The open method of co-ordination and the analysis of mutual learning processes of the European employment strategy

Nedergaard, Peter (2005): The open method of co-ordination and the analysis of mutual learning processes of the European employment strategy. Published in:

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to address two normative and interlinked methodological and theoretical questions concerning the Open Method of Coordination (OMC): First, what is the most appropriate approach to learning in the analyses of the processes of the European Employment Strategy (EES)? Second, how should mutual learning processes be diffused among the Member States in order to be efficient? In answering these two questions the paper draws on a social constructivist approach to learning thereby contributing to the debate about learning in the political science literature. At the same time, based on the literature and participatory observations, it is concluded that the learning effects of the EES are probably somewhat larger than what is normally suggested, but that successful diffusion still depends on a variety of contextual factors. At the end of the paper a path for empirical research based upon a social constructivist approach to learning is suggested.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: OMC, Social constructivism, Learning, Discourse analysis, Policy diffusion, European Employment Strategy
• Subjects: E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E0 - General

References

Alesina, A. & R. Perotti (2004). The European Union: a politically incorrect view. NBER Working Paper No. w10342. Harvard University. Institute of Economic Research. Harvard, March 2004

Barbier, Jean-Claude (2004). Research on «Open method of coordination» and national social policies: What sociological theories and methods? Paper for the RC 19 international conference, Centre d’études de l’emploi. Paris, 2-4 september 2004.

Berger, P.L. & Luckman, T. (1966). The Social Construction of Reality. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.

Bertelsen, E. & A. Haxø (2002). Til en socialkonstruktionistisk læringsforståelse. Et teoretisk Eksperiment. Unpublished master thesis. Roskilde University Centre.

Bohr, N. (1964). Atomfysik og menneskelig erkendelse II. Copenhagen: Schultz Publ.

Borrás, S. & K. Jacobsson (2004). The Open Method of Co-ordination and New Governance Patterns in the EU.

Journal of European Public Policy 11 (2), pp. 185-208. Casey, B.H. & M. Gold (2004). Peer Review of the Labour Market Policies in the European Union: what can countries really learn from one another? Working Paper. Birckbeck College/ 21 London School of Economics/Royal Holloway University of London. London, January 2004.

Checkel, J.T. (1999): .Social construction and integration. Journal of European Public Policy 6 (4), pp. 545-560.

Christiansen T., K.E. Jørgensen, and A. Wiener (ed.). (2001). The Social Construction of Europe. London: Sage Publications.

Commission (2002). Taking Stock of Five Years of the European Employment Strategy,COM (2002) 416 final.

De Deken, Johan Jeroen (2003). The Role of Benchmarking and the Open Method of Co- ordination in the Transformation of the European Welfare Sates. The Case of Old-Age Pensions and Labour Market Reform. Paper prepared for the ESPAnet conference. Copenhagen,13-15 November 2003.

Eriksen, E.O. and J.E. Fossum (eds.) (2000): Democracy in the European Union – Integration through Deliberation. London: Routledge.

Flockhart, T. (2004): “Masters and Novices”: Socialization and Social Learning through the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. International Relations 18 (3), pp. 361-380.

Foucault, M. (1982). Subject and Power, citet in H. L. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow (1982), Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. Chicago, Ill.: The University of Chicago Press.

Gergen, K. J. (1985). The Social Constructionist Movement in Modern Psychology, American Psychologist 40 (3), pp. 266-275.

Gergen, K. J. (1995). Social Construction and the Educational Process. In L.P. Steffe & J. Gale (ed.) Constructionism in Education. Hillsdale, New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Ass.

Gergen, K.J. (1998). Constructionism and Realism: How Are We to Go On? In I. Parker (ed.) Social Constructionism, Discourse and Realism, Thousand Oaks: Sage. Gergen, K. J. ( 2001). Social Construction in Context. London: Sage Publications.

Haas, E.B. (1990): When Knowledge Is Power. Three Models of Change in International Organizations. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Haas, P. (1992): Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Co- ordination, International Organization 46 (1), pp. 1-37.

Jacobsson, K.(2003): Soft Regulation and the Subtle Transformation of States: The Case of EU Employment Policy, Paper presented at workshop: The European Union's Open Method of Coordination: Rhetoric, Reality, and the Politics of Policy Reform. Harvard University, April 28, 2003.

Jacobsson, K. and Å. Vifell (2003): Integration by Deliberation? On the role of Committees in the Open Method of Co-ordination. Working paper. European University Institute. Firenze, February 2003.

Lave, J. (1999). Læring, mesterlære, social praksis. In K. Nielsen & S. Kvale (ed.), Mesterlære. Læring som social praksis. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Levy, J. (1994): Learning and Foreign Policy: Sweeping a Conceptual Minefield. International Organization. 48 (2), pp. 279-312.

Nedergaard, P. (2001): Organiseringen af Den Europæiske Union. Bureaukrater i beslutningsprocessen: EU-forvaltningens effektivitet og legitimitet. København: Handelshøjskolens Forlag.

Norval, A.J. (2004) Democratic Identification: A Wittgensteinian Approach. Working Paper from Conference on Democratic Network Governance. University of Essex. Essex, 21-22 October 2004.

Nye, J.S., Jr. (1987): Nuclear Learning and U.S.-Soviet Security Regimes. International Organization 41 (3), pp. 371-402.

Pinder, J. (1986): European Community and Nation-State: A Case for a Neo-Federalism, International Affairs 62 (1), pp. 41-54.

European Council (2000): Presidency conclusions, Lisbon European Council, 23-24 March 2000. Citing electronic sources of information [WWW] Available from: Http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/00100-r1.en0.htm [Accessed 12/15/04]

De la Porte, C. (2002): Is the open method of coordination appropriate for organising activities at European level in sensitive policy areas? European Law Review 8 (1), 38-58.

De la Porte, C. and P. Pochet (2003): The OMC intertwined with the debates on Governance, Democracy, and Social Europe. Research on the Open Method of Co-ordination and European Integration. Research prepared for Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, Minister for social affairs and Pension.

Radaelli, C. M. (2003): The Open Method of Co-ordination: A new governance architecture for the European Union? Swedish Inst. for European Policy Studies, Report No. 1.

Scharpf, F.W. (1999): Governing in Europe: Effective and Democratic? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schäfer, A. (2002): Managing economic interdepence: The open method of coordination in Comparison. Paper prepared for the first meeting of the ERC. Rotterdam, 29-31 October 2002.

Schäfer, A. (2004): Beyond the Community Method: why the Open Method of Coordination was introduced to EU policy-making. Paper prepared for the Fourth meeting of the ERC. Utrecht, 6-8 May 2004.

Shotter, J. (1995) In conversation: joint action, shared intentionality, and the ethics of conversation. Theory and Psychology 5, pp. 49-73.

Stone, D. (1999). Learning Lessons and Transforming Policy across Time, Space and Discipliners. Politics 19 (1), pp. 51-59.

Torfing, J. (1999): New Theories of Discourse; Laclau, Mouffe and Zizek. Oxford: Blackwell.

Trubek, D.M. & L.G. Trubek (2003). Hard and Soft Law in the Construction of Social Europe: the Role of the Open Method of Coordination. Working Paper of the Governance Project. University of Wisconsin-Madison. Center for European Union Studies. Wisconsin Madison, December 2003.

Zeitlin, J. (2003): The Open Method of Coordination and the Future of the European Employment Strategy, Paper presented at a hearing in the European Parliament. Bruxelles, 8 July 2002.

Zeitlin, J. (2004): Introduction: The Open Method of Coordination in Question, in J. Zeitlin & P. Pochet with L. Magnusson (eds.), The Open Method in Action: European Employment and Social Inclusion Strategies, P.I.E.-Peter Lang.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1953). Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Ørnsholt, K. & T. Vestergaard (2003). Den åbne koordinationsmetode – en europæisk styreform baseret på deliberative processer? En teoretisk og empirisk analyse af den europæiske beskæftigelsesstrategi. Unpublished Master Thesis. Aarhus University.