The "Europe of Knowledge" – fit for tackling crises and supporting transition processes?

Abstract

While the notion of a "Europe of Knowledge" has already been introduced by the Commission in the late 1990s, knowledge-based policies (innovation, research, education, training) remain high on the EU policy-making agenda. Prominent examples include the European Universities Initiative, which entered its fourth funding round in 2023, and the "European year of skills", which will close in May 2024. Since the agreement among EU leaders in 2000 to turn Europe into the EU "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world", knowledge and competitiveness have been inextricably linked. Due to recent crises and external events that affect the European Union and its internal and external policies, new understandings of skills (e.g. green skills) and of the role of knowledge for EU action have emerged (e.g. "Knowledge Power Europe"). Practitioners and scholars are thus in search of meanings and roles of skills for the digital and green transitions and for EU external action. This panel brings together contributions that analyze the role of crises and transition processes in the European integration of knowledge-based policies. We welcome contributions that assess (joint) efforts among the European Union’s Member States to adapt their skill formation systems to socio-economic and ecological transformations and to shifts in global geopolitics. Among other questions, papers may ask: How and why have knowledge-based policies (not) been reformed to deal with crises (e.g. Euro crisis, Brexit, COVID-19 pandemic), transition processes (e.g. digitalization) and external threats (e.g. the Russian war on Ukraine)? Which knowledge-policy instruments (e.g. research funding, best practice exchanges) have proven useful to tackle crises? How are (newly emerging) actors shaping EU knowledge policies and based on which interests and resources? Are we witnessing changes in how skills and knowledge are perceived by EU policymakers and practitioners?

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