Author Meets Critics

Lecture by Bo Stråth and Hagen Schulz-Forberg

The Political History of European Integration:
The Hypocrisy of Democracy-Through-Market

14 November 2012, 16.30-18.00pm, University of Copenhagen, Nørregade 10, Room 3

The interdisciplinary research network Rethinking European Integration is proud to announce that Bo Stråth and Hagen Schulz-Forberg will give a lecture on their book The Political History of European Integration: The Hypocrisy of Democracy-Through-Market (Routledge 2010). Bo Stråth is Professor in Nordic, European and World History at the Renvall Institute, University of Helsinki. Hagen Schulz Forberg is Associate Professor for Global and European History, Aarhus University. Both have written extensively on various aspects of European history. Following the lecture, there will be comments by Poul Fritz Kjær (Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen) and Rebecca Adler-Nissen (Assistant Professor at Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen) and a Q&A session.

After the lecture, there will be a reception with drinks and snacks.

The lecture is open for all, but registration is necessary: nolsen@hum.ku.dk

Abstract:
The Political History of European Integration: The Hypocrisy of Democracy-Through-Market confronts in a historical perspective the ongoing re-nationalisation of Europe, and argues that the influential idea emerging in the 1980s that a European democracy would emerge through a European internal market was an illusion. The issue of democracy is certainly at stake, but must be addressed from new points of departure. The connection between economic integration and social disintegration, visible as growing populism, nationalism and political extremism, is a crucial link for a new understanding of Europe and of democracy.