Current projects:
Negotiating diversity in Expanded European Public Spaces (PLURISPACE) (2019-2022)
PLURISPACE is a project that brings together four university partners from France, the UK, Spain and Norway. It aims to provide new insights into the relationship between citizens’ engagement and multilevel European public spaces. In Europe, an important issue pertains to the settlement of post-immigrant ethno-religious groups, along with the expression and organization of collective identities; claims for participation/representation and recognition; the role of religion in public space; and the increasing influence of diaspora and transnational politics. PLURISPACE’s point of departure is that these questions cannot be properly addressed without at the same time taking into account the multilevel character of the European public space they unfold within, the multiple characters of the groups (some identified by national origins, others by religion etc.) and the multiple modes of integration. Within such a complex European space, we identify four policy and theoretical approaches to diversity management and understanding of public space: multiculturalism, interculturalism, transnationalism and cosmopolitanism. I work with the team from Arena, University of Oslo, with special emphasis on cosmopolitan theory, methodological issues and the Norwegian case. More information here: https://www.sv.uio.no/arena/english/research/projects/plurispace/index.html
Citizenship and Public Administration (2021-2022)
This personal research project in the making seeks to address the inherent, yet implicit, place of citizenship in public administration research. It does so through a conceptual discussion of what public administration is about as a research topic and a review of the minor attempts in previous research in the field to include some form of citizenship focus. Second, it utilizes this review and the literature on citizenship to argue normatively for why citizenship should be part of studies in public administration. Third, these two first parts are then addressed in a proposal for a renewed and broader research agenda in the field of public administration. In this, the onus is put on two issues that highlight the pertinence of renewed citizenship perspective in public administration research: 1) crisis politics and 2) digitalization processes.
Previous projects:
Differentiated Citizenship in a Multilevel Europe of Crises (part of EURODIV) (2014-2019)
As part of Arena's main research focus in the period 2014-2019, my project aims to further illuminate our understanding of EU citizenship and the role it plays in European integration. The Project is situated in the work package on "Law and Democracy" which focuses on the crisis, segmentation, and democratic and constitutional implications. The assumption is that greater segmentation is associated with weakened democracy and de-constitutionalisation, whereas democratic constitutionalism is a countervailing force. My research in this Project is still under Development, but three main avenues will be pursued. The first is to analyze the politics of EU citizenship in a Europe of multiple crises, including the migration crisis that erupted in the summer of 2015, with an emphasis on Institutional and systemic developments. The second is a critical review on and rejoinder to the debate on the virtues of EU citizenship for the citizens as "foot-soldiers" of European integration. This study will emphasize the disjunctures between the "lightness" of EU citizenship for prosperous and cosmopolitan Professionals in the neo-liberal economy and the rising precariat of withering European welfare states. The third brings in the question of the justifiability of EU citizenship and rights 'beyond the nation-state' in a multilevel EU where the deliberative sites for accountability and public scrutiny of citizenship politics seem to be hidden from the publics of the member states.
The European Crisis and the Citizens (2013)
This project revolves around the concept of EU citizenship as a resource for social and political resilience for EU citizens that are faced with particular challenges during periods of economic and political crisis. EU citizenship has thus far been mostly applicable to mobile elites and the realization of their cosmopolitan life projects. We test the proposition that in the current conditions of socio-economic transformation and uncertainty, EU citizenship and the rights stemming from it becomes a potential resource of resilience for vulnerable citizens in their various attempts to cope with the negative consequences of crisis. The project will be published in two main publications. The first is a book chapter called "Eurocrisis and EU Citizenship". It is a case study of EU migrants from crisis-ridden countries in Europe that have come to Norway to seek employment. Specifically, the book chapter explores how migrants perceive their own situation in terms of their rights and duties as EU citizens in Norway. The second is a book manuscript (currently under planning) on how the Eurocrisis has affected EU citizenship politics and citizenship enactment among ordinary citizens. The book will chart these developments through case studies of EU citizens on the move in a Europe of crises (micro-level) and its handling by the European Commission as a leading EU institution (meso-level), as well as of macroscopic changes to the place of citizenship in the EU integration architecture (macro-level). This project was conducted in collaboration with Hans-Jörg Trenz and Asimina Michailidou.
The Norwegian Constitution in a Changing European Context (NORCONE): The Citizenship Dimension (2012-2014)
This project under NORCONE will analyze the citizenship dimension of Norwegian constitutional politics in this 'era' of Europeanization. It does so by comparing Norwegian citizenship politics after joining the EEA agreement with the developments of Swedish and Danish citizenship. Taking this comparative view on citizenship and constitutional politics is fruitful in the European context as all three countries are deeply integrated in EU institutions, albeit to different degrees. Denmark also has an active stance on citizenship through their exception to Union citizenship. The project will, then, shed light on the specifics and nuances of Norwegian citizenship politics as an an outsider on the inside through market 'membership' in the EEA agreement.
Citizen Deliberation in a Multilingual and Transnational Setting: The Europolis Deliberative Poll (2008-2011)
In this project, a deliberative polling experiment was carried out to test whether deliberative democracy can contribute to address the democratic deficit in Europe, with particular reference to the 2009 European parliamentary elections.
On May 29-31 2009 EuroPolis brought 400 European citizens from the 27 member states to Brussels to debate immigration, climate change, and the EU policy- making process- a unique experiment in informed decision-making. Participants spent three days discussing these issues in small working groups, and then in plenary sessions with a battery of experts and election candidates.
One main part of the Europolis project is to develop the analysis of deliberation in deliberative polls beyond the preference change of participants. I take part in the coding and analysis of data based on audio recordings of the small groups discussions in the deliberative experiment. Through this added analysis we aim at probing the process of deliberation more closely, and to discuss the actual possibilities of deliberation across linguistic, political, and cultural divides in Europe.
Citizenship Politics and Polity Models for the European Union (2009-2011)
In this project under RECON, the aim is to assess the three polity models of the RECON project from the vantage point of European citizenship discourse. The concept of citizenship is especially suited for the appraisal of such models, as it connects to issues such as the boundaries of a political community, norms of membership, the role of identity, the extension of individual rights, and modes of democratic participation. These are all issues that speak to the political form of the EU. Focusing on citizenship when addressing the political form of the EU is not the least apposite as the traditional understanding of membership in a bounded community has been that citizenship is conceptually and logically linked to the nation-state. Hence, the very idea of European citizenship challenges the paradigmatic understanding of citizenship as congruence between nation, state and citizenship.
The project will start out with an assessment of the development of multilevel citizenship structures in the EU after the Maastricht Treaty up to and including the constitutional debates of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Convention on the Future of Europe. In doing so, it will probe the institutional form and individual scope of citizenship rights at the intersection between EU institutions and Member States, as European citizenship is bicephalous; it consists both of direct supranational rights and a set of rights that follow from the principle of free movement.
Transnational Citizenship in the European Union (2004-2008)
Is European citizenship the postnational 'beacon' that academics and politicians professed after the Maastricht Treaty? This ph.d. project at the European University Institute (EUI) argued that it is not. Through careful process tracing of decisive moments and critical junctures of citizenship politics in the project of European unification from the founding treaties to the 21st century constitutional politics, the project concluded that it is rather a strong transnational construct. This transnational citizenship is built on two basic principles that have been present since the first treaties: nationality and free movement. The project was published as a book from Bloomsbury Academic in 2012 (with paperback version in 2014).The book is entitled Transnational Citizenship in the European Union. Past, Present, and Future.