Europe of Knowledge (Education, Higher Education and Research Policy)

The ‘Europe of Knowledge’ refers to European actors’ ambition to transform their common area into a single space of knowledge-production, consolidation and dissemination. The 2009 Lisbon Treaty codified a ‘fifth freedom’ (‘free movement of knowledge’) for European integration and is indicative of an ongoing process of institutionalisation. Yet the Europeanisation of knowledge policies has relied on several governance methods that activate quite distinct policy instruments. Indeed, the following can be observed: the intergovernmental method (joint proclamations), the Community method (regulations, directives and the Framework Programmes), and the so-called Open Method of Coordination (voluntary compliance to agreed objectives, timetables, mutual learning, and benchmarking). How can we account for the different pathways towards a ‘Europe of Knowledge’ that encompasses education, higher education and research policies? Who and what are the factors facilitating and/or hindering these developments in the component sectors? How, why and to what extent have they done so? What does the institutionalisation of a ‘Europe of Knowledge’ tell us about the transformation of the nation states in Europe, the EU, and their sustainability? This section invites panels, theoretical and substantive contributions towards an improved understanding of how a ‘Europe of Knowledge’ is being institutionalised. It welcomes young and senior scholars working on Europe, policy processes, national and/or supranational education, higher education and research policies to tease out the dynamics driving European knowledge cooperation.