Contested Meanings and Democratic Governance
This project has been developed within the "6th Framework Network of Excellence" (CONNEX) funded by the European Union.
The Network of Excellence CONNEX was dedicated to the analysis of "Efficient and Democratic Multilevel Governance in Europe". Its overall goal was to enhance knowledge essential to the future of Europe based on independent fundamental research and to build a Europe-wide research community.
CONNEX is a multi task venture. Its main reason for being was to integrate and initiate high quality research on governance in the multilevel system of the EU. To this aim CONNEX brought together outstanding scholars and facilitated communication and cooperation irrespective of disciplinary boundaries, language barriers, and divergent theoretical approaches. As a start, it accomplished a systematic stock-taking exercise to disclose the wealth of already existing knowledge and to make it easily accessible for future research. With the production of scientific knowledge CONNEX did not only want to contribute to a better understanding of EU governance, but also give a science based input to institutional reforms. Consequently, CONNEX has engaged in cooperation with practitioners and in the dissemination of research insights beyond the academic community. Last, but not least, CONNEX invested in the training of young scholars, in order to make the emerging European wide network of excellent research sustainable.
Outcomes
- Contested Meanings of Principles and Procedures of Democracy: The Challenge of Democratic
Governance Beyond the State, Wiener, Antje (ed), Special Issue with Comparative European Politics, Vol 5, 1, April 2007. - Wiener, Antje (2005). Contestedness in the Process of Integration: Resistance = Failure? Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen, 12(2), 117-124 [in German]. German: Umstrittenheit im Integrationsprozess: Widerstand = Scheitern? (Journal).
- Wiener, Antje (2007). Democratic Constitutionalism beyond the State? Perspectives on the Contestedness of Norms. In: Niesen, Peter & Herborth, B. (eds.)The Anarchy of Communicative Freedom - Jürgen Habermas and the Theory of International Politics (pp. 178-203). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp [in German] (Chapter).
- Wiener, Antje (2008). The Invisible Constitution of Politics. Contested Norms and International Encounters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Book).
The final report of the project can be read on the homepage of the University of Mannheim (PDF). A separate report on the various publications can also be read on the homepage (PDF).