Suchergebnisse

Before we can fruitfully discuss what Europe ought to do about its various policy dilemmas, we need to re-examine the lens through which we view these dilemmas. I will highlight two problems with the habitual lens on Europe's future: firstly, it's unrealistic emphasis on clarity and coherence and, secondly, its state-centrism and state-envy. I explore the ways in which we can reverse the lens to examine familiar problems from unfamiliar angles.

This article seeks to connect political geographic scholarship on institutions and policy more firmly to the experience of everyday life. Empirically, I foreground the ambiguous and indeterminate character of institutional decision-making and I underscore the need to closely consider the sensory texture of place and milieu in our analyses of it. My examples come from the study of diplomatic practice in Brussels, the capital of the European Union. Conceptually and methodologically, I use these examples to accentuate lived experience as an essential part of research, especially in the seemingly dry bureaucratic settings. I do so in particular through engaging with the work of Michel de Certeau, whose ideas enjoy considerable traction in cultural geography but are seldom used in political geography and policy studies. An accent on the texture and feel of policy practice necessarily highlights the role of place in that practice. This, in turn, may help us with communicating geographical research beyond our own discipline.