Yvonne Galligan is the editor of a new book on Routledge, which considers and interrogates the nature of democracy in Europe from a gender point of view. It addresses a significant gap in the literature where evaluations of decision-making and European integration studies have overlooked the gendered nature of democracy. The book is a key contribution from RECON's WP 4 - Justice, Democracy and Gender.
Books and special issues
RECON researchers are involved in a number of other projects and a broad range of research. The following list of books and special issues of journals are publications that do not necessarily result directly from the project, but are nevertheless of particular relevance to RECON and are authored or edited by key partners in the project.
A new book edited by David Mayes and Mark Thomson explores the fair allocation of the costs of childcare in European countries. This is the first book to consider the democratic implications of social welfare systems and is based on a workshop organised within RECON's WP 7 - The Political Economy of the European Union.
Carlos Closa has published a new book with Routledge on the politics of ratification of EU treaties, which reviews the process of ratification of EU primary legislation. The book results from research undertaken as part of RECON's WP 2 - Constitutional Politics.
Ulrike Liebert, Alexander Gattig and Tatjana Evas have edited an original contribution to the debate about democratic citizenship vis-à-vis the challenges of economic globalization and European political integration. The book presents critical explorations of different fields of direct, representative, participatory and deliberative democratic citizenship practices that affect the transformation of Europe challenges. It is a result of work undertaken at the University of Bremen within RECON's WP 5 - Civil Society and the Public Sphere.
Tatjana Evas has published a new book with Ashgate assessing and comparing transformations of national judicial systems in the context of EU membership. Her analysis of judgements of national courts in Latvia and Estonia feeds into RECON's research within WP 2 - The Constitutionalisation of the EU, the Europeanisation of National Constitutions, and Constitutionalism Compared.
Maria Heller and Borbala Kriza are the editors of a new book on the problems and conflicts experienced by Hungarian society since the system change in 1990. During this time Hungary has become a NATO and EU member state but at the same time the country has undergone major changes, and encountered serious difficulties and challenges. The book is a result of work undertaken at Eötvös Loránd University within RECON's WP 8 - Identity Formation and Enlargement.
A new volume edited by Tatjana Evas, Ulrike Liebert and Christopher Lord appeared on Nomos in March 2012. The book brings eminent scholars together with RECON researchers from three sub-projects – EU constitutionalism; representation and institutional make-up; and civil society and the public sphere – to jointly discuss the EU’s novel configuration of ‘compound representation’ in light of alternatives to parliamentary representation.
Agustín J. Menéndez discusses the constitutional implications of the fiscal constitution of the EU in a new book which appeared on EOLAS Ediciones in March 2012 (in Spanish). He reconstructs in detail the handling of the economic, financial, fiscal and institutional crises by the EU in this study, which is undertaken as part of RECON’s WP 7 on the political economy of the EU.
A new volume edited by Magdalena Góra, Zdzislaw Mach and Katarzyna Zielińska appeared on Peter Lang in February 2012. The book is the result of five years of research within RECON's WP 8 - Identity formation and enlargement on the changing nature of collective identity formation processes in contemporary Europe.
Sandra Kröger and Dawid Friedrich have edited a volume on the challenge of democratic representation in the EU which appeared on Palgrave Macmillan in February 2012. The volume seeks to uncover dynamics of representation in the EU and speaks to key questions of RECON’s WP 3 – Representation and Institutional Make-up.
Erik Oddvar Eriksen and John Erik Fossum have edited the book Rethinking Democracy and the European Union, which was published on Routledge in January 2012. The book draws upon leading scholars and practitioners from RECON to frame and analyse a range of institutional realms and policy fields. The book questions whether EU politics require a new theory of democracy and draws some key conclusions from the RECON project.
Helene Sjursen has edited a special issue of Journal of European Public Policy on ’The EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy: The Quest for Democracy’, which appeared in December 2011. The issue critically examines the claim of an emerging democratic deficit in the field of foreign and security policy and points to key questions dealt with in RECON's WP 6, which analyses the EU's foreign and security dimension.
Ben Crum is the author of a new book that deals with complex questions pertaining to the possible democratisation of international organisations. It starts from the negative results of the French and Dutch referenda on the EU Constitutional Treaty and the subsequent low-key adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon. The book appeared on Routledge late November 2011 and provides a detailed analysis of the EU Constitutional Treaty process. It is a result of Crum’s work within RECON's WP 2 - Constitutional Politics.
A special issue of Transnational Legal Theory guest edited by Christian Joerges, Poul F. Kjaer and Tommi Ralli appeared in November 2011. The issue discusses conflicts law as constitutional form in the postnational constellation and contains contributions by some of the scholars affiliated to RECON’s WP 9, which examines the conditions and prospects of democratization in European transnational legal and political arrangements.
This volume, edited by Magdalena Góra and Katarzyna Zielińska, presents a comprehensive analysis and assessment of the changes that have taken place in Central and Eastern European countries after becoming members of the European Union in 2004 and 2007. The book speaks to the themes of RECON's WP 8 - Identity formation and enlargement.
A Special Issue of the Journal of European Public Policy on 'Agency Governance in the European Union' edited by Berthold Rittberger and Arndt Wonka was published in September 2011. The collection includes two articles by RECON scholars: one by the editors on the political attitudes of EU agency professionals and one by leader of RECON's WP 3, Christopher Lord, on the European Parliament and the legitimation of agencification.
Camil Ungureanu, Klaus Günther and Christian Joerges are the editors of an extensive collection with contributions from leading scholars which appeared on Ashgate in August 2011. This book examines Habermas' theory of law by identifying its theoretical foundations as well as focusing on the critical debate of his discourse theory of law and democracy, and on the challenges posed by the postnational constellation.
François Forêt and Xabier Itçaina have edited a new volume on the politics of religion, which was published on Routledge in August 2011. The book discusses the role of religion in relation to modernity, suggesting that not all roads to modernity imply secularisation and the eradication of religion. Forêt is member of RECON's WP 5 on civil society and the public sphere.
Poul F. Kjaer, Gunther Teubner and Alberto Febbrajo are the editors of a new volume which appeared on Hart in July 2011. Through a combination of sociology and legal analysis, this book takes on the causes, dynamics and reactions to the financial crisis which unfolded in 2008. Kjaer is member of RECON's WP 9.
This edited volume by Jozef Bátora and Monika Mokre discusses the role of external cultural policy in foreign affairs. A range of international scholars present current and historical cases and investigate trends in the uses of culture in the external relations of the European Union. The editors are members of RECON's WP 3 but the book also speaks to WP 6 on the EU's foreign and security policy.
Christian Joerges and Josef Falke are the editors of a new volume which appeared on Hart in June 2011. In light of the growing sensitivity to the social and economic risks of disembedding politics, the book discusses Polanyi's insights in the age of globalisation. It is based on discussions at a joint CRC 597/RECON workshop in Bremen in February 2009, which was organised as part of RECON's WP 9 - Global Transnationalisation and Democratisation Compared.
A new volume edited by Agustín José Menéndez and John Erik Fossum pays homage to Neil MacCormick and his legal and political philosophy. The contributors critically engage with the concepts of law and democracy in MacCormick's theory, and the book presents original solutions to key questions underlying fundamental debates on constitutional law. The book points to key questions dealt with in RECON's WP 2 on constitutional politics.
Wolfgang Wagner is the author of a new volume on the democratic control of internationalized security policy which appeared on Nomos in November 2010 (in German). Wagner here explores the democratic deficits in military missions and in European internal security cooperation. The content of the book partly overlaps with the author's work in RECON's WP 6, which analyses the EU's foreign and security dimension.
A unique political animal, the European Union has given rise to important constitutional conundrums and paradoxes that John Erik Fossum and Agustín José Menéndez explore in detail in this new book. The key contribution is to be found in the theory of constitutional synthesis, that captures the distinctive traits of the European Union as a polity which aspires to be democratic. The book reflects a long-term research undertaken within the framework of RECON's WP 2 - Constitutional Politics.
Justine Lacroix and Kalypso Nicolaïdis are the editors of a book on intellectual debates on Europe in national contexts which appeared on Oxford University Press in November 2010. The volume takes an innovative approach to key debates about European identity and contains contributions from a number of distinguished scholars in the field. The book is an important outcome of research conducted within the framework of RECON’s WP 5, which analyses how civil society and the public sphere shape the democratic reconstitution of Europe.