friction. My objective is to develop general theoretical tools to investigate this intuition, and to examine whether these tools can be insightfully applied to realistic market settings. So far, the literature on the subject has progressed as a sequence of specific models that capture one aspect of consumer psychology at a time. The challenge is to synthesize and generalize these models into flexible theoretical frameworks for modelling market interaction between profit-maximizing firms and boundedly rational consumers. Hopefully, various aspects of consumer psychology can be embedded into these frameworks, so that analytic results can be stated in terms of general, abstract properties of consumer behavior, rather than in terms of specific psychological effects. In turn, this general analysis is expected to lead to novel applications. Here are some of the general questions that I hope to address. Can we view certain aspects of firms' pricing and marketing strategies as responses to consumers' bounded rationality? To what extent are boundedly rational consumers vulnerable to exploitation by firms? Does competition protect them from exploitation? Does interaction between firms and boundedly rational consumers give rise to inefficiencies, and how are these affected by competition? What is the impact of various regulatory interventions in this context? Do market forces lead firms to ""educate"" or ""debias"" boundedly rational consumers? Does greater consumer rationality imply more competitive industry profits?"
Max ERC Funding
1 098 637 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-11-01, End date: 2014-10-31
Project acronym BRSCDP-TEA
Project Bounded rationality and social concerns in decision processes: theory, experiments, and applications
Researcher (PI) Massimo Marinacci
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITA COMMERCIALE LUIGI BOCCONI
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary In the field of economics, individual decision making is the basic building block for studying complex environments such as markets, political systems, and social dynamics. Individual decision making is embodied in the neoclassical economically rational agent, whose only concern is the maximization of utility from his own material consumption. Two qualities of this agent are especially important for the research we will undertake: He has perfect understanding of the problems he faces - today and in the future - and unbounded computational ability to solve them. He also has no regard for the consumption of other members of the society or for their feelings about his actions. Huge empirical and experimental evidence shows that departure from these qualities is robust and significant. The failure of the existing models to incorporate bounded rationality and social concerns has proven critical in socially relevant and complex situations such as lifetime consumption and saving, taxation and expenditure policy, labour search and wage determination. The objective of this project is to bring these phenomena into the framework of neoclassical economics, to test their implications, and to tackle important applications. A novel and central feature of our approach is the attempt to retain the parsimonious methodological approach of economic modelling, which has scored groundbreaking successes in matters such as the design of auctions, markets, contracts, and voting mechanisms. Our project envisions the development of theory on individual decision making, the use of experiments to illuminate and test the theory, and the concrete application of theory - mainly to financial markets. The project will push the frontiers of the understanding of the above mentioned socially relevant situations. The explanatory power of our approach will be guaranteed by the continuous feed-back between theory and evidence- experimental and neuroexperimental, and by a departure from ad hoc modelling.
Summary
In the field of economics, individual decision making is the basic building block for studying complex environments such as markets, political systems, and social dynamics. Individual decision making is embodied in the neoclassical economically rational agent, whose only concern is the maximization of utility from his own material consumption. Two qualities of this agent are especially important for the research we will undertake: He has perfect understanding of the problems he faces - today and in the future - and unbounded computational ability to solve them. He also has no regard for the consumption of other members of the society or for their feelings about his actions. Huge empirical and experimental evidence shows that departure from these qualities is robust and significant. The failure of the existing models to incorporate bounded rationality and social concerns has proven critical in socially relevant and complex situations such as lifetime consumption and saving, taxation and expenditure policy, labour search and wage determination. The objective of this project is to bring these phenomena into the framework of neoclassical economics, to test their implications, and to tackle important applications. A novel and central feature of our approach is the attempt to retain the parsimonious methodological approach of economic modelling, which has scored groundbreaking successes in matters such as the design of auctions, markets, contracts, and voting mechanisms. Our project envisions the development of theory on individual decision making, the use of experiments to illuminate and test the theory, and the concrete application of theory - mainly to financial markets. The project will push the frontiers of the understanding of the above mentioned socially relevant situations. The explanatory power of our approach will be guaranteed by the continuous feed-back between theory and evidence- experimental and neuroexperimental, and by a departure from ad hoc modelling.
Max ERC Funding
1 399 800 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31
Project acronym CITSEE
Project The Europeanisation of Citizenship in the Successor States of the Former Yugoslavia
Researcher (PI) Josephine Shaw
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary CITSEE is a comparative and contextualised study of the citizenship regimes of the seven successor states of the former Yugoslavia (SFRY) in their broader European context. It focuses on the relationship between how these regimes have developed after the disintegration of SFRY and the processes of re-integration occurring in the context of the enlargement of the European Union applied in the region. It makes use of the varied statuses under EU law of the SFRY successor states, of which only Slovenia is so far a Member State. The processes at the heart of the study include the effects of previous and prospective enlargements of the EU and the broader stabilisation and association processes. CITSEE uses methods which look at legal and institutional change in its broader political context and applies the broad approach of constitutional ethnography. It has national case studies and thematic case studies of key issues which have a transnational dimension, including the status of residents of the former SFRY Republics resident in other Republics at the moment of independence, dual and multiple nationality, the granting or denial of political rights for resident non-nationals and non-resident nationals, the status of minorities such as the Roma, gender issues arising in a citizenship context, and the impact of citizenship concepts on free movement and travel across borders. While CITSEE s objectives are not normative in nature, and are not intended to supply answers as to best or worst practices in relation to citizenship regimes, or to evaluate the impact of Europeanisation as negative or positive, none the less such an evaluative study is likely to be of interest not only to researchers, but also to NGOs and to policy-makers in the region and in the EU and other international institutions because it fills in many gaps in our current knowledge and provides improved evidence on the basis of which policies may be developed in the future.
Summary
CITSEE is a comparative and contextualised study of the citizenship regimes of the seven successor states of the former Yugoslavia (SFRY) in their broader European context. It focuses on the relationship between how these regimes have developed after the disintegration of SFRY and the processes of re-integration occurring in the context of the enlargement of the European Union applied in the region. It makes use of the varied statuses under EU law of the SFRY successor states, of which only Slovenia is so far a Member State. The processes at the heart of the study include the effects of previous and prospective enlargements of the EU and the broader stabilisation and association processes. CITSEE uses methods which look at legal and institutional change in its broader political context and applies the broad approach of constitutional ethnography. It has national case studies and thematic case studies of key issues which have a transnational dimension, including the status of residents of the former SFRY Republics resident in other Republics at the moment of independence, dual and multiple nationality, the granting or denial of political rights for resident non-nationals and non-resident nationals, the status of minorities such as the Roma, gender issues arising in a citizenship context, and the impact of citizenship concepts on free movement and travel across borders. While CITSEE s objectives are not normative in nature, and are not intended to supply answers as to best or worst practices in relation to citizenship regimes, or to evaluate the impact of Europeanisation as negative or positive, none the less such an evaluative study is likely to be of interest not only to researchers, but also to NGOs and to policy-makers in the region and in the EU and other international institutions because it fills in many gaps in our current knowledge and provides improved evidence on the basis of which policies may be developed in the future.
Max ERC Funding
2 240 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-04-01, End date: 2014-12-31
Project acronym ELITES08
Project Culturally Composite Elites, Regime Changes and Social Crises in Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Confessional Eastern Europe. (The Carpathian Basin and the Baltics in Comparison - cc. 1900-1950)
Researcher (PI) Gyozo István Karády
Host Institution (HI) KOZEP-EUROPAI EGYETEM
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary The project is multi-disciplinary by character. It focuses upon socio-historical processes of the transformation and 'circulation' of educated and ruling elites in several uniquely composite (both multi-ethnic and multi-confessional) East European regional or national societies, having experienced a number of radical changes of social and political regime as well as state souvereignty in the first half of the 20th century. The historical scope of the study extends from post-feudalism to communism. Societies involved comprise Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania, Voivodina in the Carpathian Basin, Latvia and Estonia in the Baltics. The study draws upon sociological survey methods applied to historically successive elite brackets in form of exhaustive or quasi-exhaustive computerized prosopographical data banks, based on standardized individual biographies of elite members (as permitted by mostly archival sources to be exploited). The main targets would include secondary school graduates, students and graduates of higher education, the main intellectual professions (like doctors and lawyers.), the political power elites as well as 'reputational elites' - those cited in biographical dictionaries. The information fed into our data banks help to clarify thanks to various procedures of multi-variate statistical schemes the contrasting socio-cultural selection and recruitment of elite members, their educational path from primary to higher education, their professional career, intellectual creativity as well as socio-political standing and orientation. This is the first time that large region- or country-wide elite clusters are submitted to systematic socio-historical analyses, covering simultaneously all or most markets of activity and self-assertion of educated clusters in a vast international and comparative perspective related to culturally composite societal formations.
Summary
The project is multi-disciplinary by character. It focuses upon socio-historical processes of the transformation and 'circulation' of educated and ruling elites in several uniquely composite (both multi-ethnic and multi-confessional) East European regional or national societies, having experienced a number of radical changes of social and political regime as well as state souvereignty in the first half of the 20th century. The historical scope of the study extends from post-feudalism to communism. Societies involved comprise Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania, Voivodina in the Carpathian Basin, Latvia and Estonia in the Baltics. The study draws upon sociological survey methods applied to historically successive elite brackets in form of exhaustive or quasi-exhaustive computerized prosopographical data banks, based on standardized individual biographies of elite members (as permitted by mostly archival sources to be exploited). The main targets would include secondary school graduates, students and graduates of higher education, the main intellectual professions (like doctors and lawyers.), the political power elites as well as 'reputational elites' - those cited in biographical dictionaries. The information fed into our data banks help to clarify thanks to various procedures of multi-variate statistical schemes the contrasting socio-cultural selection and recruitment of elite members, their educational path from primary to higher education, their professional career, intellectual creativity as well as socio-political standing and orientation. This is the first time that large region- or country-wide elite clusters are submitted to systematic socio-historical analyses, covering simultaneously all or most markets of activity and self-assertion of educated clusters in a vast international and comparative perspective related to culturally composite societal formations.
Max ERC Funding
771 628 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2012-03-31
Project acronym EMOTIONS
Project The social and cultural construction of emotions: The Greek paradigm
Researcher (PI) Angelos Chaniotis
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Emotions influence social relations; consequently, they are socially relevant, subject to scrutiny, judgment, and normative intervention. The manifestation, perception and treatment of emotions are subject to social interventions and to the influence of cultural change. Emotions in the Classical world have been primarily studied in the light of their representation in literature and art. Such studies have provided important insights; yet, they are based on works primarily created in a few major urban centres, almost exclusively by educated men of a higher status. This project is based on an analysis of documentary sources (inscriptions and papyri, c. 800 BC-c. 500 AD). Although they provide abundant, diverse, and representative evidence, they have never been studied in connection with this subject. As compared to literature and art, these sources represent a wide range of social strata and age-classes, originate in both genders, and are widely disseminated over time and space. These sources will be analysed both diachronically (history of particular emotions) and synchronically (manifestations of emotions in defined historical contexts). Selected literary sources and archaeological material will also be taken into consideration. The project pursues the following objectives: to contribute to a more reliable, nuanced, and comprehensive history of emotions in the Greek world; to increase awareness of the importance of emotions in Classical studies; to contribute to the transdisciplinary study of emotions through the presentation of paradigms from Classical antiquity; to enhance the dialogue between historical, social, and natural sciences; and to make documentary sources accessible to scholars working on the history of emotions and, more generally, on the history of mentality.
Summary
Emotions influence social relations; consequently, they are socially relevant, subject to scrutiny, judgment, and normative intervention. The manifestation, perception and treatment of emotions are subject to social interventions and to the influence of cultural change. Emotions in the Classical world have been primarily studied in the light of their representation in literature and art. Such studies have provided important insights; yet, they are based on works primarily created in a few major urban centres, almost exclusively by educated men of a higher status. This project is based on an analysis of documentary sources (inscriptions and papyri, c. 800 BC-c. 500 AD). Although they provide abundant, diverse, and representative evidence, they have never been studied in connection with this subject. As compared to literature and art, these sources represent a wide range of social strata and age-classes, originate in both genders, and are widely disseminated over time and space. These sources will be analysed both diachronically (history of particular emotions) and synchronically (manifestations of emotions in defined historical contexts). Selected literary sources and archaeological material will also be taken into consideration. The project pursues the following objectives: to contribute to a more reliable, nuanced, and comprehensive history of emotions in the Greek world; to increase awareness of the importance of emotions in Classical studies; to contribute to the transdisciplinary study of emotions through the presentation of paradigms from Classical antiquity; to enhance the dialogue between historical, social, and natural sciences; and to make documentary sources accessible to scholars working on the history of emotions and, more generally, on the history of mentality.
Max ERC Funding
1 593 945 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31
Project acronym ENTANGLED BALKANS
Project Balkan Histories: Shared, Connected, Entangled
Researcher (PI) Roumen Daskalov
Host Institution (HI) NEW BULGARIAN UNIVERSITY
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary THE OBJECTIVE of this project is to explore the various ways in which the histories of the Balkan peoples were shared, connected and entangled, and in some cases became structurally inter-dependent in the course of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries; also to explore transfers and crossings within the region and from Western Europe and Russia. What is offered is a provisional open-ended and long-term research program guided by a general paradigm , frame of reference and key concepts. I would rather keep the project open and flexible with regard to substantial issues, though with a clear vision of the general (transnational) perspective. A list of topics includes national and social movements, disputed territories, minorities and refugees, cultural and political transfers. The variegated topics demand expertise in different areas and a trans-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary treatment without regard to established disciplinary boundaries. Systematically applying the transnational and relational perspective to the study of a region as complex as the Balkans has huge cognitive potential and innovative power. The new perspective and cutting-edge methodologies will reveal fresh vistas and bring insights to a number of topics that cannot be restricted in advance. Older research objects will look different and acquire new meanings in the new context and entirely new historical objects will be constituted. The national paradigm of self-contained national histories will be challenged. Such a project may well have wider social and political relevance. There is a positive and integrative value in showing how entangled the histories of the present-day Balkan nations and states were and still are. I would like to imagine such research as promoting good relations rather than fostering divisiveness and separation. This project will also be an input to the European integration of the region, which will hopefully involve the rest of the Balkans in the near future.
Summary
THE OBJECTIVE of this project is to explore the various ways in which the histories of the Balkan peoples were shared, connected and entangled, and in some cases became structurally inter-dependent in the course of the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries; also to explore transfers and crossings within the region and from Western Europe and Russia. What is offered is a provisional open-ended and long-term research program guided by a general paradigm , frame of reference and key concepts. I would rather keep the project open and flexible with regard to substantial issues, though with a clear vision of the general (transnational) perspective. A list of topics includes national and social movements, disputed territories, minorities and refugees, cultural and political transfers. The variegated topics demand expertise in different areas and a trans-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary treatment without regard to established disciplinary boundaries. Systematically applying the transnational and relational perspective to the study of a region as complex as the Balkans has huge cognitive potential and innovative power. The new perspective and cutting-edge methodologies will reveal fresh vistas and bring insights to a number of topics that cannot be restricted in advance. Older research objects will look different and acquire new meanings in the new context and entirely new historical objects will be constituted. The national paradigm of self-contained national histories will be challenged. Such a project may well have wider social and political relevance. There is a positive and integrative value in showing how entangled the histories of the present-day Balkan nations and states were and still are. I would like to imagine such research as promoting good relations rather than fostering divisiveness and separation. This project will also be an input to the European integration of the region, which will hopefully involve the rest of the Balkans in the near future.
Max ERC Funding
1 560 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2014-06-30
Project acronym ERERE
Project Between Restoration and Revolution, National Constitutions and Global Law: an Alternative View on the European Century 1815-1914
Researcher (PI) Bo Stråth
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary The point of departure of this project is that a good part of the present deficit of legitimacy of European institutions emerges from a deeply ahistoric view of Europe s past. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a more realistic history that rejects any teleological understanding of Europe as a self-propelling project on steady march towards a predetermined goal. The fragility of European peace and progress needs to be highlighted. The theoretical foundation of Europe in teleological modernisation and globalisation theories has lead to a-historical understandings of Europe s past that disturb our ability to plan for its future. Our realistic outline of Europe s past focuses on the century 1815-1914, which was the pre-war historical ground on which the peace of 1945 and our present conception of Europe were built. It testifies at least as much to conflict and fragility as to progress. The century is traversed by a series of tensions in the political, cultural, social, economic and legal fields and struggles between the protagonists of different conceptions of European modernity. The legal and political basis for a new European order established in the Vienna Treaty, called the European concert, opened an era that lasted until 1914 in which wars in Europe decreased, whereas the number of civil wars increased and the Revolution came to no end. The tensions were articulated in different geopolitical strategies, constitutional conceptions, prescriptions for economic efficiency and claims for social protection, and alternating views of the meaning of Europe. In one way or the other, they all dealt with the interactive dynamics between politics and law, nationally as well as internationally. These interactive dynamics were also visible in the permanent movement between search for and expectations of stability and experiences of fragility. The aim is to explore the tensions in deep detail and on that basis build an alternative historical view on Europe.
Summary
The point of departure of this project is that a good part of the present deficit of legitimacy of European institutions emerges from a deeply ahistoric view of Europe s past. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a more realistic history that rejects any teleological understanding of Europe as a self-propelling project on steady march towards a predetermined goal. The fragility of European peace and progress needs to be highlighted. The theoretical foundation of Europe in teleological modernisation and globalisation theories has lead to a-historical understandings of Europe s past that disturb our ability to plan for its future. Our realistic outline of Europe s past focuses on the century 1815-1914, which was the pre-war historical ground on which the peace of 1945 and our present conception of Europe were built. It testifies at least as much to conflict and fragility as to progress. The century is traversed by a series of tensions in the political, cultural, social, economic and legal fields and struggles between the protagonists of different conceptions of European modernity. The legal and political basis for a new European order established in the Vienna Treaty, called the European concert, opened an era that lasted until 1914 in which wars in Europe decreased, whereas the number of civil wars increased and the Revolution came to no end. The tensions were articulated in different geopolitical strategies, constitutional conceptions, prescriptions for economic efficiency and claims for social protection, and alternating views of the meaning of Europe. In one way or the other, they all dealt with the interactive dynamics between politics and law, nationally as well as internationally. These interactive dynamics were also visible in the permanent movement between search for and expectations of stability and experiences of fragility. The aim is to explore the tensions in deep detail and on that basis build an alternative historical view on Europe.
Max ERC Funding
2 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2014-08-31
Project acronym GHG
Project The Transformation of Global Health Governance: Competing Worldviews and Crises
Researcher (PI) Colin John Mcinnes
Host Institution (HI) ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH2, ERC-2008-AdG
Summary Globalisation has changed health conditions worldwide, affecting the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions. While historically many health issues have readily crossed borders (e.g. Black Plague), the intensification and extensification of contemporary globalisation processes has required new forms of governance to address changed global health needs. How do we collectively protect and promote health in an increasingly globalised world? This challenge has opened up a contested space known as global health governance (GHG) where the stakes are high but where different perspectives compete and contradict. It is also a poorly understood space. This programme aims to significantly advance our understanding of this space and the competition within it. It builds on a small body of existing literature to which the two applicants have already made important contributions, but represents a step change in two important respects. First, existing analyses have been limited to single approaches or perspectives. This programme represents the first sustained attempt at a comparative analysis incorporating a variety of perspectives and health issues. Given that the space is contested, it is only through such an analysis that we can significantly advance our understanding of GHG. Such an approach would represent a major advance on the current state of the art. Second, analysis to date has focused on disease and especially infectious disease. The applicants have been at the forefront of critiquing this approach as overly narrow (for example McInnes and Lee, 2006). This programme addresses infectious disease as one of the key issues in global health governance, but also incorporates non-communicable disease and non-disease based health issues in an explicit attempt to broaden the analysis to cover more fully the space occupied by global health governance.
Summary
Globalisation has changed health conditions worldwide, affecting the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions. While historically many health issues have readily crossed borders (e.g. Black Plague), the intensification and extensification of contemporary globalisation processes has required new forms of governance to address changed global health needs. How do we collectively protect and promote health in an increasingly globalised world? This challenge has opened up a contested space known as global health governance (GHG) where the stakes are high but where different perspectives compete and contradict. It is also a poorly understood space. This programme aims to significantly advance our understanding of this space and the competition within it. It builds on a small body of existing literature to which the two applicants have already made important contributions, but represents a step change in two important respects. First, existing analyses have been limited to single approaches or perspectives. This programme represents the first sustained attempt at a comparative analysis incorporating a variety of perspectives and health issues. Given that the space is contested, it is only through such an analysis that we can significantly advance our understanding of GHG. Such an approach would represent a major advance on the current state of the art. Second, analysis to date has focused on disease and especially infectious disease. The applicants have been at the forefront of critiquing this approach as overly narrow (for example McInnes and Lee, 2006). This programme addresses infectious disease as one of the key issues in global health governance, but also incorporates non-communicable disease and non-disease based health issues in an explicit attempt to broaden the analysis to cover more fully the space occupied by global health governance.
Max ERC Funding
2 349 246 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-01-01, End date: 2013-12-31
