Currently, my main research focus is on differentiated (dis)integration in the European Union: I examine both internal and external differentiation dynamics, while looking at the cases of Poland, France, the United Kingdom and Turkey. This research has been carried out in the framework of two UACES research networks: Differentiated integration in the EU after ‘Brexit’ (2017-2020) and The Limits of EUrope: Challenging the Crisis of European Integration (2019-2022). In addition, I was investigator on a project entitled Differentiated integration, Turkish accession prospects and EU geopolitics, funded by the National Science Centre in Poland (2016-2021).
Over the last decade I have worked extensively on EU external action, with particular focus on European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership. On the one hand, I explored processes of external Europeanization with regard to Eastern Partnership countries: in the years 2013-2016 I was principal investigator on a project entitled Europeanization of political parties and interest groups in the context of the Eastern Partnership, funded by the National Science Centre in Poland. On the other hand, I analyzed internal functions of the European Neighbourhood Policy, while focusing on the politics of legitimation. In particular and using Bourdieu’s field theory, I argued in a book published by Routledge (2020) that the ENP has been formulated not only in reaction to external challenges and threats, but also in response to EU internal legitimacy needs. With the European integration project being increasingly contested, both internally and externally, this book hopefully provides a timely focus on the topic of legitimation and delegitimation dynamics with regard to EU foreign policy.
I examined internal dynamics in the European Union: both at the level of EU institutions and relations between the member states. I served as member of the Advisory Board, chaired by Herman van Rompuy, of the Erasmus+ project TRACK (Teaching and Researching the European Council: Enhancing and disseminating knowledge on a key institution in challenging times), carried out at the University of Cologne (2019-2021). I also explored the asymmetry of Polish-German relationship in the EU, in the framework of projects funded by the Polish-German Science Foundation and Institut für Europäische Politik in Berlin: the results have been published in edited volumes by Routledge and Nomos (2021).
Finally, I explored interest representation and advocacy both at the national and European level. My doctoral dissertation, defended in 2010, dealt with Europeanization of Polish business interest groups in the immediate post-accession period. More recently, I have worked on patterns of Polish and German lobbying and advocacy in a comparative perspective in the framework of a project entitled Wissen ist Macht: Grenzen der Politikberatung und des Lobbyismus im politischen Entscheidungsprozess – politische Expertenkultur im deutsch-polnischen Vergleich, led by the European University Viadrina and funded by the Polish-German Science Foundation (2020-2022).
Agnieszka Cianciara 