International aspects of national social science research

Perspectives from Europe

Peter Bogason

Roskilde University

Choice a la carte?

• Own experience: 4 international projects, 1 including US scholars

• European Programs– EU 6’ FP: Big is getting ugly – towards

applied research– ESF: Few programs, but basic research– EU basic research council in the making

• Danish national possibilities– Basic research– Gov’t programs

European social science projects

• Europe is variety – languages, research traditions, ”fact” conditions, politically, culturally, (add your own)

• Solutions:– English is becoming lingua franca– Clustering: North, South, Central/East– Old boys’ networks

Trans-Atlantic cooperation• Mostly based on existing personal relations• Often based on patchwork:

– Mostly not EU funded (but can be added to EU projects)

– Some times solely funded from US sources

• Adds to the variety mentioned in previous slide• Easiest within fields of US hegemony• Difficult within qualitative research because of

US lacking behind (in my field)