EU-Professionalism: A sociological study of the professionalization of EU expertise.

• Applicant: Professor Steffen Mau, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2012 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 172394079

Subproject 5 focuses on the emergence and consolidation of new areas of employment and activity as linked to the process of European integration and on the institutionalization and professionalization of EU-expertise, in short the rise of the so-called 'EU professionals'. Research conducted in the first funding period analyzed the development and standardization of professional activities and educational programs in the field of 'EU affairs'. Based on a comparative study of EU professionals in Poland and Germany, certain characteristic practices, competencies, stocks of knowledge, and self-images could be identified.Research in the second project phase, for which funding is sought here, aims to establish how EU professionals negotiate 'European' and 'local' stocks of knowledge in the context of EU-funded projects and how they influence the implementation of such projects, especially the allocation of financial resources. In addition to the aforementioned two countries Spain will be included in the study to also gain further insights about a Member State much affected by the eurozone crisis. Using the example of two selected areas of EU funding ¿ the EU cohesion policy and the research funding 'Horizon 2020' ¿, the study places the procurement and translation services provided by funding specialists as well as the apparent difficulties encountered during this process under close investigation. By focusing on the practical dimension of EU-funded projects, Subproject 5 takes a close look at one of the central pillars of Europe's current crisis management strategy and explores the 'technical' implementation of EU policy-making from a sociological perspective, placing special emphasis on employment and knowledge. With these objectives in mind the study is meant to provide a better understanding of problems and challenges of Europeanization triggered by increasing expertization and professionalization of EU governance.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 1539: Horizontal Europeanisation - An Emerging Social Entity Between National and Global Scales
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Sebastian Büttner