[Commlist] Cfp (edited volume/special issue): Europeanisation through the European Universities Initiative

Communications and media scholars are warmly invited to submit papers for an
edited volume/special issue under the working title: "Europeanisation
through the European Universities Initiative: Identity and Higher Education
Perspectives".

Context: The European Universities Initiative (EUI), launched by the 
European
Commission in 2018 within the Erasmus+ programme to promote further
integration in the European Higher Education sector, can be taken as a new
object of study in the European political and higher education landscape
(Gunn, 2020). The initial pilot phase encourages universities in the first
41 selected "alliances" to aim for a level of cooperation which goes beyond
existing actions within the Erasmus+ programme, in order to develop
"European campuses" and a shared sense of belonging between partner
universities. As such, the initiative raises questions for political
scientists, and law scholars interested in the European Union and its
institutions, in Higher Education policy, for sociologists and communication
scholars working on questions of European identity and intercultural
communication, for education scholars and linguists studying the impact of
student mobility and multilingual education on learning outcomes.

This call for papers will bring together, in an edited volume or special
issue, research which considers the EUI in the light of different forms of
Europeanization with which it may be associated (Radaelli, 2003). In one of
its core approaches higher education cooperation is positioned in context of
political imperatives aiming at promoting 'ever closer union' (Bache, 2006).
In terms of the Europeanization of Higher Education, from an institutional
perspective, this may include questions of European-level and national
Higher Education policy and the evolving legal framework, but also the way
the initiative is being implemented during the pilot phase and the forms of
cooperation set up by the universities involved, especially through external
incentives (funding) and social learning (Vucasovic, 2013). The
Europeanizing potential of the initiative in bringing about or reinforcing
the conditions of an "imagined community" of European students and staff is
a complementary line of study, including both top-down and bottom-up
approaches, in the light of the existing body of literature dealing with
European and national identities (Cram, 2009; Frame, 2016; Skey & Antonsich,
2017).
Contents: The editors see the forthcoming volume as making an early 
contribution to
scholarship on the EUI in multi-theoretical, multi-dimensional and
multi-factor analysis. They welcome conceptual or empirical-based studies on
or around the following themes:

Approaching the EUI as an object of scientific study: conceptual and
methodological frameworks
- The EUI in the light of Europeanisation theories: integration /
disintegration
- The EUI in the context of EU public diplomacy and decision-making
- Europeanizing identities through the EUI
- The EUI from a legal perspective
- The EUI in context of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).

The political dimension
- The evolving context of the EHEA and the emergence of the EUI
- EU stakeholders' politics, policies and discourse on the EUI: from calls
to implementation
- European University Networks (EUNs) between European and national
governance: political stakes and tensions experienced around the EUI.

Emerging forms of collaboration within EUNs: case-study-based approaches
- Organisational perspectives: tensions experienced and solutions found
- Advanced institutional and staff integration within EUNs
- Student involvement and emerging forms of cooperation
- Governance structures adopted within EUNs
- The challenges of multilingualism and inclusiveness
- Digitalization and forms of virtual cooperation in the context of the
Covid-19 pandemic
- Everyday Europeanhood - building European identities through practice
- EUNs as learning environments
- Networking and competition between EUNs.

Future perspectives for the EUI
- Common higher education strategies: towards a European Degree? - 
Synergies between the EHEA and the European Research Area (ERA): funding
the global missions of EUNs
- The legal status of EUNs: ensuring continuity, enlargement and the future
of the EUI
- Mobility and sustainability in the context of the Green Deal
- Quality assurance, harmonisation, micro-accreditation.

Paper proposals in English, of around 800 words including a short
bibliography, should be sent by email to the editors, Barbara Curyło
(bcurylo[at]uni.opole.pl) and Alex Frame
(alexander.frame[at]u-bourgogne.fr), by 1st September 2021. Please contact
us also if you wish to receive a pdf version of this cfp.

A seminar for authors will be organised on 17th January 2022, in order to
discuss first versions of the papers submitted and to work on the structure
and key themes and concepts of the edited volume. No payment will be
required from authors for either the publication or the seminar. The editors
wish to also use the seminar to formalise a research network around the EUI
as a scientific object, with a view to building a consortium for a future
research funding proposal.
Calendar:
Deadline for abstract submission: 15th September 2021 Feedback from editors:
30th September 2021 Texts (4000-6000 words) submitted for circulation 
prior to authors' seminar:
31st December 2021 Authors' seminar: 17th January 2022 Full texts 
submitted for publication: 28th February 2022
Feedback to authors: 1st June 2022
Final versions of texts: 1st September 2022
Publication: December 2022

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