PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Europe’s current political crisis — an effet pervers (pernicious effect)? At the moment, this diagnosis is put forward not only by many social scientific analyses, but also by representatives of the European public. They see paradoxical developments at work in present-day Europe, uncontrollable ‘vicious circles’ and unplanned internal dynamics (see Bach 2014). According to such diagnoses, developments assume an uncontrollable, inherently dynamic form. Any intervention is confronted with unintended consequences, non-transparent causalities, and sometimes even paradoxical effects. Thus, such diagnoses make reference to a category that for a long time has been regarded as insignificant in the social sciences: the category of ‘process’. In this chapter, I will analyse this category with regard to research on Europe. This is not to suggest that social sciences have failed to discuss processes extensively. On the contrary, there is hardly a phenomenon that has not been described as a ‘process’ in one way or another. However, no intensive analysis of the logic, the constitution, and the structure of processes corresponds to this extensive use of the term.