This book is the first to systematically introduce and apply a social constructivist perspective to the study of European integration. Social constructivism is carefully located in terms of its philosophical and methodological origins. The wider debates and contribution of constructivist approaches to international relations are reviewed, and the insights that might then be afforded to European studies fully explored. Highlights include: new theoretical contributions to the debate by Ernst B. Haas, Andrew Moravcsik and Steve Smith; research on key aspects of European integration and EU governance applying a variety of constructivist approaches. The Social Construction of Europe provides new and important in

The volume demonstrates the suitability of the theory of social constructivism in portraying and analyzing the diversity of the phenomenon of corruption. The approach of social constructivism taken in this volume is able to reconstruct the 'construction of corruption' both from a societal perspective, by assessing it as generally accepted or tolerated behaviour in more or less standardized rule-governed social situations, and from the perspective of actors who perceive corrupt behaviour as problem solving in everyday life. The volume proves the usefulness of a social construction perspective for empirical research. It contains case studies of social definitions of corruption in eleven European countries that contribute in different ways to establishing a grounded theory of the phenomenon of corruption.

The end of the Cold War and the ‘War on Terror’ has signalled a shift in the security policies of all states. It has also led to the reconsideration of the policy of neutrality, and what being neutral means in the present age. This book examines the conceptualisation of neutrality from the Peloponnesian War to today, uncovering how neutrality has been a neglected and misunderstood subject in International Relations (IR) theory and politics. By rethinking neutrality through constructivism, this book argues that neutrality is intrinsically linked to identity. Using Sweden as a case study, it links identity, sovereignty, internationalism and solidarity to the debates about Swedish neutrality today and how neutrality has been central to Swedish identity and its worldview. It also examines the challenges to Swedish neutrality and neutrality broadly, in terms of European integration, globalisation, the decline of the state and sovereignty, and new threats to security, such as international terrorism, arguing that the norms and values of neutrality can be reworked to contribute to a more cosmopolitan international order.

Informal dimensions of European integration have received limited academic attention to date, despite their historical and contemporary importance. Particularly studies in European integration history, while frequently mentioning informal processes, have as yet rarely conceptualised the study of informality in European integration, and thus fail usually to systematically analyse conditions, impact and consequences of informal action. Including case studies that discuss both successful and failed examples of informal action in European integration, this book assembles cutting-edge research by both early-career and more experienced scholars from all over Europe to fill this lacuna. The chapters of this volume offer a guide to the study of informality and show how informality has impacted European integration history and the functioning of the EC/EU as well as other European organisations in a variety of ways. Reflecting the diversity of studies within this burgeoning field of research, within and across several academic disciplines, the book approaches the informal dimensions of European integration from different disciplinary, methodological and thematic angles. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars of European integration, EU politics/studies, European politics, European Union history, and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.

A concluding chapter discusses the policy implications of aspirational constructivism for Russia and other nations and a methodological appendix lays out a framework for testing the theory.

This is a unique and agenda-setting interpretation of nature and ecology that will become the essential reference in any debate on environmental politics and sociology.

"Devoting particular emphasis to Bolivia, Chile, and Mexico, proposes a theory of civil society to explain the economic and political challenges for continuing democratization in Latin America"--Provided by publisher.

Stephen Martin* The fourteen essays that constitute this work provide a coherent review of the past and present of the European Community, and consider some of its possible futures. Werner Abelshauser and Richard Griffiths offer separate perspectives on the precursors of the European Community. Abelshauser argues that comparison of the fates of the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Defense Community demonstrate the dominance of political over economic considerations in the integration process. Griffiths considers the stillborn European Political Community, many of the proposed features of which, somewhat transformed, were embodied in the Treaty of Rome. Both suggest that as a practical matter a coming together of French and German interests has been a precondition for advances in European integration. Stephen Martin and Andrew Evans discuss the development of the Com munity's Structural Funds, first envisaged as tools to smooth the transition from a collection of regional economies to a continent-wide single market, now increasingly seen as devices to guide adjustment to long-term struc tural problems. Stuart Holland emphasizes the role of the Structural Funds as one element in a broad range of strategies to ensure social and economic cohesion as the Maastrict Treaty ushers the European Union into the next stage of its development.

The Social Construction of Man, the State, and War is the fist book on conflict in the former Yugoslavia to look seriously at the issue of ethnic identity, rather than treating it as a given, an unquestionable variable. Combining detailed analysis with a close reading of historical narratives, documentary evidence, and first-hand interviews conducted in the former Yugoslavia, Wilmer sheds new light on how ethnic identity is constructed, and what that means for the future of peace and sovereignty throughout the world.