Making Europe through and for its Research Infrastructures: Coproducing European Science and Society in Transnational Research Infrastructures

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Sebastian Pfotenhauer
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 410412406

At present, the European project is widely considered to be in a state of crisis. Citizens express increasing skepticism about the value of transnational collaboration and the European Union appears to struggle in responding to complex problems. At the same time, cross-national scientific collaboration in Europe seems to develop unimpeded. This is noteworthy, as the project of scientific integration so far has proceeded hand in hand with the political and economic integration project that is presently controversial. So far, there has been little research that systematically traces this link between scientific and socio-political integration. We comparatively explore how European integration and European science have influenced each other by looking at four eminent Transnational European Research Infrastructures (TERIs): the Centre Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (1954), the European Space Agency (1975), Laserlab Europe (2001), and Biobanking and BioMolecular Research Infrastructure (BBMRI). We will explore how changing imaginations of Europe since World War II affected the foundation, the institutional forms and societal positioning of TERIs. Mobilizing theoretical approaches from Science and Technology Studies, we conceptualize TERIs as sociotechnical machineries of integration that promote broader processes of European integration through relating diverse scientific and socio-political elements to each other. We consider TERIs as shaped by shifting European political visions and practices of integration while simultaneously being relevant actors in the making and stabilizing of Europe. We empirically trace how TERIs by using a comparative multi-method approach to understand how TERIs are not only the result of a changing European society, but also promote specific ideas about Europe at large. By studying the dynamics of European scientific integration, the project potentially also holds lessons for making sense of the complex challenges European political integration confronts today.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Co-Investigator: Nina Witjes
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Erik Aarden; Professorin Dr. Ulrike Felt