Building the European Research Area: Socio-Economic Research in Practice

The internationalisation of social phenomena, in general, and the emergence of a European society and the ever-tighter integration of European nation states within the context of the European Union, in particular, are challenging international social science research. Knowledge about the implications of a transnational research approach for the practice of social research is still poor. This book sheds light on the experiences and challenges of a new international social research approach based on empirical data about European transnational socio-economic research projects - which were conducted under the European Union’s social science research programmes, featuring transnational, interdisciplinary, and applied or policy relevant social research. Building the European Research Area also presents considerations and recommendations regarding how to establish social sciences research infrastructures scaffolding transnational research in Europe.